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Steak’N Shake Has Answer for America’s Broken Corporate Governance System

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Steak’N Shake Has the Answer for America’s Broken Corporate Governance System.

This summer, Steak’N Shake supported the American team in the World Cup, showing off their patriotism and love for the USA.

Steak’N Shake doubled down on Team America and offered 20-cent shakes if the US beat Australia.

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What a great company – support your local Steak’N Shake on Saturday – the US won!!

This week, the leaders at Steak’n Shake shared their thoughts on how to deal with the broken corporate governance system.

America’s corporate governance system is broken, and it’s killing public companies. Look no further than Cracker Barrel: Decades of brutal mismanagement have seen one incompetent CEO after another walk away with a massive paycheck while customers and actual shareholders take a beating.

Why does this keep happening? Because proxy advisory firms like ISS are corrupt. They blindly rubber-stamp failing boards year after year, protecting the corporate elite while burning shareholder value to the ground.

The root of the rot is index funds. There’s no question that indexing one’s money is a smart financial move for most people. But just because you passively index your investments doesn’t mean your corporate votes should be handed over to the managers of your fund so they can play politics. Right now, passive funds hold massive, unchecked voting blocks while having zero skin in the game themselves.

It is time for a simple rewrite of the rules: We need to index the votes of index fund investors.

Passive index funds should be forced to automatically split their votes to proportionately mirror those of retail and active institutional shareholders — the people actually doing the research, risking their capital, and fighting for performance in the companies they hold shares in. No more rubber-stamping. A change like this will immediately strip corrupt gatekeepers like ISS of their toxic influence.

True accountability happens when lazy, overpaid boards actually answer to the stakeholders they represent, rather than screwing them over.

Actual, logic-driven governance when your money is passive happens when your vote passively follows the voting decisions of the actual market.

We need to stop letting passive capital protect active incompetence. By stripping index funds of their arbitrary voting power and empowering engaged investors, we will finally torch corporate cronyism and usher American capital markets into a golden age of capitalism.

What a great idea from the leaders of a great company.

114 thoughts on “Steak’N Shake Has Answer for America’s Broken Corporate Governance System”

  2. im glad that they are going the correct way. wish others would already. however, i wont be going there. not gonna pay 20 dollars for the worlds thinnest paper-thin hamburger. i do wish them luck. if they ever decide to also give someone their moneys worth in a real sized burger id be more then happy to visit their place.

    • THEY WERE IN TROUBLE FOR A WHILE AND PULLED OUT OF IT. FOOD IS JUST AS EXPENSIVE FOR THEM AS IT IS FOR YOU SO GOING WITH REAL FOOD IS A BATTLE FOR ALL OF US. REAL BEEF TALLOW FRIES AND ACTUAL INGREDIENTS ARE GOING TO BE MORE EXPENSIVE BUT ITS WORTH IT IF YOU ARE GOING TO EAT FAST FOOD.IMHO …THAT IS ;'))

    • From a quick search:

      Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is the world’s largest proxy advisory firm, holding approximately 48% of the U.S. market and a combined ~90–97% duopoly share with rival Glass Lewis. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, ISS provides proxy voting recommendations, corporate governance research, and ESG data to institutional investors such as mutual funds, hedge funds, and pension funds.

      They have nothing to loose and everything to gain when making their decisions.
      Most likely receiving kick backs or payoffs under the table as well as their massive fees.

  6. The sky in that photo is chock full of chem shit.. they’re trying to normalize the poisoning of every living organism in the Occident.

      • Read chemtrails exposed, and go to the website of the same name. There you’ll see pics posted daily from around the world of heavy chemical spraying.
        It’s all about weather weapons.. they are much more powerful than nukes. This is the new Manhattan Project. This is not a drill.

          • Ok.. don’t look.. we all have a choice. The people telling you those are contrails are the same ones that told you, ‘safe and effective’.

            You said Cirrus clouds? Those are at 20 to 40,000 ft elevation. They spray us at around 12,000 ft, which is what you’re seeing in the picture. I didn’t believe it either.

            Make no mistake, you are breathing in metallic alloy aerosols, coal fly ash and many other substances. Take a chance and look at it for yourself, or go on X and see pictures and videos.I truly wish it was bullshit, but sadly, it’s real and has been going onfor decades.

  7. This is the same company that got caught raising your order cost if you did not tip them when you paid for your order.

      • Anyone who talks in all caps is a total moron and will be blocked. That is you, Flash. And to my point, it was all over the news. Steak and Shake also DID IT TO ME! So don’t sit there lying in your mother’s basement about what I personally have experienced. BLOCKED.

