Recipes for Success

Now and then, we all have had a cinnamon roll or two for a treat. While busy licking the sticky icing off our fingers, probably none of us would direct our thoughts to the good recipes that bring this ubiquitous snack to the marketplace. A simple product such as a cinnamon roll or a cupcake can be the basic ingredient for a success story in the baking goods business.

And Cinnabon, Inc., is one of these successful companies in the industry. This Atlanta-based franchiser was featured in the last week’s “Undercover Boss.”* It holds the right to market its name sake’s franchise that sells freshly baked cinnamon buns. According to its president, Kate Cole, her company through 9,000 franchisees sold a half billion-dollar worth of cinnamon buns each year. Evidently, even in a bad economic time like what we are facing now, business at Cinnabon’s counter continues to thrive.

Interestingly, two years ago Cinnabon added an extra ingredient in its winning mixtures. It hired Kate Cole. She, at 34 years old, is the youngest CEO ever featured on “Undercover Boss.” Her own recipe for success calls for determination and hard work. Perhaps growing up in a single-mom family had made her more resilient and a better decision maker. She, a college dropout, also has the humility to remember her many mentors who led her to becoming the president of a multimillion-dollar corporation from a Hooter girl at a Hooter’s restaurant. - Ayee

@A CBS Telelvsion Production