IHOP’s Boss Once Bought Applebee’s Just To Fire The CEO Who Wronged Her
In life, you learn how important follow-through is. You never know what a promise means to the person you make it with or who that person will grow into down the line. During a recent interview on The Matthews Mentality Podcast with host Kyle Matthews, former president of Applebee’s, Julia Stewart shared an eye-opening story about her experience working at the company.
She shared, “I was the president of Applebee’s and the CEO said, ‘When you turn this company around, we’ll make you CEO.’” To be clear, the way Stewart shares the story implies that it was a verbal agreement, not one in writing. Nevertheless, Stewart followed through. “So the stock has doubled, the graphs are in the right direction. Everything is going well. So I said, ‘I’m thinking it’s about time to be CEO.’ And he pauses and says… ‘No, no not ever.’”
Now obviously, the CEO wasn’t beholden to their verbal agreement, and since it wasn’t in writing and only discussed between the two, he could easily deny that he ever said it. But it’s the principle. How you follow through, whether an agreement is verbal or in writing, says everything about your character.
Stewart continued, “‘So I said, ‘I’m going to go ahead and leave.’ I went to work at IHOP and realized that purchasing Applebee’s could be really interesting. We realized that 75% of all the products at IHOP are from the same manufacturers as Applebee’s. And so we did buy Applebee’s. After we announced it, I picked up my phone and called the CEO of Applebee’s and said, ‘As you know, we have purchased the company and we don’t need the two of us, so I’m going to have to let you go.”
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call a mic drop. Host Kyle Matthews seemed to agree, as his only response was, “You’re a stone-cold killer.” To watch the full interview, click here.
