Denny's Valade on Value, Keke's Strong Growth: Choppin' It Up
Consumers need to be able to count on restaurant brands for a great value proposition, Denny's CEO Kelli Valade tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this episode of the Choppin' It Up podcast, Valade sits down with BI's senior restaurant and foodservice analyst Michael Halen to discuss the importance of everyday value amid some US consumer weakness to start the year. She also comments on Denny's remodels and loyalty program changes as well as strong growth plans for Keke's Breakfast Café.
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It's a common workplace problem: Things got heated during a disagreement. Now what?
Last week saw Elon Musk and President Donald Trump go from bromance to breakup. The scale and potential repercussions of the argument between the commander in chief and the world's richest man, who was until recently a special government employee and White House advisor, were much different than those of the average person. But, while the pair's relationship is not analogous to the everyday superior and subordinate, the conflict raises the familiar question: how do you navigate a tense relationship at work? Business Insider spoke with five experts in workplace culture and conflict resolution, from career coaches to behavioral neurologists, to get their best tips. "First things first: to the extent that you can, take a walk around the block, get a cup of coffee, draft an angry email — but don't send it, because you'll probably regret it the next day," Kathryn Landis, an executive coach and New York University professor of marketing and public relations, told Business Insider. Then, as soon as you've cooled down, set a time on the calender to talk face-to-face. Letting a workplace conflict fester is a common mistake, Marlo Lyons, a career coach, told BI. "That creates awkwardness, it creates distance, and it's never going to end well, so you just have to ask for a quick one-on-one," Lyons said. "It doesn't have to be a long, drawn-out conversation, but you really want to show that you respect the relationship by having that conversation sooner than later." Don't pretend there's not a problem Once you've started the conversation, it's important to avoid "the tendency to over-apologize because you're understandably anxious about your job," negotiation expert and senior fellow at Harvard Law School Robert Bordone told Business Insider. But, while you want to cool things off, you should still try to " manage up" and speak your mind about what's bothering you, each of the experts agreed. "The danger in just saying mea culpa is you might get out of the situation, but you're in something that's unhealthy — and from your boss's perspective, they don't even know how unhappy you are because you never told them," Bordone said. "Then you're setting up a longer-term bad pattern that doesn't serve you, the boss, or the organization's interest." Ryan Leak, an executive coach and the author of "How to Work With Complicated People: Strategies for Effective Collaboration with (Nearly) Anyone," suggested rehearsing a few phrases to overcome the tension. The first is practicing some intellectual humility and acknowledging out loud, "I could be wrong," Leak said. "When you subscribe to the 'I could be wrong' mantra, what you're saying is, 'Hey, I've got a story in my head that I fully believe, but I'm also going to make space for your story, because I realized that my story feels very true to me, but at the same time, it's only one side of story,'" Leak said. You want to strike a collaborative tone and "focus on the 'in-group' element," said behavioral neurologist Joel Salinas, because you're both on the same team. Bordone, the Harvard negotiation expert, and Salinas are coauthors of the book "Conflict Resilience: Negotiating Disagreement Without Giving Up or Giving In." Salinas added that it's also important to show that you're interested in learning from the experience to do better in the future and that you want to work on a resolution together. Leak suggested making that desire explicit with the phrase "I want us to have a thriving working relationship." "It's OK to be a little bit vulnerable and say, 'Hey, let's have this really awkward conversation that I've been ignoring for a very long time, because I do want to have a thriving working relationship with you. And so, how do we move forward with that?'" Leak said. From there, you can lay out what bothered you in the initial conflict and what you need from the relationship, Leak added. From there, let it go — or plan for your exit While the initial conversation may be challenging, the really difficult part comes next, said career coach Lyons. You've got to try to let it go. "You've got to start that conversation, but then you need to continue the relationship without harping on it," Lyons said. "You don't want to harp on it in every one-on-one. You're trying to reconnect with them, reconnect with the mission, reconnect with what the performance expectations are." Just because you've cleared the air doesn't mean this time there won't be tension in the future. So when you find yourself getting riled up again, try to take your emotions out of it and turn your boss's bad habits into a game. "If you know the other person is going to come back at you with some kind of dig or loaded comment, turn it into a game," Landis, the NYU professor, said. "Try to count how many digs it takes for her to say something nice. Make it a game and it becomes less personal." Of course, if it gets to that point, you should probably also brush up your résumé — and always stay networking, Landis added. Going scorched earth may feel good in the short term, but depending on your industry, you may need that person later, so think long-term when planning your exit, and try to keep your composure even if you find the differences irreconcilable. At the end of the day, remember conflicts are "very natural" and some disagreement is inevitable in any relationship, said Salinas.
