The Keiser File
Name: Phillip Keiser
Title: President and COO
Company: Culver Franchising System Inc.
Headquarters: Prairie du Sac, Wis.
Locations: 435 in 19 states (from 44 when Keiser came on board)
Hometown: Nappanee, Ind.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business from Manchester College
Previous jobs: various management positions with Burger Chef and Hardee’s
What was the last book you read? The owner’s manual for my car. Have you seen those new manuals? I mean, come on, they’re like books! And I still don’t know how to work all the stuff on the radio. But seriously, the last book I did read was ‘Decision Points’ by George (W.) Bush.
If you could have dinner with any three people, living or not, who would you choose and why? I’d like to have a conversation with Vince Lombardi because he was a Packer but also because I think he also had a lot of insight on how to motivate people and get things done and be disciplined.
In our industry, the person that I think would be a real hoot to talk to would be Col. Sanders. He basically started selling chicken out of his car and using a recipe as a business plan to become, now, one of largest restaurant companies in the world. From some of the folks I’ve met through our industry that actually have worked with the Colonel, I get the impression he was a pretty colorful character.
And then I think any former United States president. I’ve had a few opportunities over the years to hear a couple of them speak, and when they go off script and they start telling stories, OK, at that point, if walls could speak, there would just be a whole bunch of interesting things to get from any of them, regardless of how you view them from a political standpoint.
If your company had a theme song, what would it be? There could be a couple of them: I think the theme song from ‘Rocky.’ We’re not the big guy, but we’re always trying to grow. We’re always a little bit of the underdog and trying to make things happen, but we always believe in ourselves and we aren’t afraid to take on the challenge of the fight to get out there.
One of the other ones would be ‘We Are Family.’ We talk a lot about a spirit of family; we actually call our annual convention The Reunion. It’s the spirit we like to have at our gatherings with our franchise community and our team members.
What’s your favorite stress relief? I’m a landscape gardener. I live out in the country, and I have a woods and a perennial garden. So after all we do all week, then I just go out there with the plants and the trees and the grass, always cutting something, pruning something. I wouldn’t call it mindless work, but I can get out there and have some me-time and work up a sweat and get some sore muscles, too.
