• Troy Bader had to pass an interview with Warren Buffett to land his job as Dairy Queen CEO.
• Bader told BI he was struck by the investor's desire to keep learning and his emphasis on passion.
• Buffett, 94, continues to pay close attention to Berkshire Hathaway's businesses, Bader said.

Warren Buffett won't be conducting many job interviews once he steps down as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO at the end of this year.

Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader revealed what it's like to be grilled by the legendary investor, and shared two big takeaways from the experience, in a conversation with Business Insider in Omaha ahead of Berkshire Hathaway's historic 60th annual meeting.

Berkshire paid nearly $600 million to take Dairy Queen private in 1998. As a big fan of the chain's Blizzard soft-serve ice cream, Buffett joked at the time that he brought a "modicum of product expertise" to the deal.

Dairy Queen now develops, licenses, and services a system of more than 7,700 restaurants across more than 20 countries, according to its website.

'Very anxious'

Bader flew from Minneapolis to Omaha to interview for the company's top job. He recalled feeling a mixture of worry, anticipation, and excitement as he studied his notes before the meeting.

"It was the fall of 2017, I'll never forget the day," Bader told BI. "I was very anxious going in because OK, I felt like I knew our business, but you're sitting down with Warren Buffett."

"What questions is he going to have about our business that I'm just going to sit there and be like, 'Oh my gosh, I never even thought about this,'" he added.

Many people of Buffett's stature would be "very arrogant" in an interview, sending the message: "Here's who I am and you better impress me," Bader said.

"From Warren it was just the opposite," he continued. Buffett swiftly put him at ease, then spent the first 15 or 20 minutes of their conversation asking about a particular area he thought Bader might know something about, as it was relevant to another deal he was working on.

"Warren is a constant learner," Bader said. "He wants to know what you know and what he can learn from you."

The fast-food chief took away a big lesson from that: "Anybody you meet, I don't care who they are — they know something you don't."

Passion and ethics

Buffett probed Bader's knowledge of the restaurant business, his vision for Dairy Queen, and what he planned to do differently as the chain's CEO. He also gauged Bader's love for his work.

Buffett was "digging for something more, that energy, that passion, that connection to the business," Bader said.

That revelation sparked his second key takeaway. Even the "smartest person in the world" won't be as capable or perform as well as "somebody who has that passion."

Berkshire's 94-year-old boss echoed that sentiment during his recent Q&A: "What you're really looking for in life is something where you've got a job that you'd hold if you didn't need the money."

Bader said that Buffett, who is known for prizing ethics and reputation, likely assessed his character by speaking to his predecessor and others who knew him.

"As he always says, 'There's plenty of room to play in the middle of the court. We don't need to get to the edges,'" Bader said.

On the subject of his morals, Buffett "probably had that answered before I ever got in the door," Bader said. He added that "if there was any question about that, I'm not so sure I would've been in Omaha in his office."

Buffett made a similar point in the lead-up to his surprise resignation announcement. He said it "just doesn't work over time" to have managers who don't abide by the standards they set for their employees.

"So, you really need someone that behaves well on top and is not playing games for their own benefit," the billionaire philanthropist said.

Love for the job

Buffett stopped by Dairy Queen's booth to catch up with Bader a few hours before BI interviewed him.

Bader highlighted strong first-quarter sales figures to the outgoing CEO, and Buffett said he'd seen those in the subsidiary's reports.

"Dairy Queen's not a big part of Berkshire, but he's actually paying attention to every business," Bader told BI. "This is his life, this is who he is."

• Hulk Hogan's beer brand is planning a bid for Hooters' intellectual property.
• The bid would allow Hogan's Real American Beer to make Hooters-themed merchandise, a person said.
• Both the wrestler and the restaurant got their start in Clearwater, Florida.

Weeks after Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy, the brand could be close to getting a lifeline from a longtime fan: the wrestling legend Hulk Hogan.

Real American Beer, a brand Hogan founded in 2024, plans to submit a bid for Hooters' intellectual property soon, a person familiar with the company's plans told Business Insider.

If a bid was successful, it would allow Hogan and Real American Beer to create Hooters-branded merchandise, such as food and beverages, that it could distribute at restaurants, including Hooters locations, as well as at retailers and entertainment and gaming venues, the person said.

Real American could license the Hooters name back to the restaurants under the potential deal, this person said. Hogan's company isn't interested in acquiring or operating the restaurants, they added.

The bid would need to be approved by the parties overseeing Hooters' bankruptcy. The person familiar with the plan declined to say how much the bid would be worth, but said it would be an all-cash offer. The deal is in flux, and terms and potential buyers could change.

