By Tony Samson
THE SEARCH COMMITTEE formed by the Businessman’s Lunch Restaurant (BLR) is tasked to review candidates for CEO to replace the retiring incumbent. He has expressed his wish to have someone “continue his legacy,” mostly in reducing flagrant tipping, especially from suppliers. It’s no secret he is in favor of the head waiter taking his place. He is always photographed with him even when taking siestas.
The chair of the search committee feels that for the succession plan to work, the incumbent must stay in the sidelines and not meddle in the vetting process. Anyway, he says he is looking forward to his retirement and the chance to rest even more, and try different Chinese restaurants, especially those with promos and lots of seafood. It may be a good time for him to give his jet skis a spin.
Qualifications for the new CEO are presented by the chair. These include skills in talent management and team building, work experience in heading a 24-hour operation, familiarity with supply chain management, selection of winning bids for projects outsourced to contractors (without constantly reviewing awarded contracts), media relations (yes, he must meet them now and then), and attracting investments in new stores.
The secretary of the committee confirms that these are indeed the qualifications agreed upon, and that there is already a short list of possible candidates to be interviewed. It is important to screen them for that last step to see if there is a need to move forward on these applicants.
The chair reminds the members to be forthright as there will be no records of this meeting. She enjoins the committee not to take notes.
The first candidate is surging in the survey among the stakeholders. He is an outsider but already well-known. He has come out in billboards but not for any food business, but mostly for facial scrubs and denim outerwear. He is young, some say too young, to head a culinary empire. He understands social media and will be well placed to spearhead digital marketing of the menus for the week. Does he understand food? He has a small cart-based snack operation that has given him some appreciation on how food spoilage can bring up overhead and why leftovers need to be properly accounted for.
If charisma is a required attribute to please the stakeholders, some candidates, like Candidate B (favored by the incumbent), fail in this first screening. The head waiter — although he is supposed to have consistently charmed his boss enough to always accompany him in conferences and visits to wounded waiters — except for reading moods and opening doors, he may need to be reviewed for performance in his designated job. He is known to be good with his foot massage, especially for the caressing of the big toe, and digging out ingrown toenails.
The search committee has agreed to disqualify relatives from the list. One or two of the offshoots seem to have a high profile and even spout the tough talk of the present CEO. (Let’s admit all aliens who want to eat here even if they have a hacking cough.) While these relations may be good working behind the scenes, as in the ousting of the maître d’ and the replacement of the restaurant audio system with smaller speakers, their appeal to the stakeholders still need to be tested.
The last candidate is the Vice-President of BLR who seems to be the frontrunner as the current second-in-command. In her last assignment on investigating the status of the salad supply and other leaves, she lasted all of three weeks as she employed the restaurant’s PR apparatus to leak findings on the salad suppliers using genetically altered plants with the knowledge of the supply chain manager, and even the CEO. The two never really hit it off and the incumbent is known to express his dissatisfaction with his deputy — she talks too much.
Since retirement is still more than a year away, the search committee is in no hurry. The field of candidates seems too narrow. Who knows if developments in the next few months will bring out a new food icon, recognizable even with a face mask on?
The chair feels that there is a need to widen the search and get more candidates. They don’t even need any food experience, just a willingness to run the business of cooking and being cooked. But, is there still enough time?
Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.
