Inside Starbucks’s New CEO Daily Routine While He Was Running Chipotle

so my go-to Chipotle order is a chicken bowl white rice fajita veggies a Pico too 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 barboa quesadilla on the side it's hard to resist I'm Brian nickel chairman and CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill I'm 50 years old and this is my daily routine I wake up around 5:45 6:00 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' like to have a cookie with it head out for a workout around 7:00 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/Walk get back in time have a quick usually Shake bunch of fruit some oats peanut butter and uh little protein powder I kind of bounce between that and eggs and sausage my youngest still needs a ride to school so I usually take her to school if I'm in town then 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 8:30 9:00 in the morning start my day usually with a checking in with my assistant to go over what's happening for the day around 9:00 in the morning usually we have our first staff meeting at 10:00 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 we have 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 3:30 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 want to 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 5:30 6 uh and home by 6:30 and try to walk the dog before we have dinner usually with our kids and uh everybody around 7 it's usually not a sitdown 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 what how we do it again the next day we pick a show to watch I like to watch sports center my youngest daughter really likes Modern Family I've I've feel like I've re-watched all of them we're in I think season 10 or 11 it's a funny show so it's 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 10:00 we make these big burritos and some 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 around

on the gate is just how freshh all the food is to learn knife skills uh 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's 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 someone who'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