1: “I learned the most important lesson of my life as my father’s life came to its end,” Ron Shaich writes in his terrific book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.

The year was 1998.  Ron was CEO of Au Bon Pain, a prominent chain of French-inspired bakery-cafés. The following year, the company would change its name to Panera Bread Company.  

“Several years after a … continue reading

1: “I have bad news,” the CEO tells the packed conference room. “The project has failed spectacularly. Tell me what went wrong?”

“What?!?” someone says. “But the project hasn’t started yet.”

“Exactly,” the CEO responds. “Our job is to identify everything that could go wrong before the project starts. And then take action now so that those things never happen.”

This exercise is called a premortem. It was designed by … continue reading