21
The Doing of the Doing
Why, I wondered, would Bill Allen, a friend from the restaurant industry, phone to ask me if he could fly up to Boston for some advice? He didn’t need me to tell him how to run a restaurant. Bill had cofounded Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, which later became part of the Outback Steakhouse group (later renamed Bloomin’ Brands). He’d overseen the process of going national with la Madeleine, a French bakery concept and one of Au Bon Pain’s competitors. But when Bill came and we sat down for breakfast, he told me he was facing a new challenge. Two of Outback’s founders had left the company under pressure from activists, and Bill had been tapped to take on the role of CEO of the entire company, a multibillion-dollar, multidivision ...
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