Earlier in his career, James Flynn joined Popeyes Chicken to lead the company in a turnaround. After successfully doing so, the
entrepreneur who hired him decided to acquire Church’s Chicken as well, but instead of letting Flynn run the combined
companies, he wanted to be hands on. The two disagreed on a lot of points, and Flynn quickly grew frustrated and resigned.
Today, he’s doing things his way as CEO of Wingstop Restaurants Inc., a chain of restaurants specializing in buffalo-style chicken
wings that he has grown to $200 million in revenue. Smart Business spoke with Flynn about why it’s important to love your job
more on Mondays than on Fridays.
Hire honest people. I hope they’re pretty
smart. I hope they have a strong experience
level in what they’re doing, and they’ve been
successful in other places. I want someone
who will be open and honest.
There is no test. You just get a feel over
time, and when we interview people, we
generally get input from more than one
person. We have two, three, four, five people, and if questions come up, then you
begin to dig a little deeper.
If you have three, four, five people talk to
someone, and they all feel pretty consistently about that person — either positively or negatively — you feel pretty comfortable that you’ve got somebody or you don’t
have somebody.
Value your people. I got a plaque awhile ago,
and my name was on it. My name may be
on this, but if the company wasn’t doing
well, my name wouldn’t be on it.
The reason the company is doing well is
not because of me. Believe me, there are
always enough setbacks that something
happens that makes you think, ‘Well, I
screwed up on this one.’ Generally, they’re
not big ones, though.
I’ve got 40-some people, and I can’t do all
the jobs in this place. The success is
because of the team that accomplishes
things. That’s the important thing — building a strong team of people who enjoy what
they do, are competent in what they do, and
you give them enough learning and backing
to allow them to accomplish their job.
You’re pretty selective when you hire, and
you build from there. I’ve never met anybody smart enough. I’ve got friends who
are CEOs and presidents who get a little
egotistical about what they’ve done. Well,
darn, they couldn’t do it without a great
group around them.
Make employees feel comfortable. If somebody came in and my response is, ‘What
the hell are you doing in here?’ they probably wouldn’t come back. On the other
hand, if they come in and say something,
and I mention, ‘What a good idea’ or, ‘I’ll
look into it’ or, ‘Thanks for responding’ or,
‘If you come up with anything else, let me know,’ it opens the door. It’s how the interaction develops over time to make people
feel comfortable or not feel comfortable.
Get out of the office. Getting out into the field
is really important. Lots of senior people
tend to just migrate toward the corporate
headquarters and don’t go anywhere.
Obviously, you don’t make any money at
the corporate headquarters. You spend all
the money. All the money is made out
somewhere else.
Getting out to those people and understanding what they’re doing, and their trials
and tribulations and the things they need
makes you a more effective person than
sitting in the corporate headquarters. You
only get a slanted viewpoint if you don’t see
it for yourself.
Balance short- and long-term goals. Most of
our goals and bonuses come out of how
close we are to meeting or beating the
EBIDTA that the investors have agreed
with us is reasonable for next year.
On the other hand, we try to not make all
decisions strictly on that EBIDTA number.
For example, one of the things we’ve
talked about is selling a franchise system to
a master franchisee in another country,
where they pay a huge lump sum upfront.
It will make your EBIDTA look great this
year, but then somebody else controls your
system and has your name over the door, but you don’t have much to do with it.
We aren’t going to do something like that
because we don’t want short-term gains for
the long-term viability of the company. It’s
a combination of trying to ensure you get
earnings increases every year but that you
don’t do dumb things along the way that
will harm you in the future. Realize what
it’s going to have on the longer term.
I have a friend who became CEO of Levi
Strauss, and he took the company public. I
remember him telling me, ‘Jim, I’m making
good decisions for the short-term because
of all the pressures we get for short-term
earnings growth with the stock price, and
yet I know we’re making bad decisions for
the longer term.’ He ultimately took the
company private again.
Sometimes the pressures you have on you
from a board of directors or an investor
group, since they own the company, overwhelm you and your ability to do what’s best
for the company. When you set goals for the
company, it ought to be something that’s
mutually agreed on both by senior management as well as the board of directors or an
investor group. By running the company the
way it ought to be run, we ought to be able
to meet the goals that they set for us.
Love Mondays. I remember someone telling
me when I was fairly young that I ought to
look for a job where I was a heck of a lot
more excited about Monday mornings than
I was about Friday afternoons.
I really think that’s important to find
someplace where you enjoy what you’re
doing, and you think about what you’re
doing not because, ‘God, I’ve got to get up
and go to it again,’ but, ‘Boy, we really
accomplished something and I can’t wait to
get back to it.’
That’s going to be different for different
people — different by industry, by function, by personality and characteristics —
but try to find something where you think
you can make a contribution and you enjoy
what you’re doing, and it isn’t a burden. If it
is a burden, boy, it becomes tougher and
tougher to get up.
HOW TO REACH: Wingstop Restaurants Inc., (972) 686-6500 or
www.wingstop.com