How Will ‘Undercover Boss’ Stay Undercover?

Will CBS be able to keep “Undercover Boss” undercover next season?
CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler told TheWrap the crew has some new tricks up its sleeve — but she won’t spill the beans until taping is completed.
“I’m not going to give away any secrets,” she told The Wrap.
At first she said the average employee in the field is too busy to be looking over their shoulder to see if the chief executive of the company has infiltrated their ranks. And then she said even if a camera is following a new employee, “If you hear hoof beats, you don’t necessarily see the horse.”
Then adding to the intrigue, she said, “The show has a very smart production team. I don’t think the employees will realize.”
When asked point blank if that meant hidden cameras, she paused and said, “I don’t want to give any secrets away, but it will be smartly done.”

‘Undercover’ Boosts Brands?

YouGov’s BrandIndex examined three establishments featured on the hit program to learn if the exposure persuaded consumers that these were places they’d consider working for.

• 7-Eleven took a decent ride upward and has actually settled above where it was before the show aired.

• White Castle experienced a substantial leap over a three-week period, which has since tumbled close to pre-show levels.

• Hooters enjoyed a mild bump, only to settle back to its previous level.

Undercover Boss GSI Commerce Episode “Villain” Danielle Campbell Tells Her Side

Danielle Campbell, the call center employee that was deemed rude by GSI Commerce Undercover BossMichael Rubin this past Sunday night, shared her side of the story on Associated Content:

What is it that you feel was left out on the Undercover Boss GSI Commerce episode concerning your side of the story?

One, Mr. Rubin spent all of 10 minutes with me and never asked me about my personal life at all, or my background. Two, the call was almost 10 minutes long, and the woman had done some yelling and crying, as well. Three, Mr. Rubin had no control of the call and kept saying “umm,” which was unprofessional and did not sound confident. Four, at GSI, there is a chat software, and the managers were listening to the call, they could have IMd me and advised that there was something I could do for her. I only had a couple weeks of training on the job. In addition, in the reveal part of the show, he had mentioned to me that my managers had said how great I was, but it was cut out for television.

Were you ever told why you spent so little time with Michael Rubin at the call center? Were they looking to cast someone as “a villain” and your call with the woman was timed just right?

I believe my time with Mr. Rubin was cut short because he was not happy with how I handled the call. The call was not a set-up, it just happened, and there was no scripting.

What happened to you after you had your meeting with the CEO of GSI Commerce regarding the re-training you were supposed to get?

He had told me he was going to implement a retraining program, and in January I demoted myself. By the beginning of the 2nd week of March I was no longer with the company due to some “unwritten” policy (not in the company handbook that I could find) and procedure mess, not related to the show, so I never experienced the so-called retraining in the three months following the show.

You appeared happy at the employee rally with Michael Rubin. Is that because the GSI Commerce CEO told you that you’d did a good job off camera and even on camera, which you say was cut out?

As far as why I looked happy, because I was, due to not being canned. Mr. Rubin had said that the reason I was not canned was because my managers said what a good job I had done.

CEO of Pepperjam Parent Company on Undercover Boss

Michael Rubin, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of affiliate network Pepperjam’s parent company, GSI Commerce, will star in this Sunday’s episode of the CBS reality series “Undercover Boss.”

The episode will be broadcast on CBS at 9:00 PM EST on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

Source: Pepperjam Network

Undercover Boss Beats Celebrity Apprentice In Ratings

It turns out we’d rather watch our bosses work behind the scenes secretly than fire people publicly, even celebrities, as early ratings from Sunday night show Undercover Boss beating Celebrity Apprentice in the ratings. CBS appears to have a bona fide hit on its hands as it’s the clear winner this past Sunday night, beating it’s lead-in shows 60 Minutes and The Amazing Race, as well as everything else on the other networks.

Read the full story on Gather.

‘Undercover Boss’ teaches a valuable management lesson

MBA lesson coming from Business Matters:

At Hooters the CEO saw a manager abuse the serving staff, and at White Castle, the CEO observed the lack of teamwork that existed at many of the restaurants. Additionally, White Castle CEO David Rite saw how policies and procedures imposed by his top staff just did not work in practice.

