Next time you get ready to inhale a ShackBurger at Shake Shack, the American fast-food chain with restaurants across the U.S. and internationally in countries like China and Qatar, remember this. Founder Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack meal of choice is a plain cheeseburger, fries and a coffee milkshake. His all-time favorite meal anywhere? Sausage and mushroom pizza.
A foodie since he was a boy, Meyer launched his career as a restaurateur in 1985 at age 27, building an upscale, fine-dining empire with top New York City restaurants like Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern. He is currently executive chairman of the Union Square Hospitality Group, which owns several restaurants.
Along the way, Meyer decided to bring his special McNulty Leadership Program Authors@Wharton interview with Adam Grant, a Wharton professor and thought leader in
Conversation Starters
Are you a Shake Shack regular? Were you surprised to learn about its inception at the hands of an upscale restaurateur?
Wharton’s Adam Grant and Danny Meyer talk about the combination of evidence and intuition. How do you believe the two should strike a balance? Should one be weighted more than another? What is your optimal experience-to-evidence ratio? Have you tested this theory? How?
Why do you think that Danny Meyer says it’s important for entrepreneurs with big ideas to ask themselves what will happen if it works?
