Know What Matters: Lessons in Building Transformative Companies and Creating a Life You Can Respect

(Hardback)

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Ron Shaich, founder and former CEO of Panera Bread, built a life creating mega-successful restaurant chains, inventing a whole new category of restaurantfast casualin the process. Now he shares his principles for success in work and life by discovering what will matter tomorrow and building toward it today.

How did Ron Shaich, the visionary founder of Panera Bread, build a little bakery in St. Louis into 2,400 restaurants with $6 billion in revenue and annual returns of 25%, outperforming Starbucks, Chipotle, and all others By seeing the future and clearing a path to it, leading and innovating from the future back.

Now, Shaich shares his story, starting with its humble entrepreneurial beginnings: the college-campus convenience store he opened to compete with one he was ejected from when the clerk wrongly assumed he and his scruffy friends were shoplifting. He takes us through his successful turnaround of Au Bon Pain and how that led to his creation of a new category of restaurant, fast casual, and the mega-success of Panera. He also shares the lows, the defeats, and the uncertainties along the way and how he persevered through them.

In each chapter Shaich brings to life a principle for success that has guided his careerand his life. Sometimes practical ("Make smart bets"), and often challenging ("You don't own the business, the business owns you"), Shaich's principles combine to form a blueprint for innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs set on success, and on making a difference.

When you know what matters, you can build transformative businesses while leading a life you respect, and leaving a positive impact on the world.

Author Bio

Ron Shaich is the founder and former Chairman & CEO of Panera Bread and a pioneer in the restaurant industry who disrupted the industry paradigm, transforming Panera into a new class of restaurant at massive scale.

He has received the Legend in Leadership Award from the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the Yale School of Management. He has also received the Nation's Restaurant News Pioneer Award for being one of the most significant contributors to the history of the restaurant industry. Past winners have included Colonel Harland Sanders, Ray Kroc, Norman Brinker, and J. Willard Marriott Sr.

Shaich is the Managing Partner of Act III Holdings, a $300 million fund that invests in public and private restaurant and consumer companies. He sits on several boards and is a cofounder of No Labels, an organization that promotes bipartisan political problem-solving and the development of a long-term strategic plan for the country.

Connect with Ron Shaich at ronshaich.com.