The Visionary
The future, and what is barely possible, reads round the next corner.
Ron Shaich reads as The Visionary because he sensed the fast-casual paradigm before it crystallized into consensus, arriving at it not through data but through felt conviction. The Panera Bread founder frames entrepreneurship as protecting powerful ideas rather than avoiding risk, a stance that reveals genuine future-state clarity.
“It's the same exact thing for me when I think about business. If I don't have a better competitive alternative, I don't have the house vig, this is an ugly business and I don't want to be in it.”
“That actually creates the wherewithal to have the byproduct. Only I can tell you is those companies, those CEOs, those leaders that focus on the byproduct, the outcome never get there. It's rare because they actually miss the mark on what creates it. You know, it's like saying I want to be happy. You can't create happiness.”
“What we're trying to do is build the next generation of great companies. And we're doing that based on an understanding that building better competitive alternatives is everything. And we want to enable and help companies become the best competitive alternative in categories that have extraordinary power. We have a couple of principles.”
“Who was about so much more than what you put in your stomach and how cheap it was? Food industry is the second oldest profession, and it's about hospitality at its core.”
Masters in Business: “Panera Bread Founder Ron Shaich on Fast Casual Dining”
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