Bryan Niccol, Starbucks’ New CEO, Did Well at Chipotle. But It Wasn’t Perfect.
Starbucks made waves through the business world a few weeks ago when it announced that Bryan Niccol, then-CEO at Chipotle, would become the coffee giant’s new leader.
The decision was met with wide acclaim, with many financial experts saying that it was the best decision Starbucks has made in a long, long time.
Niccol will get Starbucks back on track, experts claimed. He’ll restore the struggling company.
It’s true that Niccol does have a history of turning companies around. He turned Taco Bell around when he was CEO from 2015–2018, and in the first few years of his Chipotle leadership he did turn the company from a struggling corporation to a relatively successful organization known for its fresh and affordable food.
But in 2024, things started to get less rosy at Chipotle.
Social media users began to claim that the company was the latest organization to adopt “shrinkflation”—the inflation-induced phenomenon of companies shrinking portion sizes in order to keep up with rising ingredient costs.
Niccol and his team shot back, stating that such claims were false.
From an Inc. article:
“There was never a directive to provide less to our…
