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.

Dave Rife, an executive of the Columbus-based family-owned fast food chain, is the star of the episode that airs Sunday. It was shot in two area restaurants and in the Covington plant that prepares the tiny, square frozen hamburgers and cheeseburgers shipped to grocery stores.

In Covington, Rife did an overnight shift cooking and cleaning at the busy Third Street store near I-75.

“That place was jumping. Twice we got call-in orders for a couple hundred White Castles going to a wedding reception. And when I was leaving, about 2 a.m., there was a bride and groom in the dining room,” says Rife, nephew of CEO Bill Ingram.

At Hamilton’s new High Street restaurant, he worked lunch at the counter and griddle.

“They taught me the proper technique how to take burgers off the grill, and how to clean the stainless steel counters and most of the restaurant. Most of the team members (employees) do whatever it takes to makes sure our customers have a good experience,” Rife says.

“I met some really amazing people down there. Having worked with them, I understand why they’re so successful. They do a great job,” he says.

Rife encourages any company owner to go undercover for TV.

“We got some great insights into the day-to-day operation,” he says.

“Usually when the bosses come into a store, all the people are on their best behavior and everything is clean, to make a good impression. If you want to know the true reality, this is the way to do it,” he says.

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