So please give a warm Georgia Tech Welcome
to our guest this is.

The money.

Thank you and Good afternoon I'm going to
push my start button so that I talk more

than thirty minutes because once I start
talking about the chamber Sometimes I get

carried away so I want to make sure that
doesn't happen today thank you very much

for having me I really was
pleased to get this offer.

I kept saying to everybody Georgia Tech
is so good to the chamber and

it's just really so true and

somebody reminded me well Sam Williams
who was the person who had my job for

seventeen years was a Tech grad so
that explains a little bit of it but

I really think really who you guys are as
a people and the spirit of this place and

the fact that you are probably
the school we should be most proud of

in the state is really the reason that
we have such a good relationship and

such a good connection I'm going
to tell you this afternoon.

A little bit about what the Chamber does
and a little bit about some things that

are going on in the technology world
that you may very well know about so

if you do we'll kind of go through that
quickly then talk a little bit about

leadership and then we'll save thirty
minutes for questions at the end because

really at the end of the day I'd like to
talk about what you want to talk about but

telling about a little bit about the
chamber we are really in place to do two

things One is to grow the economy
it's about economic development and

the other is about public policy that
basically enables the economy and

if you think about everything that you
need to you know live and grow and

have a place the all it can be you know
you've got to have the economic indicators

to be you know the way you need them to
be to really grow and you really need

the public policy in place and we were
actually chatting a little bit earlier

today Georgia you know it's a wonderful
state don't get me wrong you know we're.

The number one say for doing business but
we from time to time as you may have

noticed have our public policy
challenges sometimes bills come up in

the in the Georgia legislature
that are anti-business and so

that puts us in a little bit
of a precarious situation but

it's just true and so as a business
community sometimes we have to

stand up and
express our dismay at some of that and

then on the positive hand we that if there
are things that we need to push in policy

things like transportation which is one of
the biggest issues here then we try to go

with a positive plan to get that fixed and
we are as you well know one of the worst

in terms of transit there's a little bit
of transit around here but nothing like

what we need and nothing like what's going
up in the other parts of the country for

instance in Washington D C and
San Francisco

they the same time we've got Martha
here they got their systems for

transit they now have full
one print systems in D.C.

You wouldn't think of
having a car you wouldn't

think of having an office building
anywhere near without transit

San Francisco the same way but in Atlanta
we stopped in just two counties and

we really haven't done
ourselves any favor so

on the positive side that some of the more
proactive positive things that we're

working on the next one here is
innovation entrepreneurship and

I know that is what most of you
in the room are dedicated to and

you're going to probably know
a lot more about it than I do but

one thing I want to tell you about
that I'm really excited about at

the chamber we have just completed and
we haven't actually published it yet but

innovation indicators report because
we know that again the Atlanta region

has a lot of really great things for
technology and for innovation and for our

nurse ship and again we've got professors
here who know a lot about that you're.

Probably taking courses on Paul judges
in the audience and he pushed out you

know online overnight one night I think it
was seventy three ninety three pages about

just how great we have it here
the numbers and how big it is for us for

the the start ups and all that kind of
thing and that is all really wonderful and

exciting but
if you really look really deeply across

our region what we have and what we
don't have and when you look at us and

compare us to Austin and
San Diego Boston and

a handful of other places like that that
we chose there are definitely some gaps

that we have so what we're trying to do in
the chamber see what those gaps are for

innovation and for entrepreneurship and
anything we need for startups and

what are the areas that we
have the chamber can uniquely.

Fill in the gaps for
we know that capital is sometimes an issue

we know that sometimes keeping the talent
here is sometimes an issue sometimes some

of you wonderful people get your
degrees here and then you leave Atlanta

we want to make sure you stay here we want
to make sure that there are jobs that you

want to do here we want to give you
the infrastructure for start up so

there are some things that we can do we're
going to figure out what those are and

design programs around them so this is
kind of what we're doing in the innovation

and entrepreneurship area so severely
a lot more to come on that later and

then the quality of life in core
infrastructure is really what I talked

about with public policy that is
something that we do in a very big way we

advocate is America disk even
example that is very germane to

educators v is we all know when especially
in bio science in areas like that the R.

and D. dollars that will go into and
I ate in C.I.

to colleges and universities have really.

Been a lot less over the last
few years than it had before.

So with the chambers and Boston and
some of the other places we

have gotten together and are lobbying the
federal government to make sure that we

get federal dollars for the kinds of
things that we need the other thing

that we're lobbying the federal government
on is immigration we know that some

of you sitting in the audience probably
might like to say here with us but

instead of you know stamping a green card
to your diploma and keeping you here

with us you know that's not exactly what
we have going on in our country so anyway

we're we're trying to fight the good fight
to make sure there are more jobs here and

that we can help everybody kind of
get take a rise up out of that and

then we're going to tell our story one of
the things that I do think we are missing

in Atlanta is really what is that
narrative I mean my background

feel a little uncareful saying in front
of all of you guys is liberal arts and

it's it really is marketing and strategy
is kind of the area that I grew up in and

when you're going to have
a a marketing pitch that you're

going to do to somebody it really needs
to go in a way beyond just features and

benefits because we've got you know we've
got reams of paper gigabytes of data

about all the wonderful features and
benefits that we have for

our region but
you know people will only remember so

many of those and they'll remember
the ones that are important to them but

when you really want to capture
someone's imagination or

capture their hearts or capture a part
of their belief system that works for

you and do you really get to the death of
those the D.N.A. the purpose the why of

why something is they are then you really
have to understand you know what we're

talking about and how to talk to people
emotionally and how to tell a story so

we're in the midst of doing
a very large ethnographic whole

research study right now with people
all over the Atlanta region and

it's people from Andy Young who
everybody knows to some young woman and

when at county that nobody
knows her name it doesn't.

