"UNCOVERING THE UNDERCOVER BOSS" - EPISODE 2, HOOTERS

Coby Brooks, President and CEO of Hooters, the restaurant Company with over a billion dollars in sales and 460 locations in 27 countries, was this week’s undercover boss on the CBS television reality show. Hooters was started by Coby’s father in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida and it remains a family business. Like many restaurant businesses, sales are currently down and Coby believes that going undercover may help him learn what needs to be done to improve the operation and increase sales. The lessons he learned as Scott Archer, a new recruit working undercover for seven days, caused him to “love the Company more than ever before.”

What are some lessons that we can learn from his experience?

1. Scott Archer’s first job was at the largest Hooters in the world. He worked in the “back of the house,” emptying the garbage, loading mugs into the cooler, cleaning and coating the wings and other tasks removed from the customer. At the end of the day Scott was tired and his manager said he probably would not hire him.

As CEO, Scott recognized that the “back of the house” gets forgotten when the focus is primarily on one part of the business, in this case sales. Hooters, like other sales driven organizations, wants to take care of the customer, sometimes to the detriment of the rest of the organization. For instance, if the leadership of a manufacturing organization focuses too much on sales, production loses efficiency because sales may demand unrealistic timeframes or too many unique products in order to make the sale. Conversely, if the organization is engineering or manufacturing driven, the response to the needs of sales may be too slow or resistant to change, because it will hamper production.

The most effective CEO’s are those that can strive for a balance among the sales, finance and operational divisions of the business. Just think, if Hooters had too many people who performed poorly in the “back of the house” jobs, then the Hooters girls would become lonely “out front.”

2. Jimbo was a successful Store Manager but his management style was considered to be completely unacceptable by Scott. Jimbo showed no respect toward his employees. He walked around with a toothpick in his mouth, shot rubber bands and made inappropriate comments to his employees. He determined which girl would be able to leave work early based upon who would be the first to finish eating a plate of beans without using their hands. This was a degrading act that almost caused Scott to come out from his undercover.

There are still plenty of “Jimbos” in management. They are not just men managing females, but there are male and female supervisors who don’t know how to treat people with respect. They bully a few or all employees, they treat them unfairly, inconsistently or without respect. They may be quick to use terms such as “it’s my way or the highway,” or “do it because I said so.” Jimbo mentioned that “there are no rules” so he makes up the rules. To avoid having a “Jimbo” in management it requires things such as,

• Establishing a culture that will not tolerate such behavior and then hire people who fit the culture.
• Establishing and adhering to rules and policies that set forth what the Company expects from employees and equally important, what employees can expect from the Company.
• Ensuring that upper management, in this case Jimbo’s immediate supervisor, identifies poor management skills and initiate corrective actions regardless of what the “numbers” look like.

It is very difficult to change a management style such as Jimbo’s. Even though Jimbo was given a chance to improve, my guess is that he will not change.

3. The stark contrast to Jimbo was the female manager, Marcee. Marcee talks to her people with respect and all of her actions show that she is there to help them be successful. Her rationale for this type of management is that she has “been in their shoes.” That may help, but good managers learn from other good managers combined with effective training and the inherent qualities of how to deal with people.

4. Hooters is a family business and apparently Coby’s dad was known and revered by the employees, particularly those in the Atlanta food processing plant. The founder of a successful family business creates an aura that is often difficult to follow by the second generation. However, sometimes the next CEO performs better than “the old man.” In Coby’s case he discovered that the employees did not know him and they attributed morale problems, including the lack of bonuses, to the fact that his father was no longer managing the Company.


A billion dollar family business can retain the “family touch” without the founder. Coby plans to restore this feeling with visits to the plant which will help, but given the Company size it will be difficult. However, if he establishes better communications with subordinate managers, which he seems to have also lost, then they can represent him better to their people. Creating policies that still reflect the feeling of family will also help maintain the culture that was established by his father.

Coby learned more about his Company and himself as a President by listening to his employees. Are you and your management team listening? What would your employees tell you about improving the operation and increasing sales?

“Uncovering the Undercover Boss” is written by Richard Reinhardt, Vice President of F&H Solutions Group LLC. You may contact Richard by email at rreinhardt@fhsolutionsgroup.com or by phone at 901.291.1546.