Business Insider
10 hours ago
- Business Insider
How to quietly search for your next job on LinkedIn
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Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
Rare earth minerals are the biggest card China can play in its negotiations with Trump
China has a significant card to play in its trade negotiations with the US, which could not only put the Trump administration in a bind but also impact a wide range of consumer goods. Rare earth minerals, namely scandium, yttrium, and 15 types of lanthanides, usually sit unnoticed at the bottom of the periodic table. But experts in rare earths have told Business Insider that a shortage of these minerals — which mainly come from China — could induce a shortage in everything from aircraft parts to TV remotes. "It's not industry agnostic because rare earths are used in everything from TVs and laptops and phones to cancer treatments and MRI scanners to automotives to defense," said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Especially as a bedrock to the automotive industry, it is really critical because our automotive manufacturing industry was getting to a point where it had to halt operations and close manufacturing plants without access to these rare earths," Baskaran added. The importance of critical minerals came into focus when China cut off its supply to the US after Trump imposed tariffs, as high as 245% for some goods, on the manufacturing hub in a trade war that escalated between February and May. The two countries have since de-escalated tensions through trade talks after Trump agreed to lower duties on China to 30% for 90 days starting from May 14. After the latest trade talks in London in mid-June, China has agreed to reopen export channels of its critical minerals to the US — at least for now. "China built up its industry in a cheap and not necessarily ecologically refined manner, and the US said, 'That's very inexpensive, so we do not need to have this kind of industry in our country,'" Laura Lewis, professor of chemical engineering at the Northwestern University College of Engineering, saud. "And that was the case for many years." Bilateral relations with China remain fragile According to data from the 2024 US Geological Survey, 70% of critical mineral imports to the US came from China, followed by 13% from Malaysia. China also processes nearly 90% of the world's rare earth minerals, according to the International Energy Agency. Though the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, did not directly confirm how long rare earth licenses will remain issued to US manufacturers, a spokesperson told BI in a statement that "China has reviewed and approved a certain number of export license applications for rare-earth-related items." "Rare-earth-related items have dual-use attributes, with both military and civilian purposes, imposing export controls on such items is in line with international practices," the spokesperson added. Drew DeLong, lead in geopolitical dynamics practice at Kearney, a global strategy and management consulting firm, told BI that manufacturers are going to stockpile as much rare earth material as possible during the brief reprieve in US-China relations, in anticipation of more supply chain disruptions. DeLong said that by August, when the tariff suspension expires, the US-China relation would reach a critical decision point where it "must either coalesce or collapse." "Markets now wait to see whether Beijing actually resumes outbound shipments, and whether Washington delivers on its part of the rollback, " DeLong added. "There already appears to be hedging on trade tensions flaring up again." America may need to work with what it has The US once had a single operating rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, but it went bankrupt in 2015. Molycorp, its operator, filed for bankruptcy protection due to slumping rare earth prices and ballooning costs. Meanwhile, China has spent decades building its capacity to process rare earths. Other countries, like Japan, have diversified where they get their rare earth metals to avoid relying on China. Lewis, of Northwestern University, told BI that the US not only has a long way to go, but it may simply lack certain types of metals, even if it could extract others. Lewis said that the US lacks a category of heavy rare earths necessary for magnets to endure hot environments like motors. "We're going to have to work with our allies and nature to get what we need," said Lewis, "Because I cannot possibly imagine that the investment it would take to get our rare minerals from asteroids is going to be less than what we can already achieve on earth through recycling and a thoughtful use of resources." "The philosophy in Silicon Valley is just throw enough time and money at it, and you'll get it and fast, but nothing that we can do to get the rare earth industry healthy is going to happen fast," Lewis added. "Nature's smarter than we are."
