WOMEN AT
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THE TOP
Christine Specht
President and COO, Cousins Subs
the box. Personally knowing the challenges that every longstanding QSR
has, it’s inspiring to see Kat lead in a
creative, successful manner and come
out on top.
How has your life experience made
you the leader you are today? I
did not take the traditional route to
my current position. My degrees are
not in business, and I stepped away
from Cousins Subs to pursue different interests after college, where I
earned degrees in criminology and
law studies and public administration.
Yet every experience away from Cousins Subs has shaped who I am in my
role at the company today, and what
I learned helps me be a better leader.
I consciously try to think about how
I handled situations in the past and
whether I would do the same today
in a similar situation. Leadership is a
process that is constantly evolving. But
at the end of the day, no matter what
business or non-profit you are leading, the common thread is people. The
people in your organization have the
ability to make or break the business,
and how you motivate them, develop
them, and communicate with them is
a barometer for how successful you
are in leadership.
Advice for young female CEO aspirants: Stay focused on your goals
instead of your gender. If you make
gender an issue, it will get in the way
of what you are trying to accomplish.
See yourself as a business person and
a leader first, then as a woman. Then,
as you climb the ranks, you can feel
confident knowing you have risen because of your talent, knowledge, and
skills. You will be able to carry that
forward for your entire career.
Leadership style: My style is to bal-
SYSTEM REVENUE: Do not disclose
Role models? I am a director on
NO. OF UNITS: 130
five different boards of non-profit
organizations in Southeast Wisconsin.
All of these organizations are led by
individuals able to inspire others to
rally together to meet a common goal.
Even though I am on their boards to
provide governance, in reality I learn
so much from all of them. This connection is what inspired us to create
The Make It Better Foundation last
year. We provide grants to organizations that provide support in three
areas we believe are vital to any community: health and wellness, hunger,
and youth education.
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE: Private
GROWTH PLANS: Annual growth in the
single digits
FOUNDED: 1972
BEGAN FRANCHISING: 1985
YEARS WITH COMPANY: 13
YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 13
INTERNATIONAL LOCATIONS: 0
Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive—all of which are on my bookshelf.
They provide quick, common-sense
approaches to leadership.
Female leaders you admire: Kat
Management gurus or books that
have deeply affected you: I am a
huge fan of Patrick Lencioni, author
of such books as Death by Meeting, The
Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Five
Temptations of a CEO, and The Four
Cole, president of Cinnabon. She successfully reinvented a brand that was
popular when I was younger, but then
it lost its relevance in the marketplace
for a few years. She regained Cinnabon’s relevance by thinking outside
ance inspiration with accountability.
This was something I learned through
leadership training and it stuck with
me. I am mindful that as the leader
of my organization I need to inspire
others by providing a vision for what
we want to achieve, yet hold people
accountable to their responsibilities.
Our focus has always been, and will
continue to be, on quality over quantity. When we partner with a franchisee we want to do everything we can
to ensure a successful relationship,
ultimately resulting in a franchisee
owning multiple restaurants in an area.
Was becoming CEO of an organization part of your professional
plan? This was not part of my pro-
fessional plan. As I said earlier, I have
degrees in criminology and law studies and public administration. When
I was in school I did not see myself
returning to our family business. Even
when I did in 2001, I worked in human
resources and did not see myself leading the organization. It was not until
I was working at Cousins Subs for a
while that I began to think about what
I would do if I ran the company—how
I could make it better and continue
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