management

Frisch’s Big Boy, a local Cincinnati Restaurant chain, was purchased by National Restaurant Developers (NRD) and taken private in 2015. As part of this transaction, NRD used Frisch’s own buildings and land as collateral to finance the transaction and store remodeling. After Covid, Frisch’s struggled to cope and was eventually served eviction notices in 2024. We review the transaction and strategy, and the lessons that can be learned. Author’s note: My dad recently passed away in August. He used to…

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is a Fortune 35 firm specializing in food processing and distribution. They recently announced an accounting revision, together with their Chief Financial Officer’s resignation. The accounting revision specifically modified the profit distribution across ADM’s segments and showed that profits at ADM’s were previously overstated. Executive compensation at ADM was tied directly to the Nutrition segment’s performance. Essentially, each executive stood to gain $7.4 million in variable compensation from the misstatement. Archer Daniels Midland’s compensation plan unwittingly…

I’ve been shopping at Kroger literally since I was a small child. My mom preferentially shopped at Kroger. I can still hum the “Let’s Go Krogering” jingle and remember Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall on their commercials. I know many people at Kroger who I like and respect. But anymore, shopping at Kroger makes me feel like a criminal. I shop at Kroger every Monday to pick up my food staples. Since 2021, the loss prevention ‘features’ at my Kroger…

I reflected recently on some of the unexpected challenges I’ve had in the workplace. I realized that some of them were due to generational differences between the baby boomers and the younger generations. I want to bring the care and concern that the baby boomer leaders I knew who influenced and counseled me, but also be more mindful of these generational differences as Generation Z enters the workforce.

Many people routinely show gratitude by saying “thank you” or “good work” or “nice job” to a colleague or staff member who has completed a task. After all, it’s good to be polite. While that’s a good start, saying “Thanks” doesn’t go far enough.

I regularly read or listen to business books as assigned reading at work and for personal development. As my time has been limited recently, I’ve been reaching for the cheating method – reading an online abstract – more often. I considered why am I reading the short abstracts instead of the longer works – and my conclusion was that many business books suffer from one of three problems.

Silicon Valley Bank has entered into FDIC receivership and has for all intents and purposes failed. Here, I argue that SVB failed due to a failure to respond to rising interest rates that impacted both their customer deposits and their investment valuation; and this risk wasn’t well understood in the wider market due to the accounting treatment of their investments.

Basecamp’s policy changes around diversity, employee communications, and benefits provides a case study in how not to perform organizational change management after 30% of their employees quit. Jason Fried and David Hasson should have been careful to limit the scope of their changes; been thoughtful in their communication plans for major changes; and been realistic on employee response to those changes. This bungled change contrasts highly with that of Coinbase where the similar “No Politics” rule was applied with much less fallout.