The lesson is that for the CEO, your perception of the business is vastly different from that of your employees. Further, the problems you think staff is having are a whole lot different than their actual problems. In one case, a manager at Hooters thought he was doing a great job because he was making his sales numbers, but his staff despised him and morale was in decline.

It is amazing to me to see entrepreneurs who conduct their regular visits to various parts of their operation, see everything looking great and staff appearing so happy, then leave thinking everything is going well. However, management knew the owner was going to visit, so of course the place was cleaned up and everyone was on their best behavior.

Undercover Boss – Churchill Downs

Executive Bill Carstanjen faces his fear of horses while working under cover at Churchill Downs on the next episode of Undercover Boss.

‘Undercover Boss’: What Execs Can Learn Flipping Burgers

White Castle was founded on the belief that happy employees make for happy customers. The company’s employee retention statistics are impressive. About 20 percent of its 11,000 employees have been with the company for over a decade, and about a quarter of those have over 25 years of service.

bnet has an interview with Dave Rife, owner and executive board member of White Castle and the oldest member of “the family’s” fourth generation. Here are the highlights:

Tobak: White Castle was the first fast-food hamburger chain. Given what McDonalds and others have done in terms of corporate growth, do you have any regrets?

Rife: Our people are first, that’s what it’s all about for us. We have a slow and consistent growth model that has taken us from one restaurant in 1921 to 420 today. As well as the bakeries, the meat plants, the frozen hamburger facilities, and we’ve done all that without taking on any debt. That’s a big key to survival especially in today’s economy.

Tobak: White Castle seems to be a throwback to a time when employees were treated differently, like part of the family. How do you pull that off?

Rife: My great grandfather founded this company on the belief that happy team members make for happy customers and it still holds true today. That’s the one thing that, as a company, we’ve been able to embrace, hang on to, and stay true to that course. We really do try to make everybody feel like they’re part of the family.

Tobak: Can you be more specific about how you do that?

Rife: We try to treat everybody with respect, the same way we would like to be treated. We have a long term view of what we think our business should be, and that long term view enables us to focus on those people that are behind the counter. We don’t sit back and talk about our earnings per share; we’re looking way down the road.

You know, we sat down a long time ago as a family and came up with what we call our vision, values, and guiding principles, which is the cornerstone that we base our decisions on and run our company by. Our team members are the center of that.

Tobak: Undercover Boss seems like a risky proposition. With such a conservative business model, what was your motivation for doing the show?

Rife: When they first contacted us, we sat down as a family and had a discussion. We decided the opportunity to really find out what’s going on and live the life of our frontline people and see what we can take away from that to make our organization stronger was huge. The more we can learn about that, their trials, their tribulations, and what we can do to make things easier for them, to help them succeed, the better off we all are.

Also, as a family member and owner, when I go out in the field, people know I’m coming. I’m not saying you don’t see reality, but you see maybe a polished version of reality. To truly understand what your people go through, you’ve got to live their lives.

UNDERCOVER BOSS “White Castle” Episode 4 Preview

Watch a sneak peek of the new episode of UNDERCOVER BOSS “White Castle” Episode 4 which airs Sunday, Feb. 28 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Episode Synopsis: UNDERCOVER BOSS “White Castle” Episode 4 – Dave Rife, the owner of White Castle, goes undercover in his own company where he accidentally ruins thousands of hamburger buns after mishandling equipment in one of his bakeries, and also discovers low morale among his employees at a local factory, on UNDERCOVER BOSS, Sunday, Feb. 28 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Read more: UNDERCOVER BOSS “White Castle” Episode 4 (David Rife – CEO) | Daemon’s TV

VIDEO: WHITE CASTLE OWNER BECOMES AN ‘UNDERCOVER BOSS’

Dave Rife, the owner of White Castle, is the latest head honcho to go undercover in his own company on “Undercover Boss,” and ET has your sneak peak!

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