For a fresh take on this
topic, I recently spoke with Jeff Kip, chief financial officer of Panera Bread Co. Kip was one of a half-dozen people we profiled in the The Deal (subscription required) in 2003 in an article called
"From making deals, to making deals work." All had moved from investment banking into corporate development. At that time Kip, who had previously worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and UBS Warburg, was only a few months into a new job as vice president, corporate development at the
bakery-cafe chain.
Promoted to CFO in 2006, Kip reports that he's learned a lot since we last spoke with him -- but not necessarily about finance. "I've learned an enormous amount about how an organization learns and succeeds and prospers, and how to be a part of that process," he says.
The last five years have been eventful ones for Panera, which was launched and is still led by CEO Ron Shaich, who had an earlier hit with Au Bon Pain Co. The number of stores has more than doubled, going from 140 company-owned and 365 franchised units in 2003 to a total of 1,185 units as of March, of which 510 are company owned. Deal work for Kip has consisted mainly of buying in franchisees with multiple units, plus the
acquisition of a Phoenix-based bakery chain in 2006.
But there's been a lot more to his job than that. As he told us in 2003, a big part of why he went corporate was the chance to "help drive the boat," and so he has -- sometimes through choppy waters. The CFO job includes responsibility for investor relations for this growth company, which has
seen its shares go from a high of around $75 in March of 2006 to a low of around $32 last December, back to about $46 on Thursday. The company is now doing well in a tough restaurant market, according to this
Reuters report.
Kip, who spent eight years as an educator after graduating from college in 1989, is pleased to be working as a member of a team that's been together for a good while -- a contrast to an i-banker's life. And instead of having his time pretty much controlled by clients, he says his agenda "is driven by what I want to achieve." To be sure, these satisfactions came at a financial cost. Kip says he took a 50% pay cut to make the move in 2003.
Kip's responsibilities have grown steadily since then, and in December of 2007, when company president Neal Yanofsky left, he added still more. He recently hired a new VP for corporate development and investor relations, Michel Harrison. (More on her in a later post.)
Harrison came over from Raytheon Co., but Kip says he's certainly interested in hearing from i-bankers when Panera's in the market for executive talent. Bankers, he points out, tend to be high achievers who went to good schools. "I welcome all the investment banking resumes I can get," he says. But people who are contemplating a change need to be committed to it. "I want to be a destination, not a trade," he says.
They should also keep in mind just how important the organizational dynamics are in a corporate setting. "If you can't handle the organizational stuff," says Kip, "you'll flame out in six months." -
Kenneth Klee
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