It is common practice for restaurant critics to never post their faces on social media, lest they be recognized and given preferential treatment on the restaurant they’re reviewing. With the identical stealthy style, Red Lobster’s latest CEO, Damola Adamolekun, visited the seafood chain’s branches months before he took the helm to rate the food and brainstorm ways to enhance the corporate.
In May, Adamolekun began visiting Red Lobsters within the United States, eating crab legs, Maine lobster tail and the famous Cheddar Bay biscuits. The Wall Street Journal reportedBut Adamolekun’s status because the restaurant’s future CEO was unknown to other Red Lobster diners. For essentially the most part, Adamolekun enjoyed the food. He talked to employees and regular customers to raised understand whether it was value running a seafood restaurant with a tarnished status.
Restaurant visitors “just want high-quality food in a comfortable setting and a connection to the brand’s history,” he said WSJ“That’s the first step.”
This step might be more of a leap. Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May and closed dozens of North American restaurants and Auction of kit of greater than 50 locations. The chain attributed its troubles to an unsustainable $20 all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion that ultimately led to $11 million in losses, the strains of inflation, sluggish traffic and disputes with former owner Thai Union. Influential private equity firm Fortress Investment Group typed him as CEO of Red Lobster in August. 49 billion US dollars The investment management company will take over Red Lobster’s parent company once the corporate emerges from bankruptcy.
The 56-year-old restaurant chain will put its trust within the 35-year-old CEO, who defined his early profession as a small fish in a giant pond. Adamolekun grew up in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands before moving to the U.S. at age nine. In highschool, he was a master of public speaking and debate and an investment nerd in college. Three years after graduating from Harvard Business School in 2017, he became CEO of pan-Asian restaurant chain PF Chang’s. He left the position in 2023 and joined private equity firm Garnett Station Partners this yr.
Secret investigator
Adamolekun prides itself on its unconventional approach, blurring the lines between leisure and work – or between a seafood dinner and an exploration mission.
“My life is my work. My work is my life,” he said Assets in 2023. Adamolekun often starts his day at 4:30 a.m. with an eleven to 12 kilometer run, interrupted by a cigar.
But investigations into restaurants prior to Adamolekun’s tenure as CEO of Red Lobster are an emerging practice for an organization’s top executives, who Convey empathy and sharpen intuition about local business decisions. Not only the premise of a cable television programBy working as an undercover boss, CEOs are prepared to take care of the sometimes invisible or underestimated elements of the odd employees whose work determines the economic success of an organization.
Former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol began his tenure as company president in 2018 at a Denver facility. Although he never worked in a Chipotle restaurant, he learned to administer a branch’s huge lunch rush, chopping vegetables, preparing sides and tightly wrapping burritos, a lot of which he tore into pieces.
“Wrapping a burrito is an art,” said Niccol Assets starting of the yr.
At Starbucks, Niccol will replace Laxman Narasimhan, who promised employees at first of his tenure as CEO in March 2023 that he would Spend hours She works behind the counter on the Seattle coffee chain, wearing an apron and pouring Frappuccinos.
“To keep us close to the culture and our customers, as well as our challenges and opportunities, I intend to continue to work in the branches for half a day each month, and I expect each member of the leadership team to also ensure that our support centers remain connected and engaged with the realities of our branches to facilitate discussions and improvements,” he wrote in a e-mail to the staff.
Alexandre Ricard went on a pub crawl after becoming CEO and chairman of Paris-based liquor giant Pernod Ricard, which was founded by his grandfather. Ricard visited 40 to 50 bars to know post-pandemic drinking culture and the impact of inflation on the industry. More on-site market research than a guys’ night out, Ricard’s tour allowed him to obviously understand how cocktails were being consumed, including which spirits had change into popular with staff and guests.
“At the same time, the bartenders kept recommending a new gin to us,” said the Seattle Newspaper“That was Monkey 47, my first acquisition as global chairman and CEO of the company.”
