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Adios

May 29, 2009

This is goodbye. On Monday morning I show up for work in Denver as the new CEO of Boston Market. My new bosses, the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, would prefer that I focus on the things that they are paying me for. As a result I am resigning from the various boards of directors that I am on and will be ending my blog when I hit the “send” key.

When Mary Chapman, Editor-in-Chief of Chain Leader magazine, and Senior Editor David Farkas first asked me to do this blog I thought, “How hard could it be? I have opinions, I have a point of view, I get around and look at what’s new, this should be a cake walk.” Let me tell you, two months into this I had a newfound appreciation for the work that professional writers do, not that anyone would ever confuse me for a professional writer.  Deadlines, coming up with interesting topics, grammar, spelling, and getting the facts right all took on new meaning.

My learning continued when I got my first negative comment. I thought, “Give me a break; it’s my opinion, not an editorial in the New York Times.” And I quickly learned that to our industry Chain Leader was the New York Times. If you were associated with them via a blog or otherwise you had better think about what you were saying. You have a big megaphone.

Mary and David got me off on firm footing, offered a lot

of good advice, couched suggestions for improvement as praise, and supported me along the way. After a while I began seeing life through the blog. Would this make a good topic? Would it be of interest no matter where you lived or what you did in our industry? Is it a positive message designed to educate, not to criticize?

I am excited about my new opportunity. Like anything else in life it comes with mixed emotions. I will miss my role on the various boards that I have served on, and the opportunity to try and make a difference in many different companies. I will miss the other board members and the management teams. I learned something from each of them. And I learned a lot in doing this blog. Like they say, if you ever want to learn something try teaching it.

Let me close by thanking you for all of your support, comments, and feedback over the past 16 months. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for Boston Market going forward. Please send them to me via e-mail at cardwell1@aol.com. I don’t want the competition seeing your good ideas in the blog.

And as I hit “send”, let me again say thank you and adios.

Posted by Lane Cardwell on May 29, 2009 | Comments (20)