After starting as CEO of Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants in mid-February, Frances Allen quickly began implementing her “first 100 days” plan for the Tampa, Fla.-based quick-service chain.

The former leader of Boston Market was in a “listen and learn” mode, getting to know the brand by working at restaurants cooking burgers and traveling around to different markets to meet operators, she said during NRN’s Extra Serving podcast.

But by day 11 on the job, she tossed her playbook aside as she saw a crisis in the making. It was Feb. 28, around the same time the Centers for Disease Control had identified the first case of suspected local transmission in the United States.