    • YOU ARE THE FIRST POSITIVE COMMENT HERE. EVERYONE ELSE SEEMSTO WANT TO MAKE A PERSONAL STATEMENT ABOUT THE NEGATIVE….STAKE AND SHAKE MAY WANNA THROW IN THE TOWEL IF THESE PEOPLE ARE THE ONES THEY THINK ARE AMERICAN.

      I LOVE AND SUPPORT YOUR STATEMENT. THANK YOU IT WAS UPLIFTING. ;))

      • I had the same problem. I hit the "caps lock" key, and then looked all over for the "caps unlock" key, but I couldn't find it. I went around for a week shouting all over social media.

        As it turned out, the cap unlock key is also the cap lock key. I know it doesn't say that, but it's true at least on my keyboard. Try it. I think it will work.

    • It sounds great on the surface but consider that the typical mutual fund / ETF has HUNDREDS of companies in them. Additionally, almost every person that invests in these funds has practically no idea which companies are in the fund let alone has researched diddlysquat the fund itself, let alone the companies within the fund.

      Pragmatically this would be a huge problem due to the ignorance of the ultimate owners of that stock. Over my years in the industry I've had not a few people tell me they wanted a fund manager to add or remove a specific company from the fund.

      I agree that corporate governance is broken with the vast majority of company shares owned by fund companies. Maybe a good solution would be to leave the election of board members to the employees of the company, the population most affected by the success of the company.

    • This is a huge issue that has been below the radar. Index funds should NOT have the proxy voting rights. This is a real issue that government should fix.

  10. I do wish there were more Steak and Shakes near me. The only one within 50 miles is at the big airport…

    But we have the inferior copy, Shake Shack.

  11. Passive index funds should be forced to automatically split their votes to proportionately mirror those of retail and active institutional shareholders — the people actually doing the research, risking their capital, and fighting for performance in the companies they hold shares in. No more rubber-stamping. A change like this will immediately strip corrupt gatekeepers like ISS of their toxic influence.

    I hadn't thought of this. In addition to individual investments, I have a lot of money in indexed funds from two different retirement funds. S&S is right.

  12. Great template! Now, overlay that onto the federal government and get rid of the incompetent nincompoops in Congress, replacing them with people who give a crap.

  15. Communist creep. Long march through the institutions. Brought to you by the most dangerous trait in the history of humans — cowardice.

  18. Boards are sinecures for connected, entitled elitists who think they are smarter than everyone else, so they think they should have an outsized say over what happens to we hoi polloi while they cash their outsized, unearned paychecks. Somehow, activist boards need to be held accountable for their decisions by those who actually have skin in the game.

  20. I'd eat at S&S more often but I don't want to waste 30 minutes of my time trying to figure out those damn inhuman kiosks and why the soda pop machine won't give me my drink!

    • MORE PROSECUTION OF EXISTING LAWS ANTI TRUST ETC. CURRENTLY PROSECUTION ARE CASH GRABS AND REGULATIONS ARE PURCHASED.FREE MARKETS ARE CAPILALISM WHAT WE HAVE NOW ARE NOT FREE MARKETS THEY A MANIPULATED MARKETS WHILE THE FEDS CASH IN WE SEE INFLATED PRICES AND NO CHOICES.
      LESS CHOICES STEAL OUR VOTING POWER B/C WE BUT FROM THEM LIKE IT OR NOT.
      SAFEWAY OWNS ALL GROCERIES SAMS AND COSTCO OWN THE OTHER HALF.
      MOST RESTAURANTS ARE CHAIN GROUPS
      BRINKER GROUP…SYSCO IS THE FOOD DELIVERY FOR MOST RESTAURANTS AND GROUPS PRICE THE SMALLER PLACES OUT OF EXISTENCE.

      OUR CHOICES ARE RULED BY SUITE AND OUR MONEY BELONGS TO THEM….THAT IS NOT A FREE MARKET.

  23. Sounds good. It seems to me that also monopolies have not been broken up. Especially since the tech trend started. I would rather have several companies to choose from rather than one big one. Competitive pricing can return. If they have made their money by simply acquiring companies like Blackrock, they need to be broken again like we used to. Elon uses his money to innovate and is positive to our national growth. But these others are destroying our free economy and forcing us to pay what they want, not what we want.

  24. Wronnngggg…….

    It all starts in business management 101 in woke marxist colleges….

    Where the hell you think Cracker Barrel's woke idiot CEO was trained?….

