Ron Shaich

I'll share with you something else that I think is important.

You have to be both strategic and detailed.

So I can operate at a, what are we trying to accomplish in five years level?

But again, I can then get down into a discussion on is that floor material working in a way that it's bouncing sound around and the sound is the wrong thing for the experience we imagine.

It's the totality of both sides of it in these complex businesses that's essential.

Some people want to just be strategic.

Others can't get out of the detail.

It's the ability for both.

You get a strategy from the detail.

And frankly, no strategy is worth anything if it can't be executed.

But I think there's some truth to that.

I think that you can't have an effective strategy

if it's not informed by an understanding of what actually is going to touch your customer and how it's going to get executed.

On the other hand, the most powerful strategy in the world means nothing if it can't be executed.

And so the ability to understand how you're doing on both levels simultaneously has been an essential characteristic that served me particularly well in my career.

Some people would call it obsessive.

How would you respond to that?

It's thoughtful as opposed to simply obsessive.

Being obsessive isn't enough.

unless you're right.