Hooters of America, one of two companies that operate Hooters restaurants in the US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. The company is owned by the private equity firms Nord Bay Capital and TriArtisan Capital Advisors.

Hooters of America's restaurants are still open during the bankruptcy process. The company plans to sell some of its locations to franchisees who opened the first locations in the 1980s.

Hogan and Hooters have a relationship going back decades.

The chain's founders opened its first location in Clearwater, Florida — the same city where Hogan was born and raised. It's also where Hogan raised his family, and he still owns houses and attends church in the area.

Hogan also appeared at one of the restaurant chain's locations last year to film a stunt where he threw the TikToker Frankie Lapenna into a table, complete with a tablecloth featuring the chain's logo.

Hooters was also one of the first places that Real American distributed its beer after launching in 2024.

"Hooters has always been a big part of his life," the person familiar with Real American Beer's plans told BI.

If a bid is successful, Real American Beer could distribute Hooters products using the same distributors it already uses for its beer. Real American distributes beer at Walmart in 28 states, as well as at supermarkets including Albertsons.

While his brand might not be interested in Hooters' locations, Hogan does have restaurant experience. He oversees Hogan's Hangout, a restaurant near the beach in Clearwater.

In the 1990s, he also opened a now-defunct restaurant called Pastamania in the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

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• Malcolm Wood, now 43, co-founded Maximal Concepts, the group behind Mott 32, a modern spin on high-end Cantonese cuisine.
• After launching in Hong Kong, Mott 32 has expanded globally to cities including Las Vegas, Singapore, Dubai, and Vancouver.
• Wood says that extreme sports have helped fuel his success.

For some, clarity comes in moments of stillness. For Malcolm Wood, it's usually the opposite.

"A casual morning for me would include going up 1,000 meters into the mountains, speed flying back to the field in front of my house, and hopping on a phone call by 9 a.m.," Wood told Business Insider.

Wood is best known for his work with Mott 32, a Chinese fine-dining brand recognized for its striking design and modern spin on traditional dishes. The first location opened in Hong Kong in 2014 and has since expanded to cities like Las Vegas, Singapore, and Vancouver — earning global buzz both for the food and the decor.

These days, the British-Chinese entrepreneur splits his time between Hong Kong, where he co-founded Maximal Concepts, the restaurant group behind Mott 32, and France, where he enjoys extreme sports near his home in the French Alps.

Wood, 43, says that adventure and extreme sports have taught him about risk management.

"They demand an intense level of focus, almost like entering a flow state, where distractions disappear, and precision takes over," he said. In some ways, it's a form of active meditation. "I'm constantly pushing limits while staying fully present."

East, West, East

Born in Taipei to a Taiwanese mom and an English dad, Wood spent the early '80s in Hong Kong. Because his stepfather was in the airline industry, the family frequently moved to new countries. By the time he started university, he had lived in eight countries.

At 18, as an art history student at the University of Bristol in England, Wood met Matt Reid. In their first year of school, the two launched Liquid Promotions, an events company.

Wood said they hosted parties for up to 5,000 people while they were in college. "The money was very good for a student and helped to shape how I approached entrepreneurship," he said.

They have been business partners ever since.

Reid has compared Wood's business acumen to his passion for extreme sports. "You map out your plan, your teammates, your resources, your skills, and then execute this plan," Reid told BI.

The great expansion

After getting a master's in finance at the University of London, Wood moved to Hong Kong, where he and Reid started Maximal Concepts. After a few failed attempts, the hospitality group opened the first Mott 32.

Now, Maximal Concepts has a team of about 700 people.

The Hong Kong food writer Gloria Chung told BI that the restaurant stood out from the beginning, adding that a decade back, there was nothing like it: "Mott 32 was one of the first fine-dining modern Chinese restaurants that embraced a more Westernized setting, offering a refreshing take on Cantonese cuisine."

From the start, Mott 32 stood out by bridging the gap between luxurious fine dining, often associated with Western cuisines, and the no-frills dim sum parlors that dominated the streets of Hong Kong.

Over the last 10 years, the Cantonese restaurant has expanded to nine locations and nine more are scheduled to open in the coming years, including in London, Melbourne, and Los Angeles.

These days, Mott 32 has become synonymous with upscale Chinese dining — a go-to spot where execs take clients to impress. The Hong Kong flagship is tucked in the basement of a historic bank building.

The restaurant has a dramatic interior — plush leather, moody lighting, and a Shanghai-industrial flair. Popular dishes include the applewood-roasted Peking duck and pork and black truffle dumplings, along with blinged-out cocktails.