Matter what her name is because she's
part of the region and her values and

her belief systems are important to this
region as well and we're very diverse here

we're excited to have a diverse economy
we should be very happy about that and

kind of tying all this back in the.

The people who kind of pay my salary and

have the chamber be able
to operate are really the.

Sixteen Fortune five hundred
companies that we have in Atlanta and

I mention that because we're fortunate
to have that kind of group and

have that kind of base here and the other
reason we're fortunate about that is

because when you come out with
an innovation here a startup here

you're trying to be an entrepreneur in
this country I mean this in this area

then you've got somebody to connect with
we've got to get this diverse economy and

these ton of really big large
potential customers and

you know we're always being compared
to Austin and I know there are so

cool in the South by Southwest is so
much fun and that's really cool and

we're trying to be cool ourselves and
we haven't gotten there yet but

if you go to a cocktail party in Austin or
a beer fest or

whatever they're doing you're a tech
the young tech company you're going to be

talking to other big tech companies if
you go to these kinds of events here

we're going to be delivering to you
again sixteen Fortune five hundred many

many many thousands Fortune one thousand
companies who are customer who can

be customers of yours they're not
necessarily technology companies and

they are dying to have your ideas and they
want to know about your technology and

they want you to have your innovation and
they want to be they don't know this but

they actually do want parts of their
businesses disrupted but they want to

they want to disrupt them themselves and
take that next step so anyway that's kind

of what MAC does and a big overall kind
of way you know we do have an innovation

economy here you guys probably know
these things again better than I but.

A lot of tech companies in the last three
to five years over a billion dollars in

Georgia we probably got a lot of the SEC
out of your deck Paul top ten Metro for

I.T. workers top ten city the lots of
start up in Atlanta tech village we

have an office there yes we are trying
to be cool although we're still old and

then we have all those tech startups
that you can see there in the V.C.

funding and all the things going on here
so it will really proud and again these

are our numbers and things that we give
out but we really have to have a narrative

to go with it this is probably my
favorite slide because although

I talk a lot about you know those really
big companies you know like your coax and

Home Depot and Delta and the ones that
you can sell your technology to and

help them with mobility and everything
on the other hand we have an incredible

group of companies in the tech space
that are truly fueling our economy and

one of the pieces the data that has
come out from I think the common

foundation is that in terms of true
net new jobs in this region and

in this country and they're going to come
from companies over the next five years

companies that are five years old or
younger so when we look at

these big companies as you guys well know
because we've all you know seen it and

some of us have experienced it and lived
through it and frankly done it the big

companies are usually trying to shrink to
increase their productivity and get their

costs down while some of these companies
that are growing truly growing or

where the new jobs are going to are the
net new jobs are going to come but we

you know the fent tech piece I mean some
people say sixty percent from say seventy

to have you know Jeff Sprecher
own the internet the you know and

the New York Stock Exchange is
really a cool thing for the city and

he's a great friend to the chamber
he wants to be involved in things

that mobile technologies we just had the
last couple of days something called the.

G.S. M A N G S M A is A.

Conference that happens in
Barcelona every in the every

like first of the year I think
January February they have over eight

hundred thousand participants there that
yes they may just decided this year for

the first time that they were
going to have that conference and

do it on the regional basis and
so they chose four places to buy

Brussels Cape Town and
Atlanta Georgia and so

we were very clearly that they see
Atlanta as North America's hub for

mobility so we had the Jets and
make conference on Monday and

happen Tuesday and then to saying today
we had our own conference that we

dreamed up with a T.N.T. and
a few other people called mobility live so

we really are trying to
push that that part of the.

Economy and of course you guys know all
about help fight for the nation's health

I.T. capital cybersecurity You
know I love Allan to Barry and

I know he loves this school
John Marshall is a graduate of here and

every time I see him he says I'm going to
do it again and I'm going to do in Atlanta

he was Manhattan associates sold
that he just sold or watched a V.M.

Ware for one point five billion dollars
and we call that a pretty good exit and

I think he does to this seriously
every time I see him he just says to

me in all sincerity I'm going to do
this again twice is not enough and

I'm going to do it in Atlanta because
you've got what it takes here you've got

the talent here and you've got
things that really do support it so

I really like hearing something
like that from Alan De Berry so

it should make us all feel good about
your future jobs and about the city.

OK So Georgia Tech you guys are just
the best in this I mean usually when I

go give a speech.

I won't do this to you since you're
here and you are sick I talk a lot

about all the wonderful things that
you know that really happened here and

that we again good good
bragging rights for us so.

Your part in the ecosystem so
innovation and leadership.

