Building A Brand For The Future w/ Christine Specht

So you’re walking down the street and realize that you’re hungry.   There are so many options, how do you decide. For me these days, I generally ask myself what is a healthy option.   While this is a practical way to think about food, I sometimes find myself craving something special from my past. One of my all-time favorites is an Italian style sub made on great Italian bread.  While there are many options on the East Coast for a good sub, my choices growing up in the midwest were much more limited. My goto was the Special from Cousins Subs, which was started in 1972 by two cousins in Milwaukee who longed for the taste of subs they grew up with on the Jersey shore.  

Now, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with innovation.  Well, like any business, consumer tastes and trends are always changing.  

As Christine Specht, CEO of Cousins Subs said in this episode, “you have to continue to evolve or you start to die on the vine”  Christine grew up making subs working for her Dad in one of his restaurants, and is now leading the company through a rebranding to position the company for the next 20 years.  Cousins has grown from that first restaurant to nearly one hundred restaurants across the midwest.

We talk about what it’s like to take over for a founder while maintaining the brand and the transition from a manager of process to the leader of the company.

We also learned that we share a common appreciation for Tom Clancy, who said:

“There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told, and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.”

Please check out the episode in the above link. If you have an opinion on these topics, please feel free to email us through the contact page. The best ideas often stem from the intersection of different points of view. The episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!