1: Panera founder and CEO Ron Shaich looked out over Boston’s beautiful public gardens.

He was having breakfast with his friend Bill Allen, who had recently been named CEO of Bloomin’ Brands, the company that had created the Outback Steakhouse restaurants.

Bill wanted Ron’s advice: “How the hell do you run a public company like this?”

“I didn’t pull any punches,” Ron writes in his book Know What Matters: … continue reading

1: “Our bread wasn’t good enough,” Ron Shaich writes in Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.

This was a real issue for Ron because he was CEO of Panera Bread.

“Bread” was in the company name.

And, one of the company’s guiding principles was: “Bread is our passion, soul, and expertise.”

Ron knew he had to fix this problem. The stakes were high.

And it … continue reading