Know What Matters

31

Know When to Sell

I could hear my dad’s voice as clearly as if he’d been sitting beside me. “Just take the money!” he would tell me. I knew it. It was April 2017, and I was staring at a very long row of zeros on the purchase and sale agreement I was about to present to my board. We were preparing to sell Panera Bread to a European investment group, for a lot of money: $7.5 billion, or $315 per share. We’d been working on this deal for a few months, and I was the one who had initiated the negotiations, pushed for a higher price, and been determined to get it done. I felt confident that it was the right next step for the company. But on the morning of the board vote, I was hesitating—which was why my long-gone dad’s voice popped into my head. ...