You know it's interesting the part that I
want to talk about and I talked to one of

your professors Earlier we talked about I
think this is a a leadership series and

I know you've had some other people
to talk about leadership but

one of the specific areas that I
did want to mention is truly about.

Risk taking and obviously you can't be an
entrepreneur if you're not willing to take

a risk so it's almost it's axiomatic
in this context and so really it's.

What I really want to talk
about more is the competence

gap that's going on so you'll have to
forgive me for the men in the room for

just a few minutes but there's a recent
study done by Katty Kay of the B.B.C.

and the other one of forgotten
already Claire Shipman and

they wanted to understand you know risk
taking in terms of men versus women and

you know there was they had a suspicion
that there was truly a confidence gap

between men and women in leadership
roles and that kind of thing and

this was to me to severe a sad commentary
but I didn't find it totally shocking and

that was a thing that made me even
sadder about it and that is that when.

Men have an opportunity to
take a new job to ask for

promotion to do anything where
they have this new opportunity

they are willing to raise
their hand to do it and

to say yes if they have about sixty
percent of the competencies but

women on the other hand tend
to not raise their hand.

And say they're ready to go unless they
have almost one hundred percent of

the competencies so
I see that is a big problem for

the world OK so
forget about men versus women but

if one woman if women are fifty
percent of the world and

you've got fifty percent of that group
not willing to raise their hand and

go out and take that risk.

Then that's a problem so this is one
of the things that I've been talking

about in my speeches lately and it kind
of brings it back to a little bit of my

maybe leadership the which is
not super profound at all but

basically what I say is you religious
almost just have to have the nerve to do

something and again I do I do think
that goes in mixes in well with Dr nor

ship in that and I think when I was
I was in my thirties when I was asked

if I wanted to be interviewed to be
the president of Church's Chicken and

on my full heck yeah I do why would I you
know I mean it was like there's like I

gave the they had their bevy of men that
were being interview but it was like

this big thing you know because I was a
mother to small children then and all this

it was like asking me which I thought
was odd as well but I'm like sure so

anyway at the end of
the day I got the job and

the reason I mention this
is because I probably

had only about thirty percent of
the competencies that were needed for

that job I mean I knew
marketing I understood the P.

and L. because you can't in my mind in
anybody's mind really do good marketing if

you don't understand the P. and L. in this
how it how it flows all the way through to

the bottom line if you're really going to
make money on that revenue that you drive

but you know I didn't know
real estate I didn't know H.R.

I didn't have an M.B.A. really didn't
know the balance sheet that well as

never had to I mean I could kind of
go on and on operations which is.

Certainly key when you are you know
in the restaurant business but

there were just all these things that
I really didn't have a clue about but

I figured hey I'll learn them on the job
I'll hire Peter people who are smarter

than I am and disco make it happen and so
as we've been you know looking a little

bit at entrepreneurship innovation in a
really you know if people you know in your

seats and I hope I'm not saying anything
that the professors have proof but

anyway this is just kind of my view but
you know if you're if you're if you're

sitting there and you're thinking about
you know doing something innovative or

being an entrepreneur if you waited until
you had every single company say you'd

never get anything done and is just not
the way the world works so you know for

me a lot of leadership is just about you
know having the nerve to go do it taking

that chance on what you what you believe
in what you have a passion around and

then you know hiring really
smart people to be with you so.

Anyway OK So this is to put this in
here not me but this is a little bit

about my career I mean I did start out
being the president churches chicken for.

About ten years I was there for
about twelve I was review of marketing for

two and then president for
ten and then from there

I actually went to Susan G. Komen for the
cure which is a nonprofit organization and

the interesting thing about not
running a nonprofit versus a for

profit I often get asked it was a
difference and really you know at the end

of the day the fundamentals aren't that
different I mean it's still about raising

all the revenue you can and you know
putting those proceeds to the highest and

best use and you know that's it's
just really not that different I mean

leadership is basically the same
the teams you put together the same so

you know the back office systems
are really the same so it's just not that

different from that standpoint but
one area that truly is different is that.

You know when you wake up.

You know in a nonprofit in you
know what your mission you know

what your mission is and is just not a big
mystery if you work for Susan G. Komen for

the Cure your mission is to
eradicate breast cancer and or

at least decrease the mortality rate and
you know frankly when we were there

we put together this really incredible
group of scientific advisors and

these were physicians scientists
who are totally my heroes.

But you know we and I asked them you know
early on because I really wanted to have

a goal that we could really you know see
through in terms of saving lives and

I said you know we are we going to you
know find a cure in the next five ten

you know even twenty years and these
are very smart people very grounded in

the research in Barry very much
knowing what was on the horizon and

so they never were not able to say to me
that they thought really frankly in our

lifetimes that we would find a cure but
what they thought we could do and

so it's what we worked on was just
decreasing the number of people who die

from breast cancer so and that's really
kind of what's happened over the last few

years we are it's not that
fewer people are getting it and

it's not that there is a cure but
we are trying to ease the on

that that group of people who who
actually die from the disease so

after Komen I came back to Atlanta and
I did the four proper all the again and

as was mentioned in my introduction thank
you I was the president of our research

speak for about three and a half years and
both churches and are obese or

without a doubt a total turnaround and
although a lot of you are young and

here you probably do remember
September fifteenth two thousand and

eight when Lehman Brothers went down or if
you don't remember with that specificity

you do know that two thousand and
eight and nine inten were.

