Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

A Nice Ice-Breaking Experience

BNET: Why did you start Lucky Strike Lanes?

Foster:  We looked around at the culture as a whole and didn't really see any great places where people could go, have a drink, eat, but also have a social ice-breaking experience.  A place that provided something to do that was active in nature, something other than just eating and drinking. So we thought of bowling, this kind of wonderful, simple experience that has been around for thousands of years and that provides childlike moments, but has never really been offered in an upscale environment. We wanted to combine art and hospitality and good music and good service.

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

Finding the Heartbeat

BNET: So why did you decide to go on the show? What was your motivation?

Foster: My motivation in deciding to do the show was really to have an inside look at our company, which has maybe reached an early adolescent stage. We're eight years old, so it's still quite young with a lot of growth ahead of us. And I felt that we've established the brand, a lot of people know what Lucky Strike is, but have I really stayed in tune with the little, subtle heartbeats, the little pulses that are the key to the success of this company?

When I typically walk into a unit, because I'm the CEO, people approach me and respond to me as the CEO and I don't believe I get a really clear view. By coming in as an entry-level applicant, it allowed me to interact with the company at that place where it really does live and breathe, and that's why I went on the show.

Ultimately, we are all about entertainment, we all are about creating joyful moments for our guests. So I wanted to find out whether that kind of heartbeat that I referred to before is alive and well at all levels of the company. And how would I be treated as an older applicant for an entry-level job?

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

The Same Man, the Same Heart

BNET: What did you do to disguise yourself?

Foster: I wore a wig. I also grew a beard, a month's growth. But the wig was the main disguise.

BNET: Did it work?

Foster: Yeah, I think it did. I was very self conscious about it. My picture's been out and about in some of the units, so I didn't really know if people would think, oh my God, that guy's wearing a head piece and it's really Steven. But you know, it absolutely worked. I mean amazingly so, actually.

When we brought the folks I worked with on the show to Hollywood, they were expecting to talk about their experience and they still didn't known who I was. Germaine in Houston looked me in the eye when I asked him, "Who am I?" He said, "You're Aaron Johnson." Just like that, straight in my eyes. And I said, "Well, do you know who I really am?" He said, "I have no idea." I said, "Well, I'm Steven Foster, CEO." He looked at me and he said, "You're the same man, the same heart."

That was so moving to me because he was gracious and kind to me as a fumbling shoe desk guy, as Aaron Johnson, but he was not thrown by my title or my position. To me it was all about the integrity of the heart. That was amazing.

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

Mr. Pin Was an 11

BNET: What are some of the jobs you did on the show?

Foster: I bartended in Hollywood, I served food and beverages in Manhattan, I learned how to work with the machines as a mechanic in West Nyack and I worked on the shoe desk spraying shoes but also putting people on and off lanes in Houston. I also had the rare fun experience of being able to put on a 7-foot bowling pin costume and dance around Hollywood Boulevard entertaining kids and their families as a big, giant mascot. That was a gas, that was really fun.

BNET: How would you rank your performance? What did you do well, what did you do not so well?

Foster: I think I did horribly at every task other than Mr. Pin. It's like all my self consciousness went out the window when I was in that costume and I was able to dance and have wonderful moments. And I think I did that as well as maybe any other animator or mascot type.

But as far as the other jobs, I found bartending really difficult. Obviously repairing a machine with 10,000 moving parts was nothing I was going to master in a 7-hour shift. I found serving challenging, I found the computer almost impossible. I didn't come into these tasks with any computer experience, really, and you know, when there were guests in front of you wanting to get online and get offline, I was overwhelmed.

On a 10-point scale, I would rate myself on all of those tasks somewhere between a 2 and a 4. Except for Mr. Pin, where I thought I was an 11.

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

Learning to Live in a More Tender Place

BNET: How has your leadership style changed from your experience on the show?

Foster: I just learned that I need to live and breathe in a more tender place, you know? I think that we all give up certain tendernesses within ourselves as we struggle in daily living and dealing with stress. You tend to kind of harden up a little bit, and I really learned that at this stage in my life, I really love the tender places more. I just need to make sure I don't lose that in the day-to-day.

I'm going to be more in tune with those impulses, stay closer to the people, and listen to them. We're a much smaller company than what you typically see on Undercover Boss, so it is easier for me to stay close to the various folks. But my commitment is to do that, not just deal with banks and kind of the typical CEO stuff, but really make sure I'm in touch with the people at every level. Regularly.

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike CEO Throws One in the Gutter

Passionate About Lucky Strike

BNET: What are you going to do differently for the company, moving forward?

Foster: I learned that we as a company needed to make certain improvements that might seem simple but that I felt were meaningful emotionally to the staff. Those improvements ranged from creating a break room for our employees to relax, to communicating more effectively that our servers didn't need to wear high heels if they chose not to, to improving our technology. Two of our computer systems weren't interfacing in a proper way, and as a result we were making the job harder for our people and also running the risk of losing a party in the system somewhere.

In spite of maybe whatever the frustrations are, and all of us have frustrations in our daily work environment, they looked forward to coming to work every day and that was great to hear. People were passionate about Lucky Strike.