The lessons to live well and the strategies
to succeed.
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 $300 billion+ 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 annualized shareholder 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.
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Inside
Know What Matters
PART ONE
Living the Entrepreneurial Life
1. Future Back
2. Competitive Advantage Is Everything
3. Means, Ends, and By-products
4. Entrepreneurs Are Opportunists
5. Think Before You IPO
6. You Take the Money; I’ll Take Control
7. Feeding the Growth Monster
8. Empathy Unlocks the Future
9. Discovering Today What Will Matter Tomorrow
10. Defining What You Stand For
11. Getting It Done
12. You Don’t Own the Business; the Business Owns You
13. Business (and Life) Requires Hard Choices
PART TWO
Leading a Large Enterprise
14. Develop with Discipline
15. Break the Cycle of Failure
16. Be the Innovator in Chief
17. Make Smart Bets
18. Seek Out the Tough Stuff and Create a Barrier to Entry
19. Know When to Fold ’Em
20. If You Don’t Have Control, Credibility Is Your Currency
21. The Doing of the Doing
22. Business Would Be Easier without People
23. Parish Priest in a Business Suit
24. Be Contrarian: Conserve in a Boom, Build in a Bust
25. Business Is Personal
PART THREE
Driving Large-Scale Transformation
26. Managing the Desire-Friction Ratio
27. Making the Transformation Operational
28. Finding New Runways for Growth
29. Coming Clean—with Yourself and Others
30. Keep Your Promises
31. Know When to Sell
Epilogue: Transformation Never Ends
"While there are many accounts of enterprises successfully disrupted by their founders, what distinguishes Ron Shaich's book is his willingness to share how his relentless questioning of his companies, even on the heels of their greatest successes, took them to even greater heights. For those of us who have experienced his companies as consumers, competitors, and observers, this book finally describes how his extraordinary track record seems to repeat itself over and over again."
Brad Bloom
Cofounder, Berkshire Partners
"Ron Shaich is a true pioneer of conscious capitalism—a purpose-driven leader with a relentless focus on the long term and a deep love for the transformative power of business. I've long valued his wisdom in the boardroom and beyond, and I have no doubt that Know What Matters will be instrumental in shaping the next generation of conscious leaders."
John Mackey
Cofounder, Whole Foods Market; author, Conscious Capitalism
"Know What Matters is packed with practical advice and real-world examples to help readers create businesses of value and lives with meaning."
Steve Case
Chairman and CEO, Revolution; cofounder, AOL
"Ron Shaich's Know What Matters is a must-read for entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone who wants to be more effective in life. Ron was obsessed with delighting his customers and coworkers at Panera long before it was fashionable to do so, and in the process produced a truly amazing 70x return from his IPO in 1991 until he sold Panera in 2017."
Will Danoff
Portfolio Manager, Fidelity Contrafund
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About
RON SHAICH
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. Shaich makes his investments through Act III Holdings, a $1 billion+ evergreen investment vehicle. In Shaich's last two decades as CEO, Panera generated annualized shareholder returns of 25 percent and was the best performing stock in the restaurant industry. Shaich is often credited with defining the $80 billion fast casual segment and is known for continually disrupting industry paradigms to find new ways to build companies of value and with values.
Shaich has twice been recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, was selected as the 2018 Restaurant Leader of the Year, and was presented the prestigious Nation's Restaurant News Pioneer Award as one of the most significant contributors in the history of the restaurant industry, joining the ranks of Colonel Harland Sanders, Ray Kroc, Norman Brinker, and J. Willard Marriott.
