Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright on his career, leadership, and goals for the chain
Take-Away with Sam Oches
Nation's Restaurant News
4.9 • 17 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Scott Boatwright, the CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill. Chipotle, of course, needs no introduction, but to some degree Scott did last year when he was suddenly thrust into the CEO role after his former boss Brian Niccol left for the chief executive job at Starbucks. Scott has spent his whole career in restaurants, spending the bulk of his early years helping turn around Arby’s before joining Chipotle as COO in 2017. The year since Scott was named CEO has been arguably one of the toughest in the company’s history, as it has dealt with flat sales and traffic and an overly saturated fast-casual competitive field. Sam recently sat down with Scott in a Midtown Manhattan Chipotle as part of NRN's Signature Series, powered by The Coca-Cola Company, to learn more about his career, his leadership style, and what he thinks will help Chipotle become a global iconic brand.
In this conversation, you’ll find out why:
- Uncomfortable moments create positive career growth
- Study the role you aspire to have
- Your best shot at winning is to double down on what made you special in the first place
- Your whole organization has to row in the same direction to get to your destination
- Accurately identify your problem before you start chasing solutions
- CEOs are storytellers as much as they are business leaders
Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at sam.oches@informa.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Takeaway with Sam Okas, a podcast for leaders of growing restaurant companies looking to take their businesses to the next level. |
| 0:07.6 | In nearly two decades covering restaurants, I've gained access to some of this industry's most influential decision makers, and I'm letting you in on the conversations. |
| 0:16.4 | In today's episode, you'll hear from the CEO of the largest fast casual chain in America |
| 0:21.0 | about the leadership strategies that propelled him to one of this industry's highest-profile |
| 0:25.8 | jobs and what he believes is key to reigniting his brand's momentum in this turbulent economy. |
| 0:32.6 | Scott Boatwright is the CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, one of the originators of the fast casual |
| 0:38.6 | service model and the seventh largest U.S. restaurant chain with more than $11 billion |
| 0:44.0 | in sales last year. |
| 0:46.2 | Chipotle, of course, really needs no introduction, but to some degree, Scott did last year |
| 0:50.6 | when he was suddenly thrust into the CEO role after his former boss, Brian |
| 0:55.4 | Nicol left for the chief executive job at Starbucks. Scott has spent his whole career in restaurants, |
| 1:02.0 | spending the bulk of his early career at Arby's helping to turn that brand around before he |
| 1:07.7 | joined Chipotle as C-O-O in 2017. Now, the year since Scott was named CEO of Chipotle as C-O in 2017. |
| 1:16.8 | Now, the year since Scott was named CEO of Chipotle has been arguably one of the toughest in the company's history, as it has dealt with flat sales in traffic and an overly saturated |
| 1:22.6 | fast casual competitive field. |
| 1:24.8 | I recently sat down with Scott in a Midtown Manhattan Chipotle as part of our |
| 1:28.9 | signature series, powered by the Coca-Cola company, to learn more about his career, his leadership |
| 1:34.6 | style, and what he thinks will help Chipotle to become a global iconic brand. In this conversation, |
| 1:40.9 | you will learn more about why your best shot at winning as a brand |
| 1:44.5 | is to double down on what made it special in the first place, why you have to accurately |
| 1:49.2 | identify your problem before you start chasing solutions, and why CEOs are storytellers |
| 1:55.5 | as much as they are business leaders. If you learn something from this episode, go follow |
... |
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