Lessons From A Lifetime Of Transformations

Today brings the new book by Ron Shaich, founder, and former CEO of Panera Bread. It’s called, Know What Matters: Lessons From A Lifetime Of Transformations.

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. He challenges readers to grapple with how business impacts life, sharing his own struggles and setbacks with as much honesty and candor as he describes his successes.

The primary four transformations Shaich led were:

Evolving Au Bon Pain (his predecessor company) from a simple French bakery to a chain of bakery cafes – a platform shift that set the stage for new opportunities in the space between fast food and fine dining.
Discovering, through careful observation of customer behavior, a whole new paradigm within the restaurant category that became the $100 billion-plus fast-casual segment.
Recognizing the potential of Panera Bread to become a nationally dominant brand and the decision to bet everything on that brand.
Reinventing Panera completely, when he had more than two thousand stores that were feeding one in thirty Americans every week. That reinvention included transforming the ordering systems and completely overhauling the back end to ensure efficient delivery.

As you read the book, you’ll discover Shaich’s rules for gaining and maintaining competitive advantage:

Recognize that you can’t please all people all the time. Understand who your target customer is and what job they are hiring you to do. Develop a concept that’s the singular best choice for some target customers on some days rather than the second-best choice for everyone, every day.

Define what competitive authority means within your understanding of your concept and know how you will build it.

Make sure the niche you focus on is big enough to sustain you, but not so easily duplicated that you simply become an R&D lab for larger competitors.

Search for the good ideas that really matter.

Build barriers to entry.

Get it done. Execution is everything.

Accept that maintaining competitive advantage is really difficult.

Be willing to do it all over again. Competitive advantage is fleeting. Don’t wait for your competitors to pass you before seeking out a new opportunity.

Ron Shaich

Finally, some of Shaich’s life lessons include:

Tell yourself the truth.
Know what really matters.
Make smart bets.
Conduct an annual pre-mortem.

Even if you are not the one in thirty Americans visiting Panera Bread every week, you’ll find Shaich’s book fascinating, inspirational, compelling, and full of wise and practical business lessons to give you the confidence to master transformation.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

How To Be More Impactful Through Entrepreneurial Giving

This Thanksgiving as you think about what you are grateful for, think, too, about how you can be more giving. To help you discover a more giving you, read the new book, A Talent For Giving , by John Studzinski . It introduces the meaning of entrepreneurial giving - a hands-on approach to philanthropy that harnesses skills, expertise, and resources. Through thought-provoking insights, A Talent for Giving offers a powerful new roadmap for impact as Studzinski shows how anyone, regardless of financial means, can become a force for change. You do that by maximizing your Talent , Time , and Treasure and by embracing these values alongside others like Trust , Technology , and Trial , according to Studzinski. “Giving is any act of kindness or generosity that recognizes and respects the dignity of another human being,” shares Studzinski. “It can be something very simple – a smile, or a hug or a few words. And on a larger scale, it’s giving your time,...

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

How To Build A High-Performing, Resilient Organization With Purpose

“It’s time to get intentional about organizational culture and to make it strong on purpose,” explain James D. White and Krista White , authors of the new book Culture Design: How To Build A High-Performing, Resilient Organization With Purpose . “Strong company cultures, deliberately shaped, are the difference between businesses that are great versus those that are just good enough,” they add. The authors define organizational culture as a set of actions, habits, rituals, and beliefs that determine how work gets done, how decisions get made, and how people experience their workplaces. "Strong cultures don't emerge by accident," share the authors. "They're built—with clarity, consistency, and design. This book is your guide to intentionally designing a culture that is resilient, inclusive, powerful, and effective." Informed by over thirty years of operating experience across sectors and in the boardroom, the authors offer these strategies for desig...

