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Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations

Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations

By Ron Shaich

A Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller Ron Shaich, founder and former CEO of Panera Bread, shares the lessons he learned from a lifetime of asking what really matters and then making the transformations necessary to bring what really matters to life. Shaich is a business visionary who has been part of building three iconic restaurant brands: Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread, and now Cava.

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Book Information

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Publish Date: 10/24/2023
Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781647825591
ISBN-10: 1647825598
Language: English

What We're Saying

November 01, 2023

A high degree of personal investment and an intense feeling of responsibility are essential elements if you want your leadership to be truly impactful. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

A Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller

Ron Shaich, founder and former CEO of Panera Bread, shares the lessons he learned from a lifetime of asking what really matters and then making the transformations necessary to bring what really matters to life.

Shaich is a business visionary who has been part of building three iconic restaurant brands: Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread, and now Cava. Along the way, he developed "fast casual," a $100 billion-plus segment of the industry. Now he reveals what he learned about entrepreneurship, running large enterprises, business transformation, and life itself. He illustrates these lessons with his experiences turning a 400-square-foot cookie store into 2,400 restaurants with $5 billion in revenue, delivering annual investor returns of 25 percent over two decades, and outperforming both Starbucks and Chipotle. How did Shaich succeed repeatedly in such a notoriously tough industry? By discovering today what will matter tomorrow and never hesitating to undertake sweeping transformations in order to get the job done.

Shaich offers clear-headed lessons for the entire life cycle of an enterprise, from bootstrapping a startup to going public to managing large companies to selling a business. And the relevance of his message doesn't end in the boardroom. He challenges readers to grapple with how the business impacts life, sharing his own struggles and setbacks with as much candor as he describes his successes.

Telling yourself the truth, knowing what really matters, and getting it done is the path to creating and sustaining a meaningful life, a market-leading business, and even a healthier society. Shaich's reflections are sometimes practical ("Make smart bets"), sometimes philosophical ("Conduct an annual pre-mortem"), often challenging ("You don't own the business, the business owns you"), and always incisive ("You take the money, I'll take control."). Know What Matters is a powerful guide to building transformative businesses while leading a life you respect and leaving a positive impact on the world.

About the Author

Ron Shaich is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Panera Bread and of Au Bon Pain and is the current Chairman and lead investor in Cava, Tatte, Life Alive, and Level99.

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