In 2018, the first US restaurant opened in Las Vegas.

Prices at the Vegas venue now range from $13 for spring rolls to around $15 for four pieces of dim sum. They can also go up to $268 for A5 Japanese Miyazaki wagyu with black bean paste and $598 for braised dried abalone.

Maximal Concepts also opened The Aubrey — an izakaya at the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong. It was ranked 10th on the 2024 Asia's 50 Best Bars list.

Last year, Sunset Hospitality Group, a Dubai-based lifestyle hospitality company, acquired a majority stake in Maximal Concepts.

Wood says this will help to accelerate the company's growth and infrastructure. "The idea is that we join Sunset's IPO in a few years where we have a significant contribution to the offering."

Antonio Gonzalez, the CEO and Group Chairman of Sunset Hospitality Group, told BI that Maximal Concepts' hospitality approach fits well with SHG's values and growth goals. "This investment provides us with additional operating and creative firepower," he said in a statement.

Asian origins

When it comes to upscale Asian global dining empires, Mott 32 is in competitive company among the likes of Hakkasan, Zuma, and Nobu.

But while Hakkasan and Zuma opened in London, and Nobu started in New York City, Wood takes pride in Mott 32's Asian origins.

"Mott 32 is one of the few luxury Asian brands to have originated from Asia," he said. "We're really proud that it originated in Hong Kong."

The restaurant helped to give a different perspective on Chinese food, said Chung, the food writer: "Many people often think Chinese food doesn't deserve to be priced at a premium, yet Mott 32 played a pivotal role in changing that perception."

Wood chose to base his F&B business in Hong Kong largely because of the opportunities. "It really is an entrepreneurial city with influences from all around the world," he said. "The city just works — super efficient, based on UK law, and some of the best global tax in the world for corporations."

His roots play an important role, too. "My mom still lives there, so it's always felt like home," he said.

Challenges along the way

After 25 years in business, Wood says he has no regrets. "When you're younger, you trust everyone until they burn you. Then you start learning," he said.

During COVID-19 and the Hong Kong protests, he had to close down and sell multiple venues. "I wouldn't be the business person I am today without these lessons."

His advice to his younger self?

"Have a thick skin. Don't worry about what others think. The right partnership adds value; the wrong one drags you down — choose wisely."

The power of planning ahead

Balancing multiple ventures while prioritizing family — he and his wife, Sandra, have three kids, now 21, 10, and 5 — has taught Wood the power of planning ahead.

"I tell my managers: spend the first 20% of your week organizing the rest. Otherwise, that 80% turns into 200%."

Wood doesn't stick to set working hours but plans his week every Sunday at 5 a.m. "If you want to make time for your family, you can. It's all about optimizing your schedule," he said.

Every year, he sets a goal to learn something, from obtaining his yacht master's certification in the Mediterranean to earning a private pilot's license in Spain and France.

This year, he's focusing on learning French. He also plans to complete specialized training so that he's qualified to land a plane in the Alps.

"If you let life slip away and keep a to-do list for retirement, that's the wrong approach entirely," he said. "Your life should enable you to do the things you love."

• Starbucks is planning to use zero-based budgeting starting during its next fiscal year.
• The coffee chain is trying to cut expenses to pay for its turnaround efforts.
• Other companies have used zero-based budgeting, though some appear to have cut perks too deeply.

Starbucks is planning to use a cost-cutting method with a tough reputation as it continues its turnaround.

The method, called zero-based budgeting, asks managers to justify every dollar they spend each year instead of using the previous year's spending as a baseline, as many companies do.

Starbucks executives say ZBB will help them find savings as they spend more on their Back to Starbucks plan, including paying for more hours for the baristas who staff its stores.

"We're going to be looking at ways to grow the business and also take a really hard look through the zero-based budgeting approach to understand where else there might be some offsets," CEO Brian Niccol said during the company's earnings call on Tuesday.

"I love deploying a few tools like zero-based budgeting" to "help us get after some of those maybe-stranded costs," CFO Cathy Smith, who joined Starbucks in the last few weeks, also said on the call.

A Starbucks spokesperson did not respond to questions about how the company planned to use zero-based budgeting.

ZBB gained popularity in the 1970s, thanks in part to former president Jimmy Carter, who advocated — ultimately unsuccessfully — for its use by the federal government.

More recently, some major brands have adopted the strategy.

For instance, the private equity firm 3G Capital has deployed the method at the Stella Artois maker AB InBev and Kraft Heinz, the company that makes Oscar Mayer and Lunchables.