Really really hard on business and
on people and

the world and the US So the Army's brand.

Lost almost twenty to twenty five percent
of its top line during those years and

you know if you know anything about
business you know that if you if you lose

a quarter of your business in the top
line and you know that margins are really

thin it's any profit business it's really
hard to get anything to the bottom line so

that's the shape that Arby's was in when I
went there and charges was really sort of

in that shape because it was just a brand
who had been taken care of in a long time

so I could get it gotten this
reputation as a turnaround artist or

a transformation person because now
there were two brands that needed

that kind of attention and
really you know again it's kind

of back to the same thing you just kind of
have to have the nerve to do it you've got

to understand what you're burning platform
is if you're here needs to be on fire and

there are people in your
organization who have forgotten

that you're here in the city on fire and
that they're here needs to be on fire and

that there is a sense of urgency you've
got to rally the troops again and

really it at at Arby's that was a that
was a little bit of a hard task because

the people had been working there with for
years of a downturn and

you know when he feels good I mean it
really does I think we all understand

that you know making good grades feel good
you know get it meaning your goals feel

good so we had to really try
to reenergize everybody and

this kind of brings me a little bit
back to the nonprofit versus the for

profit again a lot of similarities
when you're running organizations but

a lot more difficulty and
really finding a true

mission when you're in a for profit in the
getting that kind of goes back to this.

Offical research we're doing to try
to really market our own region but

at Arby's.

You know when I got there again it was
it things were in pretty bad shape and

really the people were in pretty bad
shape because again losing is no fun and

they've been doing losing for
about four or five years but

we still we had to find out you know why
we existed and what we were going to do

that we could be really proud of besides
just making money and believe me it was

a public company of the time I went there
they were bought up by private equity so

they were a lot of people interested
in that's making a lot of money and

that was my job and I was devoted to do it
but I also knew that we couldn't really

rally the troops and less We had some
kind of mission some kind of something

extra that we were doing so we know we
looked at ourselves and we said OK so

what's very fundamental to what we're
doing what's very fundamental to what we

were doing was feeding people so you
know could kind of go without saying and

maybe you could say that
this mission could be for

any any food brand but
nobody else had chosen it so

we said you know what can we do that can
get a spash and about what we're doing and

make sure that we get to be the ones to
carry this out and we ended up on that

hunger because at the same time that
the R.V. sprit and had been suffering for

four or five years from two thousand and
eight through two thousand and ten eleven.

Children in America started experiencing

a lot more food insecurity when we
first start before two thousand and

eight there were one in six children
in America who were food insecure and

food insecure doesn't mean that you're
starving but it does mean that you don't

necessarily know where your next meal
is coming from and by the time we got

to the two thousand and
eight through ten or eleven era there were

one in five kids in America who are food
insecure so we knew there was this in.

Enormous need and frankly you know since
we're our headquarters we're here in

Atlanta we wanted to take
a deeper look at Georgia and

in Georgia right now today
one in four children.

Is our afraid and secure there and it's
just a it's a bigger problem than I think

you know you think but so we worked with
this group called share strength which

will fund the Kid Hungry and we just kind
of a rally ourselves around what can we do

to feed these children if you think
about kids that are in school who have

free and reduced lunch so
most of them and they're about

twenty two million in the country who have
free and reduced lunch most of them will

want to will also be eligible for
free reduced breakfast but

they don't like to go into
the lunchroom in the mornings for

their free or reduced breakfast
because that's like raising a hand and

saying you know my parents can't
feed me I don't have the food so

there are a lot of kids that were taking
advantage of that of that breakfast so

one of the programs that we have helped
find is are the and they're still

armies is still doing this I'm very very
proud we raised literally millions and

millions of dollars for this program but
one of the programs that some

of the teachers agreed to do is to take

the breakfasts into the classroom for
the first ten minutes of the classroom and

they would feed it to all the children
it so that nobody was called out to be

the person who wasn't getting you know
what didn't have enough money to eat and

at first the teacher said no no we don't
want to do that we're trying to be

teachers we don't want to clean up spilled
milk or not you know that's not what we're

trying to do but
once they experimented with it the it

turned out to be a wonderful thing I mean
it first it was just better attendants

then it was less for

your help problems then there was
less distraction less putting.

Headsail on the desk and eventually
they're going enough schools have done

it now that eventually it
translated to better grades so

we were in a very proud that work and then
up to say one other quick thing let's say

you have a child who's food insecure and
they get free lunch and

breakfast at school so what do you
think happens to them in the summer so

it's really a big gap in the summer so
that's another area

that we really worked on to say that
we could come in feed those kids and

I mention all this is say that you
know no matter what you're doing

you know if you've got a passion around
the business or the technology or

whatever you invent and your passion is
really there then that's great if you find

yourself in the business that you have
to kind of attach something to it

to get your people revved up about it to
make sure that you really are you know

doing something that you think will matter
in the world maybe beyond making money

you know then then it's then
that's a big part of leadership

I mean we you know a lot of times we just
you know we kind of measure people by

their numbers or their titles or whatever
they can kind of pull together but

at the end of the day you know I
think we all want to feel as though

what we're doing every
day really matters and

so I'll bring that back to my last job and
get this silly thing and

that is that working at the Metro chamber
I feel like we are doing something every

day and I think we're we're
doing something every day to

drive the economy in this region I
know we're working on things from

a public policy standpoint
that's a case of a more slides.

