Going All Gestapo On The Breadsticks, Forcing Darden Board Members To Work The Dinner Rush At Olive Garden PAID OFF

To say nothing of the fact that said suits can now add "knows his bucatini from his cavatelli" to their résumés.

Author:: Bess Levin
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Sep 23, 2015

They might've grumbled about it to the line cooks at the time but they are grumbling no more!

Darden Restaurants reported quarterly profit that topped Wall Street estimates as menu changes and improved service at its Olive Garden restaurants helped lure more diners. Darden’s sales at established Olive Garden restaurants were up 2.7 percent in the first quarter, helped by a long-hoped-for increase in traffic. Excluding items, Darden earned 68 cents a share from continuing operations. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 58 cents a share.

Olive Garden Improvements Help Darden Top Estimates [Reuters]

Earlier: Olive Garden Turnaround Involved Hedge Fund Execs Uttering The Words “Can I Get You Started With Our Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta?” During A Dinner Rush; Hedge Fund To Olive Garden: You Wanna Make Some Real Money? Cut The Breadstick Bull Sh*t

And/or "Can I tempt you with a side of our Crispy Risotto Bites?".

It has nothing to do with breadsticks (but it does have to do with slaves).

The restaurant chain has raised a middle finger-shaped breadstick at Starboard Value.

Sayeth Kruggles: "Yes, I’ve heard about the notion that I should be nominated as Treasury Secretary. I’m flattered, but it really is a bad idea. Part of the reason is that I am indeed the World’s Worst Administrator — and that does matter. Someone else can do the paperwork — but an administrative job requires making hiring and firing decisions, it means keeping track of many things, and that, to say the least, is not my forte...officials inside the administration can of course have even more influence — but only if they’re good at a very different kind of game, that of persuading the president and his inner circle in behind-closed-doors discussion. And everything I know about myself says that I’m not very good at that game. By my reckoning, then, an administration job, no matter how senior, would actually reduce my influence, leaving me unable to say publicly what I really think and all too probably finding myself unable to make headway in internal debates." [NYT]

If you didn't know Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, you might think he enjoyed not being compensated for the work he does at Citigroup because for quite some time, he wasn't. And although the "I will only get paid $1/year until Citi turns a profit" exercise was fun for a while, he was pretty happy when the old jalopy started making money again, in part because it meant he could receive a paycheck. Then last April, his shareholders rejected the bank's executive pay plan, claiming the Big C "lets Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit collect millions of dollars in rewards too easily." And while it's possible that Citi shareholders are just a bunch of pricks who chose to overlook the fact that Uncle Vikula didn't collect squat for several years and once had an entire article written about the fact that lieutenants attributed a "new bounce in his step" to him daydreaming "the day when he is going to earn more than a $1 a year,” maybe they just assume that he doesn't care about getting paid either way? Anyway, here's Vickles, reminding anyone who forgot about the sacrifices he made and setting the record straight: “The board has this process with them, they’re going through it, and they are committed, as I am, to making sure that they resolve this,” Pandit said. “I want to get paid what the board thinks is right for me, for the job that I’ve done and for the incentives that they think I ought to have.” Pandit told lawmakers in 2009 that he would take a $1 annual salary until he restored the bank to profitability. Citigroup made a $21.7 billion profit for 2011 and 2010 combined, compared with a $29.3 billion loss for the two preceding years. “When the company was losing money, I stepped up and said I’ll take a dollar a year and I did, exactly for that reason, exactly the right thing to do,” Pandit said. For those having trouble separating the nice guy/don't want to offend anyone statement from what he's actually trying to say, a rough translation of the above would be: get me paid, bitch! Citigroup Will Resolve CEO Pay By End Of Year, Pandit Says [Bloomberg]