Rags to riches in the USA

[peejay 327]

They've risen through the ranks

It may be harder to do nowadays, but some still start low and go far

By DAVID KAPLAN

Houston Chronicle

April 17, 2010, 12:34AM

After his terrifying escape from Iran in 1984, Atour Eyvazian took a job as a janitor at a Jack in the Box in Los Angeles.

Twenty-six years later, after rising through the company ranks to become manager of guest service systems, overseeing almost 700 restaurants, he is now co-owner of 59 Jack in the Box franchises, most of them in Houston.

The Sugar Land resident has had other business opportunities but never thought to leave Jack in the Box: “To me it's almost like a sin” to go somewhere else, Eyvazian said. “I feel like I owe them everything I've got.”

Others at Jack in the Box started low in the company and climbed to the very top.

It is a fabled American business story: You are given an entry-level job and rise to the higher reaches of a corporation. But how often does that happen anymore?

Not nearly as much as it once did, according to a corporate recruiter in Houston.

“The guy who goes to work in the mail room” and becomes a high-powered executive in the company — “it's much more difficult to do, no question, particularly in today's competitive environment,” said Tom Simmons, managing director of Spencer Stuart, a global executive recruiting firm.

When filling an executive position, corporations are now more likely to value a candidate's pedigree, such as a Stanford MBA, Simmons said, and frequently recruit outsiders.

Working their way up

If going from a minimum-wage job to a high-level position in the same company has gotten harder, then Jack in the Box is an exception, said Eric Tunquist, the San Diego-based fast-food company's vice president of operations for the eastern half of the U.S.

“There are a lot of stories like Atour's here,” Tunquist said. The recently retired president of Jack in the Box, Paul Schultz, had a low- income background and started as a graveyard shift Jack in the Box restaurant worker, he said, and CEO Linda Lang began at the company as an accounting clerk. Eyvazian's franchise partner, Anil Yadav, began working at Jack in the Box as a fry cook in the Bay Area.

And Houstonian Ali Keshani, who with his three partners owns 39 Jack in the Boxes north and northwest of Houston and 40 more in the Rio Grande Valley area, started with the company as an assistant manager at a Jack in the Box in Stafford and worked his way up.

Keshani said he knows several people who climbed their way up through the company.

“If you work hard and are dedicated, you will fulfill your dream,” he said.

Photos of Jack

At his franchise headquarters in the Katy area, Eyvazian wore a black suit, bright red tie and a Jack in the Box clown pin on his lapel. Most of the rooms at his office display framed photos of Jack, the round-headed company spokesman, in deadpan poses.

Eyvazian and his partner, Yadav, who lives in California, are among the five largest Jack in the Box franchisees, Tunquist said.

In his gentle voice, Eyvazian told his story.

At age 19 he left Tehran, where he and his family were persecuted for being Christians. When it was it time to enter the army to fight in the war between Iran and Iraq, he felt he had to leave because “many minorities were going in and just disappearing,” he said. His parents paid an underground network $4,000 to sneak him out.

Language classes

He spent almost a week walking across mountains in severe cold, stalked by soldiers and wild animals. Having nothing to eat, he felt extreme hunger. Near the Turkish border Eyvazian was robbed by one of his guides and later, in Turkey, thrown in jail. He eventually bribed a jail official for his freedom with money hidden in secret pockets his mother had sewn into his Levi's 501s.

He went to L.A. to live with his uncle, who told him about a “help wanted” sign at a neighborhood Jack in the Box.

Eyvazian spoke no English. At work, “they'd tell me to do something and I'd maybe do the opposite,” he said. He signed up for ESL night classes.

Eager to learn, he offered to fill in for the fry cook when he called in sick.

Another day he took orders.

“I was so excited,” Eyvazian said. “I thought, ‘If only my mom and dad could see me, speaking to people, handling dollars and putting them into the register.' ”

Recognizing his work ethic, his supervisors promoted him to team leader, assistant manager and then manager.

He next got a corporate job, auditing restaurants for quality, food safety and cleanliness. He was then promoted to manager of guest service systems, overseeing 677 restaurants.

Through a company tui­tion reimbursement program he earned an undergraduate degree at night, and later an MBA. He bought a few houses in California and, with good timing, sold them at a big profit.