But he so I so I know that we're doing
things that I know that we're doing things

that that matter and the other thing and
I'll just end on this and take questions

when I first came to the chamber
because I had been working in the for

profit world and one thing you propping.

And the world is they don't
really pay very much money so

I was like OK you know when you're looking
at your next day you're either going to

go someplace and try to make some money
again or you're going to go someplace

that you really believe that what
you do can make a difference and

as I looked at the Metro chamber job.

I had to.

I had to really analyze it to see you
know if I thought we really could move

the needle and I will tell you
that I believe that we can but

it really is going to take so
much people like you in the room to do it

because we can't do just what we've
always done we can't just measure

the number of jobs we create and
the number of members we have we have to

really get more sophisticated in
break it down and look at G.D.P.

and say to ourselves which parts of G.D.P.
can we actually drive and

we have to make sure we understand back
to the innovation entrepreneurship piece

which pieces of that can we truly
affect with our unique connections and

with the money that we're funded with
from these gigantic companies around this

region and at the end of the day if
we can do all of that really well

I believe that we will end up
eventually helping homeless people and

I'm pointing to you because
not that she's not homeless

she's a person who works with the homeless
but my point is this you know if you I'm

sorry that was really silly excuse
me anyway the point is in NO and

I know this this phrase gets overused
the whole wising tide all boats and

all that kind of thing but I think that
you we've got to start someplace so

we can really drive the economy up here we
can really get things going with you guys

on it from a start up perspective and

we really do the right thing from a public
policy standpoint I do believe that our

state we don't have to have one in four
kids food insecure and we don't have to.

Have some of the educational systems
that we have and some of our areas and

some of the things that we have
now that we know can be better

it doesn't have to be that way so
anyway that's my reason for

doing this and again I thank you for
your time today.

Thank you all.

OK We're going to open up questions now.

Let me start going to just a mother
rest and students are thinking up

the axis about what they're one of
the last comments never leads to the food

insecurity issue when
I wondered about was.

For a business like or
is it doesn't seem like that particular

activity social activity would be that
such role to the always core business

more restrictive mission and one of things
that we talk about the corporate social

responsibility programs is that if these
programs are central to the business

a strategy then they then
the organizations tend to lose interest or

they don't tend to persist in these
programs particularly when they go into

economic downturns So I wonder in terms
of our present terms of manufacturing

something to get interested in
to get to get your reply as far.

Could you put something as more subtle up
more strategic to the business rather than

something that is important but not that
important to our piece as a business well

terror so I totally agree with your
point I mean whatever you're doing

really does need to be
you know central and

core to the business that this is the way
we thought about this a couple of things

before our base had a foundation before I
got there so it wasn't that I invented or

peace giving money away to help people
not at all there was a validation and

that foundation was giving most of
their money to Big Brothers and

Big Sisters but and that's a great
organization but what would have.

Been in the restaurants and
you in that way zing most of your money in

the restaurants because it's basically
getting the consumers engaged with

whatever you have going on
a to raise money and B.

to make them truly feel like they're
they're doing something to help

through your brand so
people didn't understand.

Necessarily why you needed money for
Big Brothers Big Sisters they would

say things like well I bought those
people volunteered and you would get into

this long kind of conversation with them
at the checkout counter or they really

wouldn't give that much and it just got to
be kind of an issue and the passion for

our group was kind of gone from that
because it they had been doing it for

a long time but when you.

Have data about a hungry
child it communicates

right away and I actually think
that it is central to the business

mission I mean we you know that any
any of the food brands of course but

R.V.'s was definitely with feet were
feeding people you know good products for

a good price and we they knew in
our franchisees snood that people

in their backyard in their own community
you know weren't even able to eat so

I think when you when you have a you
have a customer there who's spending

their money going out to eat taking their
family out to eat and they see a message

about a hungry tile there is a connection
so it really did resonate for

us and I'll tell you the other thing
that our our franchisees would do and

we would we do these kinds of things
sometimes at the restaurants to

get the customers involved but there's
something called the backpack program and

again to in so that the child would
not feel embarrassed on the weekends

the the No Kid Hungry people and

one of the things that we funded was
to fill backpacks that the kids could

take home on Fridays filled with food for
the weekend it looks like

you're taking your books home so there
were a lot of ways to get the consumer.

I just it was just such an easy way
because after the recession hit

frankly people believe that there
were hungry children in America and

I think they didn't maybe they
didn't even believe it before but

it's a good point.

Yeah thanks for coming in so
you talked about kind of being known as

the turnaround artist I was wondering
if you thought there was a particular

leadership style that you used that
made that made you so affected and

turn around these brands that
kind of had fallen under the way.

