Denny’s new CEO Christopher Bode is guiding the iconic diner chain’s turnaround with a mentor’s blunt rule, manage what you must, not everything you can.
FOX Business spoke with Bode after he took the helm this year, and he made clear what sits at the center of his leadership.
The lesson came earlier in his career from longtime mentor Jon Luther, the former Dunkin’ Brands CEO. Bode still runs the company by it.
“Manage what you must, not what you can,” Bode said.
"I now talk to my team about it daily, because what it means is there's so much that you can manage, but this is what you must manage in order to be able to change the trajectory of the business that you're running."
That is the opposite of the sprawl that sinks big organizations. Bode said companies fail when they try to be too much, chase too many goals, and finish none of them well.
Bode’s answer at Denny’s is a turnaround plan he calls Project Grand Slam. He described it as five key pillars, and he keeps the leadership team locked on those priorities every day.
“We keep the team laser-focused on that every day, and we don't allow the creep to come in,” he said.
"That's what really leads to the demise of organizations, because they try to be too much, too many, and accomplish too many things in a short period of time."
In plain terms, he is fighting “organizational creep”, the slow slide into extra projects, extra meetings, and extra noise that dilutes real results. Stay on the work that moves the business. Cut the rest.
Denny’s runs heavily through franchise owners, and Bode put their position in sharp relief. They put up millions of dollars. They sign the bank notes. They cover payroll and utilities. He draws a paycheck. They carry the downside.
"We have people that invest millions and millions of dollars, and you have to listen with a really good ear. Those are the people that have taken all the risk. They sign the banknotes, they pay the people, they have utilities, they've all this stuff, all that pressure on them. I get a paycheck every week. They don't."
That is a common-sense hierarchy too many corporate suites forget. The operators who draft the checks and face the local customer deserve a real hearing, not a memo from headquarters.
Bode tied the same idea to humility as a career lengthens. Franchise relationships matter. Leaders should not forget where they came from. And the culture he wants is collective, not self-promoting.
“It's the power of ‘we,’ not the individual 'me,'” he said. “Don't forget where you came from.”
For an iconic American diner chain working through a reset, the pitch is straightforward: fewer distractions, tighter priorities, and respect for the people who actually put capital on the line. That is how a turnaround stays honest.
Focus beats empire-building. Owners who take the risk beat executives who only take the salary. Bode is betting Denny’s recovers the old-fashioned way, by doing the must-do work and leaving the rest alone.