Among his duties as CEO of Dippin’ Dots, Edmond resident Scott Fischer can now list wearing theatrical makeup and a fake beard. On January 22, Fischer will be the featured boss on CBS’s Emmy-winning reality series “Undercover Boss.”
“It was a very intense experience,” Fischer said. “We shot for about seven days total, and it was a remarkable opportunity to get genuine feedback from people. Honestly, it’s a priceless experience.”
Fischer acquired Dippin’ Dots out of bankruptcy in 2012, and since that time he’s grown a business with $300 million in gross annual sales. During the acquisition, he managed to maintain one hundred percent of the personnel, and the brand is now more than a dozen countries, including China and Russia, and all 50 states.
“Hearing ‘I love the brand’ from people who didn’t know they were talking to me was really good stuff,” Fischer said. “I also met people who had similar experiences to me, and we shared powerful emotional moments.”
To manage the undercover part, Fischer sat for makeup every morning, and then for another hour just to take everything off at the end of a shooting day. The crew shot locations from East to West Coast, so Fischer interacted with employees all over the country.
“I was familiar with the show—actually a fan in some ways,” he said. “I love to see the culture and mechanics of different businesses. When the producers approached me about being on, they said they were looking for the sort of brand familiarity and fun culture represented by Dippin’ Dots.”
The rapid growth of the company has created “leaks in the boat” that are inevitable when a company expands every year, according to Fischer. “There are challenges and opportunities that come with that rate of growth, and the show also provided us a chance to help fix the leaks in the boat.”
All reality shows are scripted to some degree—if only in choosing a location, living facility or members of the cast—but Fischer said most of the scripting in “Undercover Boss” had to do with creating scenarios to allow genuine responses for Fischer and his team.
“I didn’t want to participate if it was all going to be scripted, including the responses,” Fischer said. “But it was important to the producers to get genuine responses, too, so what you’ll see on the show is good emotional content, raw emotions and genuine reactions.”
The program airs on local CBS affiliate KWTV on Wednesday, January 22 at 7 p.m. local time.
