Undercover Boss Plays Games

Watching this season of Undercover Boss has been fun as well as informative. Many of the featured big companies are in the fun business – starting with hospitality, then transportation and entertainment in September, now it is games and sports in October. Read on for more leadership lessons learned you can use in your company too.

Don Fertman, the CDO at SUBWAY learns that speedy production is not sacrificed when providing friendly customer service during game day or any time at local shops. It is the people and the service that keep customers coming back. His workers showed him quality is in the details – from baking bread and cookies to assembling sandwiches per a standard process or custom made-to-order. I also liked the unique idea of a franchise in a Church as a way to provide jobs skills to a community.

CEO of Lucky Strike Lanes (which is a coast to coast business), Steven Foster has some funny scenes in their company episode. He believes his company represents fun and his employees should have fun doing their jobs. This boss understands “people make the difference!” His lesson to other leaders is to effectively use the talent you have and encourage creativity.

Todd Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs, finds he has great employees at Wrigley Field, but not all their needs are being met. He understands that recognition is important and implements a rewards program for employees along with their families. Plus he decides to provide the employees with better break facilities as he values their contribution as individuals and the diversity of people within the organization. He wants everyone to feel the organization is a family and asks for suggestions from everyone to improve the facilities, the organization, and their workplace.

If you missed an episode, remember you can watch it online by clicking the featured company name in paragraphs above and in previous posts. Visit previous posts by clicking links in first paragraph of this post. We would love to hear your comments on these posts and the shows too; however you need to understand the opinions shared here are an unofficial review as we do not have anything to do with network programming or show selection.