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Posted on 08/27/2025 7:01:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Julie Felss Masino and board ignored Sardar Biglari's criticism of $700M transformation plan calling it 'obvious folly'.
Cracker Barrel’s slide into a rebranding debacle began with a phone call at 4:30 p.m. on May 16, 2024.
That day, Cracker Barrel’s new CEO, Julie Felss Masino, got on the phone with investors and unveiled the details of a "strategic transformation plan" her board of directors had approved. The first of "five pillars" in the plan would be "refining" and "evolving the brand across all touchpoints."
Over the next months, Masino and her board of directors dismissed at least four warnings by a top investor, Sardar Biglari, that the rebranding was "obvious folly," filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal.
"Cracker Barrel is not a broken brand but it has a broken board," he wrote, in a scathing seven-page letter to shareholders.
He laid out his criticisms in a 120-page slide-deck presentation with the title, "CRACKER BARREL IS IN CRISIS," next to the company’s longtime logo of an old man in overalls leaning on a barrel – a logo that Masino would wipe out, unbeknownst to Biglari at the time.
While the dynamics of company executives pursuing politically correct, woke rebranding are now well-documented, a timeline of the last year-and-a-half behind-the-scenes at Cracker Barrel reveals a classic case of corporate myopia, ignoring caution and barreling forward with rigidity.
On the call in May 2024, Masino announced she’d hired a new "leading" branding agency to "refine and strengthen positioning to delight existing and new guests." The other pillars included "enhancing the menu," "evolving the store and guest experience," "winning in digital and off-premise" and "elevating the employee experience."
Biglari, a San Antonio, Texas, venture capitalist sometimes nicknamed "Big," didn’t buy the corporate gobbledygook.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
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First time I have seen it. Passed it along to hubby, who is in the midst of a bad deal that stinks to high Heaven, but no one wants to tell the client that she has her head up her @$$.
It is better to lose a client than to lose your reputation....................
-PJ
evolving the brand across all touchpoints’“
Ugh talk about meaningless liberal speak.
Fingers crossed. I told him this deal reminds me of the one they made with another company that went bankrupt within a year of “winning” the deal. His company is just now recuperating from some of those losses.
Corporate gobbledygook indeed.
Throughout history there have been differing opinions. Sometimes the opinion adopted is the better one. Sometimes it is the worse one. Sometimes the better one seems obvious. Sometimes it seem tweedle dee vs tweedle dum.
In early 1990s Martinez had the right vision for Sears. But Asst VPs ran Sears and they obstructed the vision of Martinez at every step.
I went into Discover as a consultant to solve one very expensive job. It turned out a chain of employees and consultant prior to me had given good advice and been fired. By pure coincidence, the management that brought me in was canned 1 hour after contracting for me. The new management accepted the solution I provided, but which was not unique from me.
At State Farm I advised that the plan of a DBA for table design would be disastrous, even for the pilot in Florida. My advice was not followed. State Farm lost millions on the project. Eventually they brought in outside experts which agreed with me. (Actually I agreed with them from the beginning.) But the DBA who made the big mistake, and whose competennce could be questioned, was not canned.
At United Insurance the manager of a critical project with short time line managed in a ruthless manner. I made a recommendation that cut the workload to 1 20th of the planned. The manager accepted my recommendation and came is far under budget and far under the deadline.
How does management know when it is getting good advice to follow and when the advice is lousy advice?
How do you change a Sears has so many levels of management?
Word Salad is on the menu.
Yes, they typically make bad leaders, they also vote for bad leaders.
The 19th wasn’t such a good idea.
Yes, they typically make bad leaders, they also vote for bad leaders.
The 19th wasn’t such a good idea.
OK. The Cracker Barrel obsession of the week has run its course. Time to shelve it and prepare for the next blog/video-induced sensation.
Just like that filthy lesbian CEO of Mozilla FireFox browser.
She was an insane anti-Trumper who wanted to deplatform Trump from all internet business. Practically single handedly destroyed the company. I have not used that browser ever since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Baker
How does management know when it is getting good advice to follow and when the advice is lousy advice?
But sometimes ideology overrides $.
That is why Trump wants govt investing in business. He wants politician to understand what their decisions do. Not perfect, but it is a step in politician accountability.
But we will all be watching Intel from now on to prove Trump right or wrong. The light is shining on Intel and govt.
What does a corporate wonk know about preparing enjoyable food and hospitality on both the small and large scale? The whole management team, except for the dissenters, should be fired.
Transformation: (but too boring for these young gals that want to make their mark)
1) Increase food quality and be conscientious about pricing
2) Increase Service quality, ensure proper staffing.
Rebranding is a lazy way to make your mark, but it is off the mark.
He just told me he’s been looking for that piece for 6 months to share with his team and the higher ups. So glad you posted it when you did. There are 3 meetings today about this project. Very timely. Thank you!
**************
When she started using clueless management speak like this she should have been fired immediately before she could do any real damage to the company brand.
Should be the title.
She so reminds me of Allisa Heinerscheid from the Bud Lite fiasco.
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