I cannot stress this enough. Listen. To. Your. People. ***** "One recent example involves Olive Garden (OG), whose parent company Darden was taken over by an activist investment firm (Starboard). A story in CNN’s Money in 2015 reported that the investment firm mocked OG’s strategy of unlimited breadsticks prior to dinner. Darden’s top management naturally defended the practice since that formula had worked for years. Once Starboard took over and stopped serving endless breadsticks, patrons spent more on alcohol and desserts since they didn’t fill up on breadsticks. Sales and profit went up. When managers at lower levels in the company had presented the same logic, they had been ignored by top management who “knew better." …see more