Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. Well,
Speaker 1: this week's cover story we talked about it earlier with
Speaker 1: Brett Began and Joe Weber Business Week. It's the Bloomberg fifty.
Speaker 1: And as part of our virtual reveal that we did
Speaker 1: yesterday of the names on that list and the individuals
Speaker 1: on that list, I actually caught up with someone who
Speaker 1: was on last year's Bloomberg fifty list, and we're talking
Speaker 1: about the chairman and CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Brian Nicol.
Speaker 1: He is now in the job for about two and
Speaker 1: a half years, and in this excerpt from our conversation,
Speaker 1: Brian talks about the importance of really understanding your customer
Speaker 1: check it out. You know, you want to understand about
Speaker 1: companies dealing with crises and having to think about their customers,
Speaker 1: think about their employees. You're really right in the ship
Speaker 1: when you got to Chipotle back, So when you first
Speaker 1: got there, why didn't you want to know after you
Speaker 1: know the problems at the company, what did you want
Speaker 1: to know about the customer um and where they were,
Speaker 1: what they were thinking about your brand? Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: exactly right. That the very first step was where are
Speaker 1: our customers you know, uh, what are their thoughts, feelings, trust,
Speaker 1: level of engagement, you know, um, belief systems. So you know,
Speaker 1: step one for me was understanding that. And then also
Speaker 1: the other piece too was understanding where employees were. You know,
Speaker 1: our company, our experience is really driven by our employees.
Speaker 1: So did they feel like they were on their front foot?
Speaker 1: Did they feel like they're on their back foot? Because
Speaker 1: if their experiences, you know, one of defensive, I think
Speaker 1: our customer feels that it's a defensive experience as well.
Speaker 1: So we really spent a lot of time, frankly, in
Speaker 1: the first couple of months diving into understanding both of
Speaker 1: those things. And frank that's what's driven our strategies UM
Speaker 1: from day one. Well, and it's interesting, what what did
Speaker 1: you maybe learn about those first two years in the
Speaker 1: company and dealing with that and then getting to the
Speaker 1: current crisis and again the customer, right was worried. Your
Speaker 1: employees were worried as well. Yeah, yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: look when we went back, you know, if you've rewind
Speaker 1: the tapes here a couple of years ago, what consumers
Speaker 1: were saying to us, Our customers were saying to us is,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys need to get back to talk
Speaker 1: what makes your special? Um, you know, remind me why
Speaker 1: I feel good about eating at Chipotle. And you know
Speaker 1: the answer was they felt good about eating Chipotle because
Speaker 1: it's real culinary, it's ingredients with integrity. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: we take a different approach to how we prepare and
Speaker 1: cook our food. Um. And so that was really what
Speaker 1: enabled strategy number one, which is around being more visible
Speaker 1: and you know, frankly more looked. And you know, we
Speaker 1: really set down that mission of just talking about what
Speaker 1: makes Chippole unique. The other thing that we knew we
Speaker 1: had to do was dial up our culture of safety
Speaker 1: and wellness. And you know, our employees they viewed the
Speaker 1: practices as more of an initiative, not an ongoing culture.
