Last week, O'Charley's closed every one of its restaurants overnight. No warning to customers, barely any warning to employees, website gone, social media gone. I used to eat there. It was good. Then, a few years back, our local one closed, and honestly I didn't think much of it at the time. Just another restaurant that didn't make it. But when I looked into what actually happened, it wasn't sudden at all. The ending was sudden. The dying took about fifteen years. That gap, b

How clear standards help organizations remain consistent when everything else is changing. Finding employees. Rising costs. Inflation. Supply chain issues. Technology changes. Changing customer expectations. For many businesses, simply keeping up has required more attention than ever before. As a result, many have taken their eyes off the very things that earned their customers' trust in the first place. Customer service has suffered. Product quality has become inconsistent.

Before Detroit was a symbol, it was work. In 1889, Hamilton Carhartt began sewing work garments in a small loft in the city. Railroad workers were wearing through their clothes too quickly. Seams split under strain. Fabric wore thin. Carhartt responded in a practical way. He reinforced the stitching. He used heavier duck canvas. The garments were not designed to impress. They were designed to endure. Fourteen years later, in 1903, Henry Ford began assembling automobiles in th

Aldi’s Growth Playbook: What Growth Leaders Can Learn While most grocers are stagnant, Aldi is up 7% in customer traffic. Their secret? Clarity, not complexity.