Au Bon Pain - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Sep 2014
News

An MBA That Served up a Big Slice of the Snack Market

Keywords: Panera; Au Bon Pain; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

09 Nov 2023
News

A Third Act for Ron Shaich (MBA 1978)

Widely credited with pioneering the concept of the restaurant industry’s $80 billion “fast casual” segment, Ron Shaich (MBA 1978) started small: a 400-square-foot business in Boston’s Downtown Crossing that sold cookies. From those humble but tasty beginnings, Shaich... View Details

01 Mar 2004
News

Ron Shaich’s Café Society

Pain. My partner, Louis Kane, and I incorporated in 1981, went public in 1991, and had 250 stores by 1993. How did Panera come into the mix? In 1993 we Au Bon Pain acquired a... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

17 Apr 2017
News

Panera-bred Leaders Have Risen Throughout the Restaurant Industry

As Ron Shaich (MBA 1978) grew Au Bon Pain and then the Panera Bread Company into the nation’s largest “fast casual” chain, he was also shaping a team of highly skilled... View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

01 Sep 2023
News

Alumni and Faculty Books

Lifetime of Transformations By Ron Shaich (MBA 1978) Harvard Business Review Press Ron Shaich is a business visionary who has been part of building three iconic restaurant brands: Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread,... View Details

27 Nov 2013
News

No Bologna, Please

public in 1991. In 1993, the pair acquired St. Louis Bread Company, a 19-store chain of eat-in cafés based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving freshly baked artisanal bread, sandwiches, soups, and salads. By this point, Au View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

24 Apr 2014
News

Ron Shaich (MBA 1978)

Ron Shaich’s (MBA 1978) first venture, a cookie shop in downtown Boston, evolved into Au Bon Pain. His latest—Panera Cares—allows customers to pay only what they can afford at the popular restaurants he... View Details

01 Sep 2007
News

Where Are They Now?

HBS faculty in 1980 and teaching organizational behavior, in 1985 he decamped to Au Bon Pain, the chain of bakery cafés, serving as COO for several years before returning to HBS. At the School again until... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

01 Sep 2011
News

The Spangler Effect

shared crowded dining facilities with Executive Education participants and had no place to study or hang out, forcing them to disperse to their dorms or off-campus residences. And the Au Bon View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jun 1996
News

Class Acts

man. "As part of the 1 percent of HBS students who are Democrats," Lyon quips, "I used to read only the New York Times. Now I read the Wall Street Journal, too." « Back to the top of the page A Woman's Place — Melissa J. Ma by Elaine Gottlieb When Melissa Ma bounds... View Details

Publications