Episode 082 of Seafood Unfiltered (Mike Andes) — a conversational podcast episode recorded on the road. After opening banter about recording remotely, the hosts discuss news about Red Lobster's new CEO and broaden into a general debate over young versus older CEOs. Mike Andes expresses a preference to bet on older leaders for performance due to life/industry experience but acknowledges younger CEOs can be useful for brand refreshes and that firms can alternatively hire strong CMOs or marketing agencies to achieve similar outcomes.
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Here we are. Welcome back. Another episode, Seafood Unfiltered with Mike Andes. How are we doing today, sir?
On the road, dude. We're on the road. We're taking the pod on the road.
The pod is on the road. It's official. When you, when you both have mics and you're not in the same location, that means we've made it. And in my opinion.
So I think this is actually better. There's definitely nice things about being in person, but sometimes, like from a viewer's perspective, this is better.
See, I get, I get more distracted this way, but because I have too much on my screen, more than likely. But we'll get into it. Get into it, dude.
Just full screen it down in the bottom right hand corner.
I got my articles. I got my ref.
I got you. I got you. You need a secondary screen, bro. You need a secondary screen. I'm traveling.
I don't have the secondary screen. Maybe I'll just buy one for a month.
I'll. I'll give you. I'll give you one when you get back. I got an extra one.
Okay.
I got one that's portable. Oh, sick.
Well, thank you. There we go.
Awesome. Well, we're going to jump into it here. We are off the politics train because there is a story that I did really actually want to get into that kind of broke. It's not like breaking news, but it was made headlines, I think in September, then kind of got buried by the election cycle. So have you heard about Red Lobster's new CEO? Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, great. So we're going to get into that. What are your thoughts on young CEOs considering that, you know, in the great world of business, you would be considered a young CEO. Let's just start right there.
What do I think about them?
Yeah, what do you think about young CEOs in general? Or let's get specific young CEOs taking over large, well known brands. Let's go there.
Yeah. Like, I think sometimes overall, if I had to bet on young versus old, I would go with old.
I think that for a brand like theirs that needs a significant change on their branding, it's not a bad idea to get a younger CEO. But also you can hire a good marketing firm or you can hire a good marketing, you know, like a good cmo, a chief marketing officer that understands social media would probably do the. Do them just as much good in terms of, like getting someone younger. So, like, I feel like, you know, age I don't think has anything to do with whether or not someone's qualified. However, it also is a pretty easy barometer of how much experience you have in life. And so for anyone younger, the reason why most people impressed with youth terms of success is because you don't have the experience and so usually you are leaning on more raw talent. But in terms of performance, if I had to make a bet, I would bet on someone that's older, 100%.
I think that might surprise some of our listeners. I don't disagree with you. I think I see where that's coming from. And I guess to fill in the gap.
