Business CEO's and business practices in general

[chief38]

I was the CEO of my own small business for almost all of my adult life. I will not say I made every single decision correctly but I will say I made 95% of them correctly. Most of running a business is a combination of knowledge, knowing your industry, being able to manage your employees, understanding your customer base with an emphasis on having good old COMMON SENSE. After seeing big corporations make poor judgement calls (ie: Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Harley Davidson, GM, Chrysler Cracker Barrel, etc. one would think that current CEO's would listen, see, learn and adapt accordingly. NOPE! They are still making poor business decisions daily. Not just little ones, but HUGE ones! Many just can't help themselves and get involved in politics - pretty much the worst thing a business can possibly do. Right off the bat you will alienate half your customers base which is something no national corporation wants to do. Then when they do and the SHTF, they are shocked!

Sorry if I sound condescending but these CEO's truly are stupid IMHO! They keep making the same stupid decisions that severly hurt companies in the past few months. I don't care what college they went to, what big corporations they worked for in the past, they have an OBLIGATION to their employees, stock holders and customers to truly THINK before pulling the trigger on a decision that can upset the masses enough to boycott them. Just when you'd think they would have learned - NOPE - they start all over again.

IMO when you keep making a same bad decisions and never learn from your and other people's mistakes, I call that stupid. Those people should not be running multi million dollar corporations and as far as I am concerned, no matter how many degrees they have hanging on their walls, they are NOT qualified in the positions they are in. Exasperating to say the least! OK - got that off my chest - rant over!

 

[mckenney99]

I believe the 2 biggest issues are politics and EGO. For generations kids have been told how special they were instead of being educated and taught how to learn from others and as a result their EGO lead them to believe they are special and know everything. Certain generations were also given trophies for just participating instead of excelling and there generally are no real repercussions for poor performance anymore for those at the top.

 

[walkinghorse]

The thing I (peon extraordinaire) can say is you are 100% on target.

 

[Onomea]

I believe the 2 biggest issues are politics and EGO. For generations kids have been told how special they were instead of being educated and taught how to learn from others and as a result their EGO lead them to believe they are special and know everything. Certain generations were also given trophies for just participating instead of excelling and there generally are no real repercussions for poor performance anymore for those at the top.

 

[LVSteve]

I don't care what college they went to, what big corporations they worked for in the past, they have an OBLIGATION to their stock holders employees, and customers to truly THINK before pulling the trigger on a decision that can upset the masses enough to boycott them.

Please note where I have corrected a passage to match the modern reality. I base this on the changes to the "hospitality" industry as it operates today in Vegas compared to 25 years ago.

 

[Jon651]

I tend to agree with the sentiments expressed here, but I think I've been out of the loop on some info. As far as my limited knowledge goes, Cracker Barrel simply wanted to change their logo, and yet people appear to be losing their ever-loving minds over that - and I can't think of a single earthly reason why! Companies change or modify their logos all the time. It's not now, nor has it ever been, a big deal. Frankly, I couldn't care less about it if I took a pill to care less and the only people who appear to be making an issue out of this are those with too much free time on their hands and unlimited internet access on their phones...

 

[Deadeye Dick]

I was the CEO of my own small business for almost all of my adult life. I will not say I made every single decision correctly but I will say I made 95% of them correctly. Most of running a business is a combination of knowledge, knowing your industry, being able to manage your employees, understanding your customer base with an emphasis on having good old COMMON SENSE. After seeing big corporations make poor judgement calls (ie: Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Harley Davidson, GM, Chrysler Cracker Barrel, etc. one would think that current CEO's would listen, see, learn and adapt accordingly. NOPE! They are still making poor business decisions daily. Not just little ones, but HUGE ones! Many just can't help themselves and get involved in politics - pretty much the worst thing a business can possibly do. Right off the bat you will alienate half your customers base which is something no national corporation wants to do. Then when they do and the SHTF, they are shocked!

Sorry if I sound condescending but these CEO's truly are stupid IMHO! They keep making the same stupid decisions that severly hurt companies in the past few months. I don't care what college they went to, what big corporations they worked for in the past, they have an OBLIGATION to their employees, stock holders and customers to truly THINK before pulling the trigger on a decision that can upset the masses enough to boycott them. Just when you'd think they would have learned - NOPE - they start all over again.

IMO when you keep making a same bad decisions and never learn from your and other people's mistakes, I call that stupid. Those people should not be running multi million dollar corporations and as far as I am concerned, no matter how many degrees they have hanging on their walls, they are NOT qualified in the positions they are in. Exasperating to say the least! OK - got that off my chest - rant over!

I agree 100% with you. I were a CEO today I would avoid politics like the plague and keep my personal opinions to myself. Because, like you said, no matter what side of the fence you are on you stand to alienate half your potential customers. Politics should have no part in operating restaurants or making motorcycles... period.

 

[Greyman50]

Very simple, Tradition means something to a Lot of people.

 

[hs125]

Sean Hanidy has an advertisement on his show for a telecom that stands for veterans. The CEO of the company I work for introduced himself as Trump on a weekly conference call during covid. If a CEO stands for Trump, it's okay. I firmly believe that God saved Trump so could save our country.

 

[sceva]

Unfortunately a lot of the CEO's now are Business school educated with MBA's and were taught that employee's are no longer to be considered a valuable resource but are considered expendable the same as tooling etc. Get them, use them up then get more. The bottom line is the only thing important so make the most profit you can as cheaply as you can.