Speaker 1: And you know, in my opinion, it's like, look, we
Speaker 1: can only have employees working if they're healthy. So it
Speaker 1: sounds harsh, but we had to install a zero tolerance
Speaker 1: policy on this where if you don't do the wellness
Speaker 1: check and you're not honest on your wellness check, you
Speaker 1: will lose your job. Um, Like, we've got no tolerance
Speaker 1: for that. And so that was a tough you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of months because I got a lot of
Speaker 1: emails from people saying like, I can't believe lost my
Speaker 1: job because I didn't do wellness checks. And you know,
Speaker 1: it was like, look, this is our culture. If you
Speaker 1: want to be a part of our company, that's what
Speaker 1: we do. And also, if you're not truthful, we've got
Speaker 1: two problems. One, we're a company of high integrity and
Speaker 1: to you know, you're putting our company at risk when
Speaker 1: you're not truthful whether or not you have symptoms. You know,
Speaker 1: by the way, we have a program where you get
Speaker 1: paid sickly, so there's no incentive, you know, to not
Speaker 1: tell us the truth. So, you know, doing things like
Speaker 1: that that materially changed the culture. And unfortunately sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes a couple of stories being retold about we're really
Speaker 1: meaning business on this zero tolerance approach to wellness and
Speaker 1: food safety as well as then you know, reminding our
Speaker 1: consumers why they loved Chipotle was at the forefront of
Speaker 1: what were really instituted day one, and that just got
Speaker 1: us back to running great restaurants again. You know, it
Speaker 1: was like, look, if we know we have healthy employees,
Speaker 1: we know we're practicing the right protocols. We can focus
Speaker 1: on making delicious guacamole, terrific chicken, you know, the rice correctly,
Speaker 1: and every detail matters in our business. So, you know,
Speaker 1: this was a crazy year, disruptive, it was an upsetting
Speaker 1: you as you well know you guys, you do your
Speaker 1: very purpose driven. I mean it's really in the DNA
Speaker 1: of your company. How have you as an organization and
Speaker 1: as a company kind of demonstrated that. Yeah, Look, you know,
Speaker 1: I think, uh, I'm really proud of how our company
Speaker 1: has done that. Um. I think we've been tested numerous
Speaker 1: times and whether or not we were going to be
Speaker 1: true to our values and our purpose um, and I
Speaker 1: think we've stepped up and done that in every way,
Speaker 1: you know. So whether it was when the pandemic hit, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a lot of employees that we're
Speaker 1: worried they're gonna lose their job. Um. And then when
Speaker 1: they realize, you know, we've got a really healthy balance sheet. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: we are an essential business. We're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: continue to operate. Not only are not losing your job,
Speaker 1: we're gonna you know, because I know other people in
Speaker 1: your family probably have been impacted. We're going to increase
Speaker 1: wages for temporary and we honored first quarter bonuses because look,
Speaker 1: January February, the guys were doing an unbelievable job. March
Speaker 1: hit and it wiped out would have been their bonus,
Speaker 1: and that just wasn't the right thing to do. And
Speaker 1: you know, fortunately we were in a position to do it,
Speaker 1: so we did it. And uh, you know, it was
Speaker 1: those types of examples that you know, I think we
Speaker 1: stepped up with our values and making those decisions consistent
Speaker 1: with our values time and time again. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen our Round Up for
Speaker 1: Real Change program that we've instituted as well, but you know,
Speaker 1: we did that because we wanted to participate aid on
Speaker 1: a bigger level on these various causes that are important,
Speaker 1: from historically black college all the way to the farmlingk
Speaker 1: program that we're doing right now. And that was the
Speaker 1: Chipotle Mexican Grill chairman and CEO. Brian Nickel caught up
Speaker 1: with him yesterday at our Bloomberg fifty reveal event UH
Speaker 1: and he was part of the b fifty list last
Speaker 1: year because of the incredible turnaround after the food UH
Speaker 1: poisoning incidents at the company. That really pushed down Chippotle
Speaker 1: as a company and as a share Brian came in
Speaker 1: and really turned it around. The stock was on a
Speaker 1: tier last year. UH, it's continuing its run up this year.
Speaker 1: You can listen to more of that interview. It's on
Speaker 1: our weekend show on Bloomberg Radio and also on our
Speaker 1: podcast feed at Bloomberg dot com. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've heard recently that Chipotle opened up its first
Speaker 1: digital only restaurant in the US. UH. It's in Highland Falls,
Speaker 1: New York. And what it does is it requires customers
Speaker 1: to order in advance online or through a third party
Speaker 1: delivery company, and then orders can we essentially picked up
Speaker 1: from a lobby that it says we'll have kind of
Speaker 1: um or that does have the sounds and smells of
Speaker 1: kind of a kitchen and kitchen views of a traditional restaurant.
Speaker 1: And apparently it's going to allow Chipotle to enter more
Speaker 1: urban areas where a full sit down restaurant just doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. And one of the big strategies and themes
Speaker 1: of Chipotle, and really since Brian Nickel came on board,
Speaker 1: was digital and digitization of the company. And they even
Speaker 1: were already h ramping up their strategies prior to the pandemic,
Speaker 1: but when everybody was working from home, living at home
Speaker 1: and ordering in they even increased it even more to
Speaker 1: really tap into the markets and the needs of individuals
Speaker 1: and consumers at home, and digitization just and digital ordering
Speaker 1: really took off at that company. So again, check out
Speaker 1: that full interview. As I mentioned earlier, it's in our
Speaker 1: weekend show and you can find it certainly at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com and also wherever you get your podcasts.