    • LISTEN PORCFAT…WADDLE YOUR LARGESS INTO THE STORE.
      DID THE ARTICLE CONFUSE YOU OR DID YOU JUST GET THE PORCSWEATS WHILE EATING YOUR PECAN PIE.
      STAY ON TOPIC AND ADD TO THE CONVERSATION OR LET THE ADULTS TALK.

  27. Gas prices were much higher under Biden than under 'TRUMP'. So were almost all other prices. President DJT.

    This was a recent TRUTH that Trump posted. He lies all the time now. They need to remove him from office.

  28. Nice idea, but probably difficult to carry out. One obstacle is that mutual funds can invest in other mutual funds, so that the index fund would need to inform such other funds, and those funds would need to inform their investors.
    Also, wouldn't this apply to all mutual funds, not just index funds. The largest shareholders of most corporations are mutual funds. For example, the largest shareholder of ExxonMobil is the Blackrock Group, which owns nearly 8% of the stock. Those Blackrock funds are held by thousands of people. All of them would need to be consulted.

  29. Here's the solution: Don't take any ideas from my generation, the Millennials. I remember looking around my high school and thinking, "If this is the future workforce of America, then we're screwed." And it sure looks like I was right.

  30. Proxy voting is an Alinsky tool.

    It is more of the reason why Democrats kowtow to the unions than the funding. Large pension assets → large equity positions → substantial proxy votes → influence over director elections and corporate policy.

    Control the proxy vote control the BOD and a company becomes "Woke."

  32. Excellent analysis and commentary!

    I have come to the view that small investors should have board seats that only they select so that small investors actually have designated representation on corporate governance boards.

  33. HERE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM:
    "Limited to one milkshake per customer."

    HERE IS A GREAT COMPANY TRYING TO DO SOMETHING GREAT FOR AMERICA….BUT IT HAS TO COME WITH A CAP DISCLOSURE SO PEOPLE DONT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEIR WONDERFUL GENEROSITY AND A CLEAR LOSS JUST HELP TO SUPPORT AMERICA AND AMERICAN VALUES….AT A FINANCIAL LOSS AND MAYBE SHOW US HOW WE ARE SUPPOSED TO THINK LIKE.
    LETS DO BETTER AMERICA…NOT ONLY CAN WE…… BUT WE DESERVE TO DO BETTER FOR OURSELVES. ;)) IN MY HUMBLED OPINION…

    THANK YOU STEAL AND SHAKE BEEF TALLOW FRIES AND REAL FOOD….REAL AMERICAN VALUES…

    • The capitalist system only works properly when morals are had.
      Much like the US Constitution allowing freedoms.

      Immoral grifters take advantage of the 'unintentional' loopholes if not closed for every such loophole.
      The founding fathers could have never foreseen todays world and the SCOTUS does not always seem to uphold the full intent of the US Constitution…and every contract is suppsed to be judged on it's intent.

      This is why your cellphone and other contracts are dozens of pages of the smallest font they can find.

      • DO THE RIGHT THING GETS ZERO POSITIVE RESPONSE EVEN FROM THOSE YOU HELP. YOU DO THE RIGHT THING BECAUSE ITS WHAT GOOD PEOPLE DO. EVENTUALLY IT BECOMES THE NORMAL THING TO DO, SLOWLY WE STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH THOSE 27 PAGE CONTRACTS. IT ALL STARTS WITH ONE.
        IF YOU RESPOND TO MY COMMENT WHY DONT YOU UP VOTE IT…SCOTUS EDIT YOURS…SIR. IT WAS MISSPELLED ;))

        • Uh, thanks for the catch on the mis label…
          You may want to check your first post for spelling…
          And of course your CAPS lock seems to be stuck…
          I generally do not respond to all caps posts.

          As far as "…SLOWLY WE STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH THOSE 27 PAGE CONTRACTS…"

          It is almost an impossibility today.
          You will not have a cell phone, auto loan, home loan, credit card, bank account or even a job if you refuse the legalese.
          If you do not sign on off on the arbitration and all the other 'requirements', they simply refuse to give you service or product.

          And yes, it is due to all the litigation allowed today…much of it frivolous.
          Case in point, the woman who sued McDonalds because her coffee was hot…ridiculous…civil suits against victims by criminals, even after convicted of a crime are ridiculous.

    • I don't blame them for putting a limit on it. When Wawa opened a new store in my community they offered free coffee. People came in with gallon containers all day long. The manager finally said enough and shut it down. Greedy no good folks can't just get a 8-12 ounce cup and say thanks.

