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