You know I don't know exactly if there's
any you know kind of one style but

part of the the issue with both
of these brands is that and

especially with the churches and
the little end really with our visas Well

it's when I got to the brands
besides the numbers just being

you know you know in the whole
the relationships with

the franchisees were broken and
you can imagine if you're franchisee and

you put because franchisees were some
of the original entrepreneurs' and

they may not sound very entrepreneurial
to you guys because it wasn't as

though they invented something new but
these were some of the first you know

Americans who went out and said You know
I want to have a business of my own and

here is a business model that I can do and
it's I mean it's trillions of dollars and

it lands markets like the franchise
capital of of the world but

anyway that so you can imagine if
you if you're a business owner and

you've got absolutely everything
into that business and

all of a sudden the bottom falls
out from a sales perspective and

obviously from a proper perspective
some of these people are losing their

business some of them had that how I
kid you not they were gigantic systems

Chicago was one of them where they had
levered themselves up thirteen times

because remember in two thousand and
eight we were coming off.

Easy money where they could just
get leveraged up like crazy so

some of the second generations
levered themselves up so

then they were in dire straits you
know when the economy went south so

by the time a brand really
starts to to you know fall down

from a profitability standpoint
the relationships really get frayed So

if there's one thing that you know I maybe
brought to the party it was trying to

work on relationships with the franchisees
and it really was not hard at churches

at all because Al Copeland who is
the inventor of Popeye's from Louisiana

had just bought it had bought churches and

had just used it as a little bit of
a cash cow from the cash he could get

he had taken all of the good locations and
converted them to Popeye's and

you can imagine he was the true
entrepreneur with Popeye's and invented

that period and it was and it was a great
brand and still is except it's our But

then he buys this little church is pouring
in and just basically abuses it just

takes the cash out ignores the franchisees
you know flips the restaurant said that he

wants to be Popeye's and leaves that
bring in with hardly nothing so

you can imagine that if you walk into that
situation and you treat the franchisees

of the church as crammed with respect you
treat the employees with respect you prove

that you know how to market the brand so
really if there's one thing I would say

it was about building those relationships
and really the same thing at Arby's I

mean when I got there I mean those
guys were on their last legs and

nervous about you know how much
more their business could take and

they really just want somebody to listen
to them and then they want to know again

that you can drive their top line for
them is in franchise world you've got to

be able to drive their top line for them
and you've got to do their marketing and

then let the dollars slow so
long way to say I think the Lou.

Her shift lesson for
me is about building the relationships and

gaining that trust and being able to get
them to follow you with your programs and

if they like you and they trust you and
you've proven a few things with

the numbers a couple of times
they will pretty much follow you.

And I'm sure you've studied.

The scene when you came on the job and
knowing your own there was she would have

women but
the focus from the perspective wilt.

So much of the team relativity get
in your business she has to book.

The gesture but the will to be focused
on the bottom of the pyramid well.

I don't yeah I kind of goes back to
my comments about you know that I've

you know I have to believe that a lot
of the things that we are doing for

the big companies and the start ups and
helping the scale and

grow people will eventually trickle down
and help the bottom share come up and

if I didn't believe that it would be
a very kind of sad kind of job because

we do have I mean I think we unfortunately
have the distinction in this region of

having the largest wealth gap
of any big metropolitan city and

so we we must focus on that but
that at the end of the day you know what

we're trying to do back to your point is
we're trying to you know Robi the economy

through getting jobs to move here getting
companies to move here getting various

types of jobs high paying jobs but
also low paying jobs and

the part that I didn't talk about
which in my comments that we

have a whole program on it from a public
policy standpoint a separate program is or

forced development because as
we all know there is still you

know a ton of gaps between
the jobs that are.

Needed and the people needed to to fill
them and I'll just give you one quick

example and that's a welding and I know
we've all heard that one but it's a really

easy one we don't have enough welders
here we've got scholarship money that we

know we can get from the government that
we know we can get from various places to

put somebody through an absolute complete
welding program and then they can come out

and make seventy five thousand dollars
a year so we're working on those work for

scouts were working at the high level
making sure people like you don't leave so

that we can fill jobs here and there
working at the lower levels as well so

if we if we employ once that
hopefully from growing the G.D.P.

in general and
from a public policy standpoint and

specific programs a war course development
I really do believe that we can make

a difference in that area.

You spoke about the competence
gap is there anything that the.

More when the business owners and
entrepreneurs into the city.

You know there's not a specific program.

You know it's interesting and I don't
I don't think you'll find this a total

surprise but you know since I am the first

woman to run the chamber and
one hundred fifty four years.

Since the whole time it's
been in existence you know

it's yeah you go figure.

It's a little bit of a double edged sword
because you know I I'm going to talk about

this confidence gap and

I'm going to talk about the needs that
women have I'm just going to do it.

And I've given a ton of speeches on it and
frankly I get invited to do speeches

because I'm the Metro chamber person I get
invited to speeches because I'm the new

Metro Tambora person and I get invited
to do speeches because I'm a woman

period in business so but again when
I go back to the double edge sword.