The strategy, which includes moves like making all senior execs fly coach class even over long distances, did lower costs and improve the companies' margins. But in some cases, the spending cuts were so severe that it made it tough for employees to do their jobs, Business Insider reported in 2021.

One employee, who had recently left Kraft Heinz, told BI at the time that she could only spend $5 annually on office supplies. She also had to bring in her own Keurig pods from home since the company, which makes Maxwell House coffee, provided no coffee in the office break room.

Other Kraft Heinz employees told BI that strict spending controls hampered the development of new products and ultimately made it less competitive.

Some companies have adopted the method at key turning points.

Managers at X, formerly known as Twitter, reportedly had to use zero-based budgeting after Elon Musk bought the company in 2022.

And in 2020, General Motors implemented ZBB to manage disruptions caused by the pandemic. The company temporarily cut spending by slashing advertising and furloughing some employees, then-CFO Dhivya Suryadevara said at an investor conference.

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• Workers are finding ways to land tips even as some Americans cut back on gratuity spending.
• Three workers said offering freebies and connecting with customers have helped them land tips.
• Some Americans are tipping less due to rising prices and frustrations about widespread tip requests.

When Maddy Joss gets a table of patrons, she typically asks if they're celebrating anything. If they are, she often offers "freebies," which could boost her chances of earning a big tip.

"You're using the restaurant's resources to get more money in your pocket," said Joss, 27, a part-time restaurant server in Brooklyn. She added that her restaurant is fairly relaxed about what freebies servers can offer — such as a dessert or drink — though other establishments can have stricter policies.

While Joss said she hasn't noticed any big changes in tipping habits — she thinks people are dining out less, which can lead to fewer tips — other servers are facing a tougher tipping environment as some Americans scale back their gratuity due to rising prices and frustrations about being asked to tip more often. Data shared with Business Insider by the point-of-sale platform Toast — drawn from more than a billion transactions at roughly 134,000 restaurants — showed that the average tip at full-service restaurants fell to 19.3% by the end of last year from 19.9% in early 2021. On a $50 meal, that means a server's tip dropped to $9.65 from $9.95.

While there's limited data on bartender tipping specifically, 53% of Americans said they always tip when buying a drink at a bar, per a Pew Research survey from 2023.

Overall, 35% of Americans said that tipping culture was out of control last year, up from 30% in 2023, per Bankrate.

Three tipped workers who spoke with BI said they rely heavily on tips because a chunk of their hourly earnings, which range from roughly $8 to $12 an hour, go toward federal and state taxes.

Making an impression on customers can help combat "tipping fatigue"

Amy Burke, a bartender in New Orleans, said that over her 30 years in the industry, she's developed some strategies to nudge people toward bigger tips.

Burke said it's easier to connect with customers and get tips if they know your name, but that introducing herself or wearing a name tag wasn't enough to make her name stick. That's why she decided to buy light-up letters from Amazon that spell out her name — and display these letters behind the bar where she works.

"It's a big conversation piece," she said of the letters. "I get a lot of compliments on them."

Burke, 49, said this strategy has helped her land tips. She estimated that 98% of her customers leave a tip and said many tip at least 20%.

Another one of Burke's favorite strategies is the stamp she puts on customers' bills that says, "Thank you :) Amy B." She said the hotel where she works encouraged staff to write a thank-you note on bills, but she thought a stamp would be faster and more personalized.

"I pop it on the bill when I hand it to people," she said. "It adds a personal touch that people appreciate."

Providing exceptional service to customers helps Lindsay Ruck, a server at a restaurant in Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport, combat some of the "tipping fatigue" she's seen in recent years.

She believes some of this tipping resistance comes from customers who are often asked to tip at more businesses. She said her restaurant provides customers with a checkout machine that suggests a tip of 18%, 20%, or 22% — and that many people choose 18%.

"They're still tipping, but they're not necessarily tipping what a lot of us consider standard, which is 20%," said the 42-year-old.

However, Ruck said she hasn't seen a significant decline in customer tipping and that, in her typical workweek, only a couple of customers don't leave a tip.

She said the key to earning big tips is building a connection with customers. Since many are travelers passing through the airport, it's often their first time at the restaurant, which provides the opportunity to offer them a unique experience.

"It's almost like being on a stage," she said. "You're guiding them through this process at a new restaurant they've probably never been to."

While some restaurants have introduced screens for placing orders, Ruck said many customers still prefer to interact with her and ask questions about the menu.

"You start to develop a relationship with these people within a 45-minute timeframe," she said. "I like to make sure that people have what they need before they think they need it."