He and Yadav became franchisees of 10 Jack in the Boxes in Sacramento in 2005. Two years later, Eyvazian moved to Houston after he and Yadav acquired their first restaurants here. Their 49 area restaurants, in the southwest part of town, are almost a quarter of the 214 Jack in the Boxes in the Houston area.

‘You can't make mistakes'

The biggest challenge in his franchise business is operating at low profit margins, which means “you can't make mistakes,” Eyvazian said.

He cited several advantages. The chain has almost a cult following, he said, because of its irreverent commercials and the diversity of its menu, which includes grilled sandwiches, teriyaki bowls, burgers, salads, smoothies, shakes and coffee drinks,

The company also has an exceptional satellite communications system linking corporate headquarters and each store, he said.

Eyvazian wouldn't comment on his franchises' performance beyond “we're doing good.” The company asks franchisees not to disclose financial details, he said.

The average cost of a franchise is $622,000, company spokesman Brian Luscomb said.

As a public company, Jack in the Box has seen recent sales declines. In its February first quarter report, the company reported a same-store sales decline of 11 percent. However, Jeff Omohundro, senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, believes the last quarter may mark the low point and predicted annualized growth of 13 percent for the company over the next three to five years.

“Jack in the Box differentiates itself in the highly competitive quick-service segment through innovative product development and marketing,” Omohundro wrote in a report.

Same meal still a favorite

Eyvazian said he can't imagine parting ways with the fast-food chain.

“My molecules have Jack in the Box in them, actually,” he said. “If you look at what they've done for me — I'm the first person in my family with a college degree, and it's because of them.”

Asked to name his favorite Jack in the Box meal, he replied, “Jumbo Jack and fries.” His tastes haven't changed from his days as a janitor, when he'd get a Jumbo Jack, fries and a Coke and “feel like a real American. If I had extra money I'd get a shake.”

Eyvazian works 70 hours a week, sometimes taking his children, Emma, 12, and Ethan, 8, to the office. They both show interest in the business, he said.

When his son's third-grade teacher asked her students what they wanted to be when they grow up, Ethan said: “I want to work for Jack in the Box. I want to be like my dad.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6963082.html

[Danno 1,228]

They've risen through the ranks

It may be harder to do nowadays, but some still start low and go far

By DAVID KAPLAN

Houston Chronicle

April 17, 2010, 12:34AM

After his terrifying escape from Iran in 1984, Atour Eyvazian took a job as a janitor at a Jack in the Box in Los Angeles.

Twenty-six years later, after rising through the company ranks to become manager of guest service systems, overseeing almost 700 restaurants, he is now co-owner of 59 Jack in the Box franchises, most of them in Houston.

The Sugar Land resident has had other business opportunities but never thought to leave Jack in the Box: “To me it's almost like a sin” to go somewhere else, Eyvazian said. “I feel like I owe them everything I've got.”

Others at Jack in the Box started low in the company and climbed to the very top.

It is a fabled American business story: You are given an entry-level job and rise to the higher reaches of a corporation. But how often does that happen anymore?

Not nearly as much as it once did, according to a corporate recruiter in Houston.

“The guy who goes to work in the mail room” and becomes a high-powered executive in the company — “it's much more difficult to do, no question, particularly in today's competitive environment,” said Tom Simmons, managing director of Spencer Stuart, a global executive recruiting firm.

When filling an executive position, corporations are now more likely to value a candidate's pedigree, such as a Stanford MBA, Simmons said, and frequently recruit outsiders.

Working their way up

If going from a minimum-wage job to a high-level position in the same company has gotten harder, then Jack in the Box is an exception, said Eric Tunquist, the San Diego-based fast-food company's vice president of operations for the eastern half of the U.S.

“There are a lot of stories like Atour's here,” Tunquist said. The recently retired president of Jack in the Box, Paul Schultz, had a low- income background and started as a graveyard shift Jack in the Box restaurant worker, he said, and CEO Linda Lang began at the company as an accounting clerk. Eyvazian's franchise partner, Anil Yadav, began working at Jack in the Box as a fry cook in the Bay Area.

And Houstonian Ali Keshani, who with his three partners owns 39 Jack in the Boxes north and northwest of Houston and 40 more in the Rio Grande Valley area, started with the company as an assistant manager at a Jack in the Box in Stafford and worked his way up.

Keshani said he knows several people who climbed their way up through the company.

“If you work hard and are dedicated, you will fulfill your dream,” he said.

