The sage of Quiznos

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A few years ago Greg Brenneman was asked to give some advice to MBA students thinking about the next step in their careers. “If you have a chance of working for a healthy company or a sick one,” he wrote, “choose the sick one. The sickest ones need the best doctors and it’s a lot easier to stand out in a company that needs help.” He should know. Throughout his career, Mr Brenneman has gone looking for trouble—first as head of the corporate-turnaround practice at Bain, a consulting firm, and then in a succession of senior roles, including stints at Continental Airlines, Burger King and Quiznos, two American fast-food chains.

Each of these three businesses was going through a difficult time when Mr Brenneman came on board—he described Continental as “the world’s worst $6 billion company” before joining it—and at each he applied a similar approach to sorting out its problems. His tactics, which may provide inspiration for those managers whose firms are struggling in the economic downturn, have impressed private-equity partners. On August 19th Mr Brenneman stepped down as chief executive of Quiznos (though he has become its executive chairman) to take up a new role as chairman of CCMP Capital Advisors, a private-equity firm.

As well as helping CCMP do deals, Mr Brenneman will coach executives at firms in its portfolio. “It’s back to the future in private equity,” he says enthusiastically, pointing out that because cheap finance has evaporated, investors must now concentrate on improving the operations of the companies they invest in. That reminds him of private equity’s early days when, he says, “you had to get in and roll your sleeves up and grow businesses.”

So what treatment does Mr Brenneman recommend for a sick corporate patient? First, stop it doing things that bleed red ink. Take the case of Continental, which he joined in 1994 as chief operating officer when the company was on the brink of a third stint in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. After Mr Brenneman was hired by Gordon Bethune, the airline’s new boss, they quickly worked out that 18% of its flights were losing money. Axing these lossmakers helped pull the carrier out of its financial nosedive.