Long before he founded Starboard Value and became one of the most formidable activist investors on Wall Street, Jeff Smith got a phone call that sent his career in an unexpected direction: an offer to help run a fresh-squeezed orange juice company. Instead of a trading desk, Smith found himself knocking on the doors of hotels and white-tablecloth restaurants up and down the East Coast, fighting a rival for every account. That battle ended in a merger that created the largest fresh juice company in the country, and when it came time to find a way out, Smith orchestrated a sale by convincing a buyer of the value the deal could unlock. In this episode of War Stories over Board Games, Smith tells Institutional Investor's Julie Segal how that early, hands-on operating experience became the foundation for his approach to activism, and why understanding how businesses really work still sits at the heart of what Starboard does today.