Photos of Jack

At his franchise headquarters in the Katy area, Eyvazian wore a black suit, bright red tie and a Jack in the Box clown pin on his lapel. Most of the rooms at his office display framed photos of Jack, the round-headed company spokesman, in deadpan poses.

Eyvazian and his partner, Yadav, who lives in California, are among the five largest Jack in the Box franchisees, Tunquist said.

In his gentle voice, Eyvazian told his story.

At age 19 he left Tehran, where he and his family were persecuted for being Christians. When it was it time to enter the army to fight in the war between Iran and Iraq, he felt he had to leave because “many minorities were going in and just disappearing,” he said. His parents paid an underground network $4,000 to sneak him out.

Language classes

He spent almost a week walking across mountains in severe cold, stalked by soldiers and wild animals. Having nothing to eat, he felt extreme hunger. Near the Turkish border Eyvazian was robbed by one of his guides and later, in Turkey, thrown in jail. He eventually bribed a jail official for his freedom with money hidden in secret pockets his mother had sewn into his Levi's 501s.

He went to L.A. to live with his uncle, who told him about a “help wanted” sign at a neighborhood Jack in the Box.

Eyvazian spoke no English. At work, “they'd tell me to do something and I'd maybe do the opposite,” he said. He signed up for ESL night classes.

Eager to learn, he offered to fill in for the fry cook when he called in sick.

Another day he took orders.

“I was so excited,” Eyvazian said. “I thought, ‘If only my mom and dad could see me, speaking to people, handling dollars and putting them into the register.' ”

Recognizing his work ethic, his supervisors promoted him to team leader, assistant manager and then manager.

He next got a corporate job, auditing restaurants for quality, food safety and cleanliness. He was then promoted to manager of guest service systems, overseeing 677 restaurants.

Through a company tui­tion reimbursement program he earned an undergraduate degree at night, and later an MBA. He bought a few houses in California and, with good timing, sold them at a big profit.

He and Yadav became franchisees of 10 Jack in the Boxes in Sacramento in 2005. Two years later, Eyvazian moved to Houston after he and Yadav acquired their first restaurants here. Their 49 area restaurants, in the southwest part of town, are almost a quarter of the 214 Jack in the Boxes in the Houston area.

‘You can't make mistakes'

The biggest challenge in his franchise business is operating at low profit margins, which means “you can't make mistakes,” Eyvazian said.

He cited several advantages. The chain has almost a cult following, he said, because of its irreverent commercials and the diversity of its menu, which includes grilled sandwiches, teriyaki bowls, burgers, salads, smoothies, shakes and coffee drinks,

The company also has an exceptional satellite communications system linking corporate headquarters and each store, he said.

Eyvazian wouldn't comment on his franchises' performance beyond “we're doing good.” The company asks franchisees not to disclose financial details, he said.

The average cost of a franchise is $622,000, company spokesman Brian Luscomb said.

As a public company, Jack in the Box has seen recent sales declines. In its February first quarter report, the company reported a same-store sales decline of 11 percent. However, Jeff Omohundro, senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, believes the last quarter may mark the low point and predicted annualized growth of 13 percent for the company over the next three to five years.

“Jack in the Box differentiates itself in the highly competitive quick-service segment through innovative product development and marketing,” Omohundro wrote in a report.

Same meal still a favorite

Eyvazian said he can't imagine parting ways with the fast-food chain.

“My molecules have Jack in the Box in them, actually,” he said. “If you look at what they've done for me — I'm the first person in my family with a college degree, and it's because of them.”

Asked to name his favorite Jack in the Box meal, he replied, “Jumbo Jack and fries.” His tastes haven't changed from his days as a janitor, when he'd get a Jumbo Jack, fries and a Coke and “feel like a real American. If I had extra money I'd get a shake.”

Eyvazian works 70 hours a week, sometimes taking his children, Emma, 12, and Ethan, 8, to the office. They both show interest in the business, he said.

When his son's third-grade teacher asked her students what they wanted to be when they grow up, Ethan said: “I want to work for Jack in the Box. I want to be like my dad.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6963082.html

I met a guy about 5 years ago who came from Iran, and spent months living in his car, now he own a fairly large flooring business and seems to be doing very well for himself.

Good post Peejay

[Niels Bohr 72]

The economy of today is not the same. We're going through a global market. In order for companies to compete, they must be able to compete for laborers who are quite skillful in their discipline.