There have traditionally been two types of leaders, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. CEO Cheryl Bachelder said at MUFSO on Tuesday: Those who focus on advancing themselves and those who focus primarily on serving their employees and customers.
Yet the best leaders combine elements of both, Bachelder said. They set a “daring destination” and focus on results, much like the self-focused leaders — but along the way they are humble enough to serve others on the way to that destination.
“We have been taught the wrong rules of leadership,” said Bachelder, who on Monday was celebrated at the MUFSO award gala as the 2015 Norman Award winner. “Those rules have been holding back the performance of the companies we lead.”
She suggested there should be a “new rule of leadership that delivers superior results.” That leader would be “courageous enough to take people to a daring destination, yet humble enough to serve along that journey.”
Bachelder has helped lead Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen from a faltering chicken chain that had almost been an afterthought in 2007, into a highly respected, profitable concept that is taking market share and adding units by the hundreds.
“We were a struggling restaurant chain with a long history of declining sales and profits,” Bachelder said. “It was a classic turnaround story.” The company had four CEOs in seven years, she said, years of falling same-store sales, and restaurant volumes and profitability at “dangerously low levels.” Relations between the company and franchisees were “on the rocks,” and the company’s stock price was about $13 per share.
“The idea that Popeyes could be the hottest concept, a daring destination, was a hair-brained, crazy idea,” Bachelder said. “‘Fried chicken? Are you kidding me? Popeyes is dated, and old.’”
She said the company set out to improve unit volumes to $1.2 million from below $1 million per unit, and improve speed of service and restaurant operating profits.
It also made a crucial decision to focus its servant leadership on its franchisees.
“We chose to serve franchise owners as our first and top priority,” Bachelder said. “It’s the franchise owner who borrows money, who invests in and builds restaurants, hires and trains the team, and builds relationships with communities and the guests we serve. They have more at stake than anyone. They have a 20-year commitment. They are married to the brand.”
The problem, she admitted: “Our most important people were not our favorite people.”
It sounds rude, Bachelder added. “Franchisees can be frustrating. They have opinions. When they’re upset, they can create commotion.”
Popeyes, Bachelder said, challenged itself to love its franchisees, and to listen to their point of view and business experience. “It was truly a game-changing notion, to love the people we lead,” Bachelder said.
At one point, the company hired a design firm and developed a new prototype. It built 12 locations in New Orleans and invited franchisees to tour the locations. “They hated it,” Bachelder said. “It was too colorful, too expensive.”
Popeyes stopped its remodeling program for two years, with a “sales before signs” motto. Franchisees wanted better cash flow before they agreed to remodel. Popeyes focused on those profits. It also went back to the drawing board on the remodel, and later came out with a cheaper version that cost $120,000 per location, roughly half the average remodeling cost in the quick-service restaurant business.
Today, Bachelder said, the system is 90 percent remodeled. “It’s one of the fastest in the industry,” she said.
Bachelder said Popeyes did better than its initial goals for improvement. U.S. restaurant sales have risen 40 percent. Unit volumes are $1.4 million. The company’s market share has grown 75 percent, and the chain has built more freestanding restaurants than any other concept except McDonald’s. The stock price is up to $58 per share.
That performance is a key element, Bachelder said. “If we want to be leaders that have a positive impact, we simply must deliver superior performance,” she said.
Bachelder said that brave leaders, while self absorbed, “are more likely to focus on results” while humble leaders often think serving others is an end of itself — and might forget about performance.
So leaders that opt for servant leadership, while also picking that “daring destination,” have to get results. “Servant leadership can’t be credible without performance,” Bachelder said. “People can’t be served without positive results. There’s no future without results.”
Bachelder’s style of leadership, she said, “requires immense courage and yet a pretty humble soul at the same time.”
The courage, she said, comes in calling out a destination and then steering the company toward it — but humble enough to serve others who will drive the company toward that destination. “The leader has to give confidence that the destination can be reached, but humble enough to know that they don’t control the outcomes,” she said.
Bachelder said she had spent much of her career as a traditional, self-focused leader, but then was diagnosed with cancer in 2001. A friend had given her the book “Purpose Driven Life,” and though she didn’t read the whole thing, the first page said, “It’s not about you,” which inspired her to rethink her business strategy.
“When you think about the meaning and purpose of your life, the only legacy you have to leave on this Earth is in the memory of the people whose lives you have touched,” she said. “Don’t wait for a cancer diagnosis to think about this, to think about the purpose of your life, and who is right in front of you that you have the opportunity to serve.”
Contact Jonathan Maze at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @jonathanmaze
The MUFSO Premier sponsor is The Coca Cola Company.
Presenting sponsors are: Dinova, Fishbowl, The Beef Checkoff and The Coca Cola Company
Keynotes/general sessions are presented by: Avocados from Mexico, e*Restaurant from Altametrics and the Texas Restaurant Association.
Pillar sponsors include: Heinz Soups, Sweet Street Desserts and Tyson Foodservice (Culinary); Ventura Foods (Entrepreneur); Smithfield Farmland Foodservice Group (Ideas); and Paytronix (Marketing).
The Monday night awards reception and awards presentation are sponsored by: Avocados from Mexico.
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Hot Concept/Best Concepts Celebration is sponsored by e*Restaurant from Altametrics.
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Welcome Package is sponsored by Whirley-DrinkWorks!
Refreshment breaks are sponsored by Emmi Roth USA, Royal Cup Coffee, Saputo Cheese USA and Wrigley Foodservice.