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.
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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.