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By Carol Tice
John Fuller is President and CEO of Johnny Rockets, one of the nation's largest retro-themed restaurants. But Fuller, whose employees flip burgers all the time, has never had to cook for himself. On Sunday's Undercover Boss, Fuller not only puts on an apron, but also tries to learn the company's dances. In this slideshow Q&A, Fuller tells BNET's Carol Tice what he plans to change about his company as a result of his experience.
BNET: Why did you decide to go on the show?
Fuller: This was my first CEO job – I came up through the finance side. I thought, I want to clear off my calendar and spend a week at a restaurant – roll up my sleeves and get to know all sides of the business that way. And I could never find that week in my schedule – something always got in the way. When I committeed to the show, now I had to go out and learn in the stores.
BNET: What was your disguise?
Fuller: I'm clean-cut usually, and I'm 6-foot-6, 280 [pounds]. People think I'm a basketball player or a football player. I dyed my hair black, grew a beard and long sideburns. They darkened my eyebrows – I had to do that every single day.
BNET: How well did it work?
Fuller: It worked for the most part. There was one occasion where one lady recognized me, and we had to pull her aside and ask her not to blow it.
A bartender was introducing me to her and she said, "You look just like the CEO." I'd met her before – she was in-laws with someone who owned the restaurant. They'd had a grand opening in January and I was out there and spent time talking to them. It was a coincidence they were sitting there. That was the only time [my cover] came close to getting blown.
BNET: What jobs did you do? How was your performance?
Fuller: I was a cook, I was a server, and I was a bartender.
One of the serving experiences, I had to spend a heck of a lot of time on was learning to dance. I hate dancing – though I love it when our employees dance. That was painful. People will make fun of me doing it, but people who do it great are the perfect employees.
I've never cooked for myself in my life, so actually learning how to cook was kind of fun. It was scientific – you take these five things, and you have food. I was no different than any first-time guy. I needed to do more of it.
The cook told me to make him a burger, graded me on it, and I failed. He had me make another one. He got right off the chair, said, "Not impressed," and threw it in the trash. I would have eaten it, but he was holding me to a higher standard.
Being a bartender: I don't have a lot of experience. I grab a beer out of the fridge or get a premade margarita. It was fun to learn to make some drinks.
BNET: What did you learn about your company or employees?
Fuller: I was amazed at how much people have to know, and the speed they have to do it at – I was blown away by the skills needed to do it at a high level. You can't walk in day one and eight hours later you're a pro at it – it takes time to learn how to do what we want done, at our level. I value those employees – I'm more aware of it than I ever was before.
For me, being kind of a finance, numbers, total-process guy … [I learned] that kind of skill set isn't the way to look at this business. It's about the personal connection with guests, and keeping it simple. Just connect and do something to make them smile, make them enjoy their experience. I felt I was overthinking it.
If was fun to get to know these people on a personal level – everyone has their own story. [With Tony, the food runner who went to prison for assault], I was proud of the fact that we have franchisees that would give a guy like that a second chance, a convicted felon. We're out there, making a difference to a guy like that, who needed a break. We came from different walks of life, but I was able to connect.
There's a lot of passionate people that care about our company. There's a sense of family from working in our restaurants, and that's kind of a cool thing to be part of.
BNET: Will you do anything differently because of this experience?
Fuller: What's different? All executives must work behind the counter before they work in the office. They need to spend a week behind the counter. That change has been made.
I want to get the people who actually do the jobs more involved in decision making. Get [Janice, the woman server] involved in helping us create better dances. We should have someone like that involved! AJay [the lead cook] had a product idea – there should be a way he has access to get ideas to us, and we should have a way of responding back and thanking him for caring, at a minimum. But the best ideas come from employees, or franchisees. When I see employees with incredible ideas doing it without our help, I'm not happy.
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