Cracker Barrel restaurants have been experiencing a massive customer hemorrhage and plummeting stock thanks to self-inflicted wounds.

Company leaders decided to replace the traditional rustic rather corny logo of an older fellow from the country leaning on a barrel. Enter consulting firm Prophet, which produced a sleek, symmetrical and bloodless logo. The old guy was erased. Stores were also redesigned to remove the imitation country store atmosphere in favor of a corporate-style vision.

Disaster followed. Customers vanished. Stock price nose-dived.

Cracker Barrel has fired Prophet and is frantically trying to return to its established atmosphere and imagery.

Management guru Peter Drucker would be surprised by none of this, and a massive corporate misstep is a good time to review his i

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