Of Evil CEOs and Evil Husbands

There is a point when the grip slips and the fall begins, and Krispy Kreme is there, a greasy, glazen fallen and falling superhero, looking back at the cliff-face, looking down into the abyss, as gravity overcomes all else. Here's how Doug might draw it, but then he has a weird sense of humor:


(Image from TenNapel's Creature Tech)

In an editorial today, the LATimes describes its prescient moment, when the truth about Krispy Kreme hit them like a sugar rush:

When business started to slow down in 2004, then-Chief Executive Scott Livengood blamed the Atkins diet. Never believe a junk-food executive who says his company is suffering because Americans' health habits are changing. Fad diets come and go, but cheating is eternal.

Greed was likely a stronger factor.

I'm not bragging because I admit I know nothing about business, but I do know something about donuts, and I saw this one coming. When KK exploded like a calorie cluster-bomb onto the scene, my PR firm was representing Winchell's, the #2 donut brand in the country, and we went into war mode to try to fight the Southern Tsunami.

Winchells, for all the fatness of its fare, is a lean company. It has to be because the profits are about the only lean thing in the donut business. We all knew intuitively that Krispy Kreme was unsustainable because it wasn't spending like a donut company should. Ditto my experience from helping a bagle chain out of bankruptcy.

But Livengood (a name right up there with Stonecipher as an All Time Great CEO Name) had the hustle, the jet, the Enron-accoutrements, and he milked the brand with greed-powered automatic milking machines, sucking far more money out of Wall Street and Main Street investors than he ever did out of real, sticky-fingered customers.

And, of course, his grip slipped, and the fall has begun as KK has had to restate earnings and admit financial errors and shady deals. The stock is now tumbling.

Livengood wouldn't have been livin' good if he were the only greedy one. Across America, people who's desire to cash in easy outpowered their clarity poured money into the company, lusting for a big bump in earnings they really didn't have to work for.

That's just not what the bible teaches us. Hard work done as if we were doing it for the Lord is what's honored ... and more likely not here, but There.

I can't help but think that the same fuel that fueled Livengood is firing up Michael Schiavo's engines, and that his will to kill isn't about Terri's wishes or establishing precedent, but is all about setting the stage for a big financial score (see American Digest; h/t Michelle Malkin). And unfortunately, it looks like he's going to get what he wants ... here, at least.