TAMPA — When Rick Cardenas got his first job as a busser at Red Lobster in 1984, clearing
dirty plates behind diners was one step above washing dishes. But he didn’t mind.
“I just wanted to be really good at my job,” he said, who now leads Darden Restaurants
as its CEO and president.
That a former busser who thought being a server would be the “best” job now leads
one of the biggest brands in the restaurant chain space is not surprising.
“Anywhere in our restaurants we can have our next CEO,” said Cardenas, who was the
featured guest at Tuesday’s Conversation with a CEO event hosted by the ҹƬ Muma College of Business and held at The Tampa Club in downtown Tampa.
In fact, over a dozen high-level managers at Darden Restaurants, whose portfolio of
sit-down chains includes familiar names such as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse,
and Chuy’s, all started at low-level jobs.
And very rarely does the company fill a vice president position with an external candidate,
he said.
“We don’t like to go outside the company unless we have to and if we have to, we did
something wrong,” he said.
About 70 faculty, students and business professionals attended the hour-long talk
led by David Blackwell, Lynn Pippenger dean at the Muma College of Business. The Conversation with a CEO
event series is presented by the .
Cardenas talked about the culture at Darden Restaurants, how the company came out
ahead after the pandemic, and how a younger generation of consumers are more adventurous
in food and more willing to spend on experiences.
He shared that the 200,000-employee company has a Dream Sheet where workers spell
out where they want their last job to be before they retire, so managers can help
them get there.
He also shared leadership advice. Among his executive gems:
- There’s no perfect job. Get one. Get something somewhere that will teach you.
- Don’t worry about titles. Worry about what you want that last job to be.
- You’re going to be passed over for jobs. The question is how you react. You can’t be resentful.
- Make it about the people you lead and not about you. Too often, leaders care more about themselves than their employees.
When asked by a student what advice he has for young professionals just starting,
Cardenas didn’t hesitate.
“Patience. Tenacity. And digging deeper than what someone asks of you,” he said.