2020-03-01 Entrepreneur Magazine

March 2020 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / 19

CARREN COSTON/Director of real estate

“I oversee the U.S. growth of our company-operated Shake

Shacks, so I work with our CEO and CDO to create the strat-

egy for where to expand, and then we travel together to find

the spaces. Recently, the process has changed a lot. When we

were newer, it was more of a gut feel—it was our customers who

were telling us where to open next. Now we’re using more of a

data-driven process to complement our instincts.”

MARK ROSATI/ Culinary director

“I’ve been here for 12 and a half years. When I joined, the menu was some-

what static. Simple. But we realized that that’s not a lot of fun. We started

to pay attention to what our guests were asking for—and they were asking

for bacon. So in 2012, we added the SmokeShack, a cheeseburger with

smoked bacon, ShackSauce, and chopped cherry peppers.”

Inside Shake Shack

IN 2003, as the story goes, New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer scribbled some burger-based ideas on the

back of a napkin. That eventually became the inaugural menu for Shake Shack, an outdoor food stand in Man-

hattan’s Madison Square Park. The burger concept has now grown into an $839 million restaurant chain with

281 locations worldwide. The current menu has stayed close to Meyer’s original vision (cheeseburger, mushroom

burger, crinkle-cut fries) even as new items are conceived of and tested at the company’s Innovation Kitchen in

New York’s West Village. The corporate team works just upstairs, and like the brand, their jobs are constantly

evolving: A shift manager was sent to Shanghai and an art director helped out with the brand’s IPO. Here’s how

the team creates success out of such simplicity.

Interviews by HAYDEN FIELD

DAVE YEARWOOD/ Area director

“I joined the company 11 years ago as a line cook.

I served as manager and senior general manager

before becoming area director. Starting from the

bottom, I got to learn everything, from the per-

spective of our hourly team to our high-level goals.

That’s served me well in being able to bring people

up as I’ve moved forward. What’s really made me

stay is our commitment to employee growth.”