OFF the CUFF
  • “In terms of American icons, I would say they’re up there with Marilyn Monroe,” said Greg Rayburn, CEO of Hostess Brands, “because, the reaction has been one of ‘you can’t possibly take my Twinkies away.’”

    Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Sno Balls, Ho-Hos, Zingers, Suzy Q’s, Wonder Bread – all are staples of American childhood lunchboxes. They harken back to an innocent time when calories weren’t counted, and a dusting of fluorescent coconut flakes on a snack, was considered a delicacy.

    Still, Hostess has closed after 83 years in business, only eight months after Rayburn was brought in to restructure the company. On February 11, 2013 Hostess Brands won approval from the U.S. bankruptcy court to put some of its brands up for auction. A sale hearing is set for March, 2013. Private-equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulo have teamed up to bid $410 million for most of Hostess's business. “I think nostalgia has played a big role in this sales process,” Rayburn said.

    Read More »from Ding Dong, is the Twinkie Dead? What the CEO who Closed the Company Thinks
  • EHarmony CEO: What ‘Really Damaged Our Company’

    Every day in America, 542 people marry after meeting on eHarmony.com -- according to the online dating website. That’s 5 percent of all new U.S. marriages. On average, there’s an eHarmony wedding every 2.65 minutes, the company claims. Playing cupid in an astonishing total of 565,000 marriages worldwide are eHarmony’s co-founder, Neil Clark Warren, and his patented algorithms.

    Warren, 78, is a Christian theologian who worked as a clinical psychologist for 35 years, counseling married couples. “Marriage can be very stressful,” he told Off The Cuff. “You have 1,000 different thoughts and feelings and needs and wishes around someone. And you sometimes don't get them all met.“ Based on his own practice and three years of clinical research, he formulated a set of 29 characteristics that he said define successful relationships. He called them the “Dimensions of Compatibility.” In 2000, he founded eHarmony with his son-in-law Greg Forgatch. The site was financed with a $3 million venture round from Fayez Sarofim and individual investors.

    To this day, the computer matching system that eHarmony uses to introduce its single members is based on those same core traits, which include curiosity, intellect, appearance, skills, sexual passion, attitude toward children, spirituality, values, anger management and sense of humor. In other words, the things that you probably should weigh when choosing a mate, but sometimes ignore in favor of nice hair or a great smile.

    Read More »from EHarmony CEO: What ‘Really Damaged Our Company’
  • Mark Zuckerberg may not have a university degree, but in order to run a successful multi-billion-dollar company, he needs people around him who do, said Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University.

    When asked what she thinks about “billionaire dropouts,” Faust said she is struck by their individual success but also by how such people require support from “legions of people who have training in a variety of fields” in order to maintain that success.

    “Our famous drop-out Mark Zuckerberg—who, of course, founded Facebook—he needs accountants and he needs physicists and he needs a whole range of people who have had an education of a sort that he could skip over because of his brilliant insight about Facebook,” she said. “So I think we need to think about the institutional context that enables innovation.”

    Read More »from Harvard President: Zuckerberg Dropped Out, but His Staff Didn’t
  • How to succeed as a woman in business? “Man up!” said Christine Day, CEO of Lululemon Athletica, the global fitness apparel brand that became an unexpected success story in retail.

    “There is a natural inclination I think for women to be in the support roles. I think that’s the advice that I would give to other women, is that we sometimes wait to be anointed, and we also wait until somebody says we’ve earned it or we’ve proven it, instead of just really claiming it for ourselves,” Day said.

    Day spent 20 years at Starbucks, leading the company’s expansion into Asia, before exchanging caffeine for karma. She became Lululemon’s CEO in 2008. Her role models—perhaps surprising for the CEO of a yoga-wear company—include Margaret Thatcher. “I’ve always admired Margaret Thatcher. How did she become prime minister of England? How does that happen? I thought she was always a fascinating, strong woman in history.”

    Read More »from Lululemon CEO’s Advice: Don’t ‘Wait to Be Anointed’

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About Off the Cuff

Ever wondered what your boss eats for breakfast? Or why he or she works 24/7? Off the Cuff takes you outside the boardroom to show you what high-impact leaders do off the clock. Every week, corporate tycoons will answer questions about what they like (and loathe), what makes them get up in the morning, what inspires them, and what makes them the most proud.

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Should the CEO's of Private Companies be Permitted to Exclude Potential Clients Because of Their Own Religious or Personal Beliefs?

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