Panera Bread's founder Ron Shaich powered through some pretty tough periods in his three decades as the company's CEO. But the company's overhaul in 2015 was one the most stressful periods of his tenure, Shaich said in a recent interview with The Profile.
Shaich described it as the "largest transformation" of a large public restaurant company in America, and it impacted several aspects of Panera's business — from its loyalty program to its distribution channels.
"It was huge pressure, and things weren't going right," Shaich said in the interview, adding that he was dealing with activists "attacking" him, people dismissing his vision, and turnover in his executive ranks. And he said he remembers thinking to himself, "My god, it'd be just easier if I got hit by a truck."
Shaich clarified that it was "not a suicide wish," but rather a function of the "overwhelming sense" of responsibility he felt to people who were betting on him.
"That's the pressure. That pressure that I wanted to deliver for the good people that actually cared to believe in me in a world where nothing was actually certain," he said. Shaich has also previously said he might have been too obsessed with being a "caring leader."
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Shaich now seems to see challenging moments like this as a rite of passage. "By the time you get to 60, everyone gets knee-capped in some way," he said, adding that he's turning 70 this year. "The challenge is how you deal with it."
In this case, Shaich said he found solace in his family.
On the day his CFO quit — which Shaich described as a "punch in the stomach" — he said his daughter called him and asked him to put her to sleep because she had had a pretty tough day, too. Shaich, who had been working from Boston while his family was vacationing in nearby Manchester at the time, said he was exhausted but still drove up an hour and a half to see his daughter that night. As she was falling asleep, Shaich said he told her to relax and remember that when she woke up the next day, she'd feel different. "It's a new day and you just have to go through," he said he told his daughter in the interview.
As he was driving back to Boston that night, though, he said he realized that he hadn't just been talking to his daughter — he had been talking to himself, too. "You just have to put one step forward," he said in the interview. "At some point, it does change."
Shaich, who founded Panera Bread in 1987 and took the company public in 1991, stepped down as the company's CEO in 2018. He's now an investor in other well-known fast-casual brands like Cava and Tatte through his investment firm Act3. He also has a book, Know What Matters, coming out in November.
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Shaich did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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