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

Fortune

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.

Transcript

00:00So my go-to Chipotle order is a chicken bowl, white rice, fajita veggies, a pico de gallo,

00:07and a little cheese. I usually get chips and guac with the bowl, but I also love a barbacoa quesadilla.

00:13So I've been known to add a barbacoa quesadilla on the side. It's hard to resist. I'm Brian Nickel,

00:20chairman and CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill. I'm 50 years old and this is my daily routine. I wake up

00:26around 5 45, 6 in the morning. Usually have a cup of coffee. I like espresso, so I usually make an

00:33americano in the morning. Always hot, and if I can, I like to have a cookie with it. Head out for a

00:37workout around 7 a.m. Some mornings I try to do some strength training, lift weights, and then

00:43other mornings it's more like going for a run slash walk. Get back in time, have a quick, usually shake,

00:50a bunch of fruit, some oats, peanut butter, and a little protein powder. I kind of bounce between

00:56that and eggs and sausage. My youngest daughter still needs a ride to school, so I usually take

01:02her to school if I'm in town. Then I usually head to the office. I live in Newport Beach, California.

01:07The drive from my house to the office is about 10-15 minutes. Usually to the office by 8 30,

01:129 o'clock in the morning. Start my day usually with checking in with my assistant to go over

01:19what's happening for the day around 9 in the morning. Usually we have our first staff meeting

01:23at 10 in the morning. That goes until about noon, and in our staff meeting, you know, all the folks

01:28that are my direct reports, we go over what's happening in the business. A highlight of the day

01:33is lunch is usually around 12. Of course, we have Chipotle. Not every day. If I could, I would, but

01:39not every day. We continue after we have a little lunch break with our strategic initiatives meeting,

01:44which is where we review key items that we're working on. That usually goes from,

01:49you know, call it 1 to 3, maybe 3 30. I do try to end the day where you don't have any meetings or

01:57phone calls so that you can kind of just think through what happened throughout the day and

02:02what do you think you want to talk about tomorrow or are we working on the right things and are we

02:07talking about the right stuff. And then usually we wrap it up by 5 30, 6 and home by 6 30 and

02:15try to walk the dog before we have dinner, usually with our kids and everybody around 7. It's usually

02:21not a sit down dinner, but Jen and I make some quick dinner and then, you know, the kids complain

02:27about what they didn't particularly like that we made. And then we end up usually making an order

02:33for some food as well. Post dinner, usually Jen and I go for a walk and talk about how we do it

02:39again the next day. We pick a show to watch. I like to watch SportsCenter. My youngest daughter

02:43really likes Modern Family. I feel like I've re-watched all of them. We're in, I think, season

02:4810 or 11. It's a funny show, so it's a good one to watch. Once we wrap it up, we usually read for

02:5320-30 minutes and then it's rare that the lights are on past 10 o'clock. We make these big burritos

02:59and somehow or another, every single time, they're able to stretch that tortilla so that

03:04it doesn't rip. But if it rips, you know what? They go remake it, myself included. I ripped a

03:11few too many. When I was joining the company, I did some training. I worked in our Chipotle in Denver

03:16and, you know, you get a real appreciation for what it takes to get the restaurant ready,

03:20both from a morning prep standpoint and then how to handle a peak and then also what it takes to

03:25close the restaurant. I think the biggest thing I learned right out of the gate is just how fresh

03:30all the food is. To learn knife skills, to learn how to use the grill correctly, it all really

03:36matters. There's a lot of precision that goes into the way our teams make the rice, cook the chicken,

03:41cook the steak. Wrapping a burrito is an art. You need some repetitions to do it fast. I'm a very

03:47slow burrito roller. I don't want to go up against these guys, that much I know. It is fun when you

03:53wrap a burrito perfectly because it's just, everything's exactly the way it should be, tucked

03:59in, rolled, and then when you put the foil around it, it just looks, it looks magnificent. The best

04:04business advice I ever received was, don't be afraid to ask questions. Whether you're a new

04:10employee or somebody who's been in the company for 20 years, I think asking questions demonstrates

04:16you're still actively learning, you're curious, you care. If you aren't asking questions, more

04:21than likely, you just don't care and you're not that curious, and you know what, it's probably

04:26time to move on.

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