Also have to be very careful that
I'm don't become the female C.E.O.

of the metro Atlanta Chamber because
that doesn't do women any good and

it doesn't it doesn't do anything so
it's not like I'm going to run out and

do you know a ton of new programs for
this but

it's on our screen it's certainly
I've always been able to

hire from a diversity lens way I
did that at church as a way back

before you know people dreamed it up
because I was trying to match my customer

base my franchisee base because it
just made good business sense and

I knew you just kind of know intuitively
that diversity of thought and having men

and women on your team is a good thing so
but we don't have anything yet

is this kind of the short answer and I'm
not sure exactly what we will do except

just every chance we get make sure we are
lifting people up through new business and

that small business person of the year and
some of the award things that we do

in making sure we can get some
women into our innovation and

entrepreneurship program once
we get that up and running.

Now you talked about innovation in keeping
the talent in Georgia especially for

people going to college in universities
in Georgia and I know to talk has

innovation competition called an
enterprise Have you thought about at least

doing a networking purposes with the
students you can be in that competition or

like trying to increase the amount
to not just Georgia Tech but

there colleges and
universities as well yeah absolutely and

it's actually one of the the bigger issues
that I see that we have that I'm not

sure exactly how we're going
to work this through but

I think we have to you
know I mean let's be real.

I think the the model
of a regular chamber so

to speak is not exactly a twenty
first century kind of thing and.

And so I think we have to reform and
transform what we do

in order to meet the needs that you just
described because just doing what we

do now is not going to work I mean because
you're not going to have any interest in

coming to the types of networking
events that we have right now and.

Frankly there's not a whole lot that
we're doing at this point that you

truly be interested in participating in I
mean we've been very lucky frankly though

that a handful of people have joined
the chamber board David Cummings as

a member Marco re Jeff hello
Meyer some of those guys who and

you know Alan to be very David to bury
those guys who've been very successful

have definitely you know joined us but
we we have to change

who we are in order to
connect with you and

make sure that we really are working
on that and one thing that we do

have at the chamber that we're very proud
of in tech has been a huge supporter of

this is something we call
you know business higher ed.

It's one of our initiatives and we are
we've been working with the universities

to try to figure out basically you know
how to make sure to take technology or

the professors of
the students with technology

you know from the university and
connect them with our businesses and

kind of vice versa and
we've had some success with it but

I think there's a whole lot more that can
be done in a couple things that have come

out of that program one is this innovation
indicators study that I mentioned that

talks about where the true gaps are with
entrepreneurs and innovation here and

then another is something we call
the I think we call the I Nabbous and

in turn navigator now probably people at
Georgia Tech you you probably don't really

need this that much because companies are
coming for you for internships and for.

Wops and that kind of thing that
a lot of the other colleges and or

smaller businesses let's say you don't
want to go work at Coke you'd rather work

at a Fortune one thousand who's trying
to scale or something like that those

companies don't have the tools or
the time to go out and

find a great college student to be and

in turn so we've set up this portal and
given them the tools

to put out what they would like to get and
then we have a ton of colleges and

universities in the area who
are signed up on the other side and

we've got probably over one hundred new
interne chips that may not have happened

without our navigator so we're doing a few
things but you know I think it's up to

us to make the changes to where
it would be meaningful for

you to want to you know be with us.

Yeah all right you talked about how
your leadership philosophy as to how

to do something and
I'm wondering if you could give us a time

in which you had the nerve to do something
that maybe it didn't work and so

well you kind of question me and
potential lessons from yeah.

Well you know let's see I had
at like I'm in an interview and

I say my greatest strength
is my perseverance.

So I don't know I'm sure you guys get
maybe you're coached on how to interview

it's funny because.

I don't know I have a very optimistic
person OK so it's a lot of

effort like almost everything but
you know taking the president job at

church is really what's really I mean
there was just say no doubt about it and

you know frankly taking the job at home
was away because I'd never done nonprofit

I sure as heck didn't want to
live in Dallas Texas but I did.

And you know I never never raised
money like that I've been on but

nonprofit boards and
all that kind of thing but.

And then taking the Arby's
job I'm actually happy.

It will say to me Wow Well I guess
we're going to take that R.V.

job because if it doesn't work out then
people say that brand was down the tubes

it's OK and if it works out
you know you'll be a hero or

whatever and then I have I really probably
have the nerve taking this job because

I've never been economic development
I've not been a lot of public policy but

I just feel as though you know if I
you know give everything to it and

again you got to hire really smart
people and you got to be strategic and

you got to know what you're
trying to get accomplished.

It's not that I haven't ever failed I
mean plenty plenty but you know in terms

of kind of the big thing it I don't
know you just you just go out there and

make it happen and I just I don't I don't
sit around with any were grabbed you know

I mean I just maybe I better think
of a better answer that question but

that's all I can come up with today but
what.

Now is that interview I don't
know maybe it is I don't.

Think it because.

To the extent that the Metro team is
successful you have business groups and

you track more businesses which means
that there's more traffic pressure

more infrastructure pressure so
how do you balance or

a wind sustainable infrastructure
policy with business attraction so

that the quality of life for the people
already here doesn't go down and

they don't believe in that it's always you
know after Yeah that's that's a really

great question and I talk about transit
a little bit at the at the beginning but

I will tell you this and
it pains me to say it but the number one

issue that that our board has
chosen to work on at the chamber

this coming up year is transportation and
it really is for the very

reason that you say because it's not
just transit you know that we're behind.

And you know I gave a comparison to D.C.

in San Francisco if we had not been
you know what's just say it racist

back in the day when we started it and
you know only Fulton and

you know to calve would allow transit and
the other counties wouldn't even allow it

if we hadn't been like that we'd
be in a different place today.