A Roadmap For Next Generation Of Leaders Driving Culture-First Change

The transformative success of everything today’s leaders are driving – including AI (Artificial Intelligence) – will be determined not by whether they are “good” or “bad,” but by whether their organization’s culture embraces them. Decades of failed efforts prove that successful change can’t be mandated. That’s what Phil Gilbert believes and professes. “Change is a product, not a mandate,” says Gilbert. “Transform your initiative into a desirable offering that teams choose to adopt rather than an edict they’re forced to follow. Your organization is the market, and every project team is a potential customer who must be convinced that your approach will solve their problems better than the status quo. This product-centered mindset creates voluntary adoption that spreads organically.” This proven approach to making transformations is something people run toward, not away from. You’ll learn how this happens in Gilbert’s new book, Irresistible Change: A Bluep...

Six Steps For Discussing Poor Performance With An Employee

As a leader, the time will come when you will have to speak with an employee about his or her poor performance. Here are six steps that will guide you through that process: Tell him what performance is in need of change and be specific. Tell him how his actions negatively affect the team. Let the discussion sink in. Set expectations of performance improvement and timeframe, and get his agreement on the desired outcome. Remind him that he is a valuable part of the team and that you have confidence his performance will improve. Don't rehash the discussion later. You made your point. Give him to make his improvement.

Learn How To Identify And Overcome Your Leadership Blindspots

"A blindspot is an unrecognized weakness or threat that has the potential to undermine a leader's success," explains author Robert Bruce Shaw . "Blindspots are tenacious and can reappear, causing problems over a leader's entire career." These blindspots can cause great harm when leaders fail to see what is right in front of them. Compounding the challenge says Shaw is that: "People who are smart and self-assured are often very skillful at justifying their thinking and behavior--to the point of being in denial about their weaknesses and the threats they face. One of the burdens of moving up is that the complexity of the decisions leaders face increases at the same time as their ability to reveal their vulnerabilities decreases . Blindspots are both the result of individual traits and situational factors. According to Shaw, there are 2 0 common leadership blindspots that fall under these four categories : Self Team Company Markets ...

Learn The Extraordinary Power Of Caring For Your People Like Family

“Everybody truly does matter. No idea could be simpler or more powerful. It is an idea that has unlimited potential, because people have unlimited potential—to surprise, delight, and elevate themselves, one another and all around the world,” profess Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia , authors of the newly expanded 10 th anniversary edition of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power Of Caring For Your People Like Family . The book’s first edition, premiered in 2015 and has sold more than110,000 copies and is available in seven languages. This book is about truly human leadership that creates off-the-charts morale, loyalty, creativity, and business performance. It manifests the reality that every single person matters, just like in a family. It’s not a cliché on a mission statement; it’s the bedrock of a company’s success. “The startling truth, supported by research, is that your leader has a greater impact on your health than your doctor, therapist, or even your par...

How Businesses Hone And Also Avoid Drift

“Honing, not sharpening is a metaphor for how successful businesses keep their competitive edge,” explain authors Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach , authors of the new book, Hone: How Leaders Defy Drift . “Today’s leaders seem to be highly focused on increasingly frequent transformation (akin to knife sharpening), when in fact they would be better served by building daily habits to hone their organization like a chef hones a knife.” Sharpening : This process restores a dull knife edge by removing material to create a new, sharper edge. Honing : This process realigns the existing edge of a knife, maintaining its sharpness without removing material. The book is a call to action for leaders to build the capability and mindset to hone their organizations, minimizing—but not eliminating—the need for transformation. “Choosing and honing the set of management systems that promote an organization's desired outcomes (and uninstalling them when they are past the...

Use These 13 Energizing Verbs To Make Your Communication More Impactful

Here is some great advice from the book, Anticipate, the Art of Leading by Looking Ahead , by Rob-Jan De Jong . Use these 13 energizing verbs more often when communicating: Discover (instead of See) Explore (instead of Discuss) Radiate (instead of Display) Uncover (instead of Show) Transform (instead of Change) Engage (instead of Involve) Mobilize (instead of Gather) Stretch (instead of Develop) Boost (instead of Increase) Propel (instead of Move) Deliver (instead of Give) Grasp (instead of Understand) Connect (instead of Join)

Words To Lead By

Words to lead by : "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - President Harry S. Truman . "Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower . "I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow." - President Woodrow Wilson .

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog