Ron Shaich

And I put this in place.

And again.

It all sounds lovely, but it led to the worst three years I can ever imagine.

I had activist investors attack me.

I spent $150 million on technology.

I used to refer to technology as social security of an era.

It was only a matter of time until it was 100% of our revenue.

We were really investing in it.

And you didn't know where it would end.

And we ended up having to transform everything.

We transformed not just technology, but we transformed how we dealt with the guests, what our concept essence was.

We transformed much of the senior management team.

This company had grown in its needs and its requirements.

Ultimately, this became one of the largest transformations in the industry, and it took on a life of its own.

And again, straight up, I could see the opportunity for a better Panera that was not competing the way it had competed for the prior 20 years, but was competing against what the possibility was of what the consumer wanted.

And then came the hard work of actually putting that into existence.

And by 2017, it was working.

Our EBITDA was up 35%.

Our comp store sales were pushing double digits.

And we had a European money manager, JB, who came along and fell in love with Panera.