 

[GypsmJim]

I was in my dream job (at age 26) for about 3 years. I was a graduate Engineer with solid credentials. Everywhere I went all I heard was that you need an MBA to get ahead. So, I joined the evening program geared toward people that worked. My company was footing the bill.

As it turned out my boss was happy with my work and promoted me. Now I was required to travel a lot more, and thus I missed classes and exams and had to drop out of my MBA program.

My boss said no problem. I would move up the ladder quickly in spite of that. I just had to be patient. As it turned out he was right and I eventually became a department manager.

On one of my trips I was late getting to the hotel, so I just grabbed a bar stool and ordered a sammich. The guy next to me had a few beers before I got there and all he did was lament his problems because of the MBA that was now running his company. He asked if I was one and I said Ohhhhh NOOO.....LOL. I recall I was about 30 at the time.

The moral of my story is that old drunk codger was right. As I look back all those MBA courses I took were crap and certainly didn't reflect the real world that I was living in.

Another lesson learned over the years was that some of our best managers were retired military. And some of the best middle mangers had Associates degrees, and then upgraded to a BS after they got the job.

 

[mckenney99]

I think one of the biggest lessons that has been lost in the business world, is one the military and law enforcement leadership classes stress highly is: TAKE CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE & THEY WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. Your working folks (gunts/road officers) eat first, get their breaks first and get paid first, even if you don't get yours until later.

 

[GnarlsR2]

I was in my dream job (at age 26) for about 3 years. I was a graduate Engineer with solid credentials. Everywhere I went all I heard was that you need an MBA to get ahead. So, I joined the evening program geared toward people that worked. My company was footing the bill.

As it turned out my boss was happy with my work and promoted me. Now I was required to travel a lot more, and thus I missed classes and exams and had to drop out of my MBA program.

My boss said no problem. I would move up the ladder quickly in spite of that. I just had to be patient. As it turned out he was right and I eventually became a department manager.

On one of my trips I was late getting to the hotel, so I just grabbed a bar stool and ordered a sammich. The guy next to me had a few beers before I got there and all he did was lament his problems because of the MBA that was now running his company. He asked if I was one and I said Ohhhhh NOOO.....LOL. I recall I was about 30 at the time.

The moral of my story is that old drunk codger was right. As I look back all those MBA courses I took were crap and certainly didn't reflect the real world that I was living in.

Another lesson learned over the years was that some of our best managers were retired military. And some of the best middle mangers had Associates degrees, and then upgraded to a BS after they got the job.

"Another lesson learned over the years was that some of our best managers were retired military."

The very best and most respected boss I ever worked for was a retired Marine Drill Instructor.
You would never know it unless you were told of his background or asked him.

 

[SMSgt]

It's not simply the changing of the logo, but the changing of the menu, the changing of the decor, and now the changing of the logo. CB would have been better off closing the doors and reopening as something else doing business as (whatever).

 

[Onomea]

Never been to Cracker Barrel. Saw an article in the newspaper about the logo brouhaha. Seems bizarre to me, but, then again, much of the news nowadays seems bizarre to me.

 

[john17427]

I retired from a C level IT position several years ago. The major concern I had in the last few years was about the people. About getting the resources they needed to make the organization and themselves successful, and for some, keeping their jobs which were in jeopardy due to politics. I could have cared less if I got fired at the time other than the possible dangers posed by my replacement. I'm sure the politics there are still thick, but I know that the entire leadership lineup (above, peers, and many below) got cleaned out in the year or so after I left, and it appears they are doing the right things at present. Perhaps I shouldn't care, but I'm very happy they're on a better trajectory.

As far as decision making, it seemed like it was a constant knife fight to kill bad ideas. Almost on a daily basis. Good decision making requires a critical mass of adults in the room and absolutely in the top position where the buck stops. Unfortunately, my experience is that that critical mass is frequently absent.

Didn't do an MBA, but did do graduate school. It was a great experience for me, but I'd been working almost 20 years by that time. I think grad school is wasted on a lot of young people. I don't think I would have gotten as much out of it when I was younger. That said there are a few amazingly smart young folks in grad school. A few, lol.

 

[GnarlsR2]

Is academia over-rated?

 

[Ματθιας]

This is what happens when these companies get bought by private equity firms. These firms push and install folks like the CEO to implement it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but maybe the major stock holders are Blackrock and vanguard, they push DEI and ESG policies. I could be wrong, though!

 

[glenwolde]

I'll just say that I think it's completely different being the CEO of a small company and being the CEO of a company with $60 Billion in annual revenue and 144,000 employees worldwide. There's just a whole lot more noise. The CEO can't be involved in every little detail in an operation that size. But regardless, it's his responsibility.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

i have an MBA, biggest problem with too many MBA programs is they have become too quantification oriented, trying to turn it into hard science. The note economist Lester Thurow noted that to be accepted as an economist today requires dazzling virtuosity in math but relying on assumptions that make the math work but fly in the face of reality.
One of my professors told me to stay away from the banks, 40 years he noted they sneer at MBAs but
banking had become very much a seat of the pants operation, people take every shortcut they can and let their egos get in the way. And are not as smart as they think they are.
50 years ago a savvy Wall Street lawyer told me the dark ugly secret of American capitalism is the many companies are run for the benefit of their top officers-often the top officer.