But we're not in a different place so
we've got the transit issue and

then we have transportation issues and
so you know here is is the thing we

you're going to have
congestion in a large city so

you know we're not that's never going
away though we spend forty eight

out of fifty on
transportation per capita so

you know how when we talk about
we're forty eight in education K.

through twelve and Georgia Well we're
just as bad in transportation so

we've got a real real problem here and
it's going to take a lot of leadership

coming from either the governor
the speaker the the House or

the Senate and so it you've really
framed it well it's like OK So

wow education growing business technology
whatever how can Transportation be

your number one issue but it almost has to
be because it does get us into that just

non virtuous circle because it it really
does affect everything we do and it does

drive some people out so what's going on
right now is there is a sixteen person

joint study committee that has been set up
by the legislature there are five senators

five legislative five
House Representatives and

then six citizens that have been appointed
and I am one of the citizens that have

been appointed this is not the first
time that our state has done a joint

study on transportation they
didn't want to few years ago so

many people are very cynical
about this they're like OK you.

And that before but
I must say that what I've heard so

far people are are serious about
trying to do something and

fix it because people seem to
know where we are you know by and

large so what we're doing is we're
going around to eight cities in

Georgia we started here in Atlanta
we didn't Savannah Columbus make

an Augusta Blue Ridge Rome Tifton I
think that's a so we're going all

over the state and listening to people
to find out what their problems are and

one of their I mean the problems range
from what we talked about in transit

to a place in you know down
your Tipton where they can't

drive the school bus over
a bridge because the bridge is so

and such just repair that the school
bus it can't help the school bus

there's another you know example of
where it can't handle the fire truck so

these are you know if it in that bridge
cost a million dollars to repair and

their whole budget for their whole
county is eight million dollars

I mean you know we have one hundred
fifty nine counties here it is not

a good government structure so we have a
lot of things you know that are headwinds

we also if we think the traffic is bad
now you know wait until we get the port

to Savannah deep in that's a very
good thing for our economy but

we're going to have even more
tractor trailers coming through here

to get that you know to get
the transport out of there and

about eighty percent of them have
to come through Atlanta to even get

out of there and about sixty percent of
the people who the trucks who come through

here have to stop because we
are a big metropolitan area so

we really it's there's a lot of moving
parts but we're working very hard to

try to get people to wake up and
understand that we've got to have.

Some kind of revenue to to fix it and that
we've got to have a bigger plan because

we need the least a billion dollars a year
I mean really to start saying we have

a plan all right one more comment on this
we have companies who with whom you know

we compete with I don't let's say again
Dallas Houston except to come here and

what they tell us is you know we love
Atlanta we don't like your traffic but

we don't like you the traffic in again
Dallas Houston Austin L.A. You name it but

the difference between everybody else and
you guys is at least they have a plan for

transportation we're sitting
here today without a plan and

that does not play well when you're trying
to get people to move here to live here

and to bring their businesses here.

Have a question there so
when you join R.B.S. and to energize

the workforce you used to you turn your
focus to child hunger What was the what

were some steps that you took a church
it's going to turn around the brand.

Well you know it churches it's
interesting because the churches was

really probably one of the first
if not the first it's a brand

that's actually older than I am believe it
or not so you can get the drift there so

it it was one of the first brands that
went into the inner city Years and

years and years ago and
so we our our stores or

restaurants tended to be in
very low income areas and.

We served you know a really good product
that was pressured chicken partially

fried some vegetables yes most of the
vessels were fried sometimes researcher

around even the coleslaw is going to
be fried if we don't watch out but

we really had real food
you know it wasn't a hard

squashed out hamburger patty that
doesn't even feel like it got a.

You know we'll protein anymore it was
real pieces of chicken that were filling

you know it it came in serving boxes
that you can take home and put down and

have a meal with your family not to
something individual so and it was for

a very very good price and so we had
a lot of pride and passion in those inner

city neighborhoods about serving a really
good meal for a really good price and

we also had a lot of passion around
having jobs in those inner cities because

a lot of those places were definitely food
deserts in terms of grocery stores and

things that we've all heard that do drive
you know some of the food insecurity but

we were able to provide jobs there and
we felt like really a good meal and

the other thing that we were proud of is
that our franchisee base at churches was

the most diverse of any other brand
now McDonald's very diverse and

they had tons more restaurants but
just on a general basis we had a more

diverse franchisee base and there's a guy
and I always use him as an example when I

talk about churches he started out
in Jacksonville Florida as a fry

cook in one thousand nine hundred sixty
eight and today he is a multi multi

multi millionaire and he has created so
much wealth for him and

his family he was you know high school
dropout African-American guy and

we had a lot of we just had a lot of
pride around that and what we did for

churches for our special connection to the
community was habitat Bill Habitat houses

because many of our consumers and many
of our workers needed a habitat house so

we you know that one you know
I it is such a different brand

in terms of getting fired around what
you're doing then the Arby's brand armies

really was kind the searching for
its soul a little bit Where's tourch is

we knew what it was we just needed
to revitalize it in bring it out but

we were all very proud
of what we did there.

All of the you can try to talk to you.