The debacle Papa John's former CEO John Schnatter kicked off with his NFL comments last fall, bad as it was, has only gotten worse. It's highlighted an apparent lack of internal controls, illustrated the dangers of tying a company's brand to its CEO and opened the door to potentially nasty litigation. It's also left the company vulnerable to takeover...
We lowered our estimates within hours of that initial Forbes article. How could you not?
What was a serious situation now seems to be descending into an ongoing farce with allegations and claims flying around all over the place.
We've begun a top to bottom review of our culture and will make whatever changes are needed to ensure that we have an inclusive, equitable and respectful workplace.
The conference call was really bad, but from the company's perspective it's pretty simple, separate John as much as you can from the brand as much as you can and move on.
This could have been better managed from the start ... had the board hired an outside crisis firm with experience, not a creative services firm.
The challenge, following recent damning news, will be for the leadership, namely (newly named CEO Steve) Ritchie, to convince internal and external stakeholders that this is a meaningful exercise that will lead to change and not just a PR stunt.
If I'm a franchisee, if I'm an employee, if I'm a supplier, if I'm a customer, none of this pleases me.
The implications of the current situation are far-reaching.
I would suggest that they move quickly and unearth all the bad stuff now, disclose it, and address the changes they're making.
The ability to maintain a strong company for the benefit of customers, employees, franchisees and shareholders takes a lot of skills, and the current leadership team has not proven that they have all of those skills.
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