          • YOU WENT ON TO CORRECT ME WHEN THE COMMENT NEVER SAID THERE SHOULD NOT BE A LIMIT. THE WHOLE POINT WAS TO POINT OUT THAT THEY SHOULD NOT NEED TO PUT A LIMIT ON SOMETHING THAT WAS A GIFT AND A THANK YOU TO THEIR CUSTOMERS TO SHOW GRATITUDE FOR AMERICAN VALUES. WHILE SUPPORTING OUR TEAM REPRESENTING AMERICA. THE WHOLE POINT OF THE ARTICLE WAS HOW CORPORATE GREED IS KILLING THEIR BRANDS INSTEAD OF GROWING IN AND WITH AMERICA.

            AS I SAID READ IT AGAIN. WHILE YOU ARE AT IT READ THE ARTICLE AS WELL. I ALWAYS SUPPORT YOUR POSTS AFTER READING THEM AND ALMOST ALWAYS AGREE AND HAVE NEVER DOWN VOTED OR SAID ANYTHING NEGATIVE TO OR ABOUT YOU ….EVER.

          • No one was correcting you. The whole point was to support what you were saying. People take advantage when there aren’t any limits. Wawa didn’t have a limit, it just said “free coffee today”. Folks took major advantage of that by stealing gallons of it and causing the manager to stop the free coffee early. You took it to mean something else and called me a “tool.” I don’t take to being called names.

          • YOU LEFT OUT
            I don't blame them for putting a limit on it.
            A LITERATE PERSON WOULD TAKE OFFENCE TO YOU STATING "I DONT BLAME THEM"…..
            *WHERE IN MY POST DID I BLAME STEAKN SHAKE?
            * WHERE IN YOUR POST DID YOU AGREE WITH ME ?
            *WHAT PART OF YOUR POST WAS IN SUPPORT OF MY POST?
            JUST APOLOGIZE AND MOVE ON… YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SLIP THIS ONE BY ANYONE. ADMIT YOU WERE WRONG AND I WILL APOLOGIZE FOR SNAPPING AT YOU.

          • SAYS THE HEAD SPHINCTER AT THE GLORYHOLE. DO YOU WONDER WHY SHE LEFT OR DID YOU FINALLY LISTEN WHEN THE BANK ACCOUNTS WERE EMPTY AND YOU HAD TO START OVER JUNK MAN. I EVEN GAVE YOU AN OUT…TOOL.

          • There you go showing your IQ level. You need better communication skills. I don’t need an out from a drip like you. You make assumptions about things you know nothing about. I’ve been married to the same woman for 53 years and the bank account is doing fine. Now find someone weak that you can insult with your childishness.

  35. I recently ordered several cans of Steak n Shake chili and was horrified to see1.5g of TRANS FAT. Great marketing, but WTH? It is delicious, but WTH?

  36. Trump is now polling worse than Hitler. (29% of Americans approve of Trump and 65% of Americans think Hitler was completely bad)

    • THEN 65% OF AMERICANS ARE WRONG. TRUMP HAS HIT ME WRONG FOR QUITE SOME TIME BUT HE IS MY PRESIDENT AND I REFUSE TO LET ANTI AMERICANS TAKE SHOTS AT HIM WITH OUT ANY PROOF OR REASONS. YOU JUST WANT AMERICANS TO HATE OUR PRESIDENT WHILE YOU SLOBBER ON KNOBS OF THE SOCIALIST

      • He has done enough on his own for those to hate him. He is the most corrupt person ever to hold office and he has dementia and his brain is going to mush like his father. We can only hope he is removed from power before he does something even worse than what he has already done.

  37. When I lived in Indy there was a Steak and Shake about a quarter mile from my condo. Being single and working all day, I chose to stop in at least twice if not more each week to grab dinner on the way home. Staff was always friendly, food was consistently good and best thing I didn't have to cook or clean up afterwards.

  39. Look at the DEI idiots, many of them women, running what used to be, icons of business into the ground. They feel woke politics and social justice wins out over competent business practices and simply a good product at a decent price, with good customer service, the hallmarks of the successful business world. They ruined Nike, Cracker Barrel, the mortgage and housing industry and many more companies coming to a town near you. Nice job corporate world, just look at Steak N Shake to learn what makes a good outfit before you run a solid business into the ground next time..

  41. I question the efficacy of most Boards of Directors. Take Boeing for example. What part has the BOD taken in the destruction of the once preeminent aerospace company on the planet? Boeing has been wallowing in mismanagement and misdirection for years while the BOD has done what? Collect cash and ego massages for being on the Board?

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