Name: Inside Starbucks new CEO's daily routine while he was running Chipotle
Uploaded: 2024-07-11
Duration: 4 min 27 s
Description: Starbucks named former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol as its new chief executive officer. Niccol spoke to Fortune in May to learn about his go-to order and thoughts on portion sizes.

Starbucks named former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol as its new chief executive officer. Niccol spoke to Fortune in May to learn about his go-to order and thoughts on portion sizes.

Inside Starbucks new CEO's daily routine while he was running Chipotle

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So my go to Chipotle order is a chicken bowl, white rice fajita veggies, a PICO de gallo and a little cheese. I usually get chips and guac with the bowl. But I also love a barbacoa quesadilla. So I've been known to add a barbacoa quesadilla on the side. It's hard to resist. I'm Brian Nichol chairman and CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill. I'm 50 years years old and this is my daily routine. I wake up around 5 45 6 in the morning, usually have a cup of coffee. I like espresso. So I usually make an Americano in the morning. Always hot. And I, if I can, I'd like to have a cookie with it. Head out for a workout around 7 a.m. Some mornings I try to do some strength training, lift weights. And then other mornings it's more like going for a run slash walk. Get back in time. Have a quick, usually shake bunch of fruits, some oats, peanut butter and a little protein powder. I kind of bounce between that and eggs and sausage. My youngest daughter still needs a ride to school. So I usually take her to school if I'm in town and I usually head to the office. I live in Newport Beach, California. The drive from my house to the office is about 1015 minutes. Usually to the office by 839 o'clock in the morning, start my day. Usually with, uh, checking in with my assistant to go over what's happening for the day around nine in the morning. Usually we have our first staff meeting at 10 in the morning that goes until about noon and in our staff meeting, you know, all the folks that are my direct reports, we go over what's happening in the business. A highlight of the day is lunch is usually around 12. Of course, we have Chipotle not every day if I could, I would, but uh not every day, we continue after a little lunch break with our strategic initiatives meeting, which is where we review key items that we're working on, that usually goes from, you know, call it 1 to 3, maybe 330. I do try to end the day where you don't have any meetings or uh phone calls so that you can kind of just think through what happened throughout the day. And what do you think you wanna talk about tomorrow or are we working on the right things? And are we talking about the right stuff? And then usually we wrap it up by 536 and home by 630. And I try to walk the dog before we have dinner. Usually with our kids and everybody around seven, it's usually not a sit down dinner, but Jen and I make some quick dinner and then, you know, the kids complain about what they didn't particularly like that we made. And then we end up usually making an order for some food as well. Post dinner. Usually Jen and I go for a walk and talk about, uh, how we do it again. The next day we pick a show to watch. I like to watch sportscenter. My youngest daughter really likes modern family. I, I feel like I've rewatched all of them. We're in, I think, season 10 or 11. It's a funny show. So it's a good one to watch. Once we wrap it up, we usually read for 2030 minutes and then it's rare that the lights are on past 10 o'clock. We make these big burritos and somehow or another every single time they're able to stretch that tortilla so that it doesn't rip. Uh, but if it rips, uh, you know what they go remake it. Uh, myself included. I, I ripped a few too many when I was joining the company, I did some training. I worked in our Chipotle in Denver. And, you know, you get a real appreciation for what it takes to get the restaurant ready, both from a morning prep standpoint and then how to handle a peak and then also what it takes to close the restaurant. I think the biggest thing I learned out of the gate is just how fresh all the food is to learn knife skills, to learn how to use the grill correctly. It all really matters. There's a lot of precision that goes into the way our teams make the rice cook, the chicken cook, the steak wrapping a burrito is an art. You need, you need some repetitions to do it fast. I'm, I'm a very slow burrito roller. I, I don't want to go, go up against these guys. That, that much. I know it is fun when you wrap a burrito perfectly because it's just everything is exactly the way it should be tucked in, rolled. And then when you put the foil around it, it just looks, it looks magnificent. The best business advice I ever received was, uh, don't be afraid to ask questions whether you're a new employee or somebody's been in the company for 20 years. I think asking questions. Demonstrates. You're still actively learning. You're curious, you care if you aren't asking questions more than likely, you just don't care and you're not that curious and you know what? It's probably time to move on.