Matthew Buckley Check6-llc.com
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John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods (WFMI), recently offered his opinion on the healthcare debate. And he’s paying for it.

On August 11th he wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal offering potential alternatives to current proposals. He provided reasoned and well thought out commentary while not directly attacking any current plan.

John Mackey has built a highly successful company from scratch. In 1978 he started his career by working out of his garage in Austin. He opened the first Whole Foods store in 1980 with 19 employees and it has grown to over 270 stores in North America and the UK and has a loyal customer base.

Mackey has significant experience running a large organization with all the complexities and responsibilities from profitability to employee benefits. One would think that people in power would listen to someone with practical experience as opposed to many of our career politicians who have never spent one day in the business world.

You would think.

Early in this health care/health insurance (I’ve lost track of which one) debate, the President requested input from business leaders such as Mackey. But instead of appreciating his perspective, forces supporting the government running 16% of our economy have attacked Mackey and pushed for a boycott of Whole Foods. Instead of looking at the merits of his points, he was attacked.

Far too often in the business world I’ve encountered leaders who lack conviction or fail to speak up when they feel strongly about an issue. In my book, this is a guy that stands for something. A leader that stands for something more often than not leads a good team and runs a tight organization.

I’ll admit to not being a current Whole Foods customer. I believe I visited a store in Fort Worth a couple of times and was very impressed. It was clean, well stocked, the food I ordered was fresh and the employees were friendly and motivated. My impression that the store was only for sandal-wearing, arugula-eating tree huggers was forever changed.

Whole Foods recently opened a store in the Chicago suburb where I live and I plan to be a regular customer going forward. I believe Mackey is a solid leader and Whole Foods is destined for further success, fizzled boycott aside. After hitting bottom in February at $9.29, the stock has rallied to just under $30. Over the past three months it appears the stock has found a base in the mid to upper 20’s. A bullish investor might look at the Oct 28/27 bull put spread for .33. With ATM volatility at 40.27%, there’s a 61% probability of the stock finishing above the breakeven of 27.67.

But if an investor is not a Mackey or Whole Foods fan and thinks the stock is a little too ripe at this point, the Oct 31/32 bear call spread for .31 might be an option. Doing some MIP (math in public), there’s a 67% probability of the stock finishing below the breakeven of 31.30.

Full disclosure: My wife will be the one patronizing Whole Foods…I don’t think I’m allowed to do the food shopping after the last time I came home with candy, pizza, beer, and a People magazine.

Matthew "Whiz" Buckley is the Managing Partner of Check6 LLC, a business-consulting firm specializing in leadership development, risk management, and strategic planning for Fortune 500 companies and related organizations. Whiz flew the F/A-18 Hornet for the U.S. Navy. He's a graduate of TOPGUN, has close to 400 carrier landings, and flew 44 combat sorties over Iraq. He transitioned to the business world after he was scheduled to fly his first flight as an airline pilot on 9/11. Instead, he ended up flying combat air patrol over the U.S. He rose rapidly though corporate America, starting as Managing Director of Strategy at PEAK6 Investments, to CEO of the Options News Network. He is an internationally recognized speaker and combined his unprecedented experiences in the military and corporate America in the writing of From Sea Level to C Level. You can follow Whiz on Twitter.