Know What Matters

14

Develop with Discipline

“Welcome to the new world, Ron,” I told myself, looking out over the city lights of St. Louis, framed by the iconic Gateway Arch. “You got what you wanted—an opportunity to impact the industry with a singularly powerful new concept: Panera. Now, you’d better care for it properly and grow it right.”

When I’d headed West at the turn of the millennium, having sold the Au Bon Pain divisions and manufacturing to invest everything in the fledgling, unproven, but promising concept we’d called Panera Bread, I knew it would take years to make good on the vision we’d set out to create. And when I got that call from Bill Moreton telling me we were going to miss our planned numbers by 50 percent that year, I wondered if I’d be ...