CHALLENGE
FORGING THE RIGHT PARTNERSHIPS
As a Venmo user, Margaret Keane has just one
gripe: “It’s mostly money going out,” she says,
laughing. “I rarely get any money coming into my
account.” She had been using the app ever since
her son introduced her to it, primarily as a way to
send money to younger relatives.
So when she learned that Venmo wanted to
launch a credit card, she knew she wanted to go
all-out to win the deal.
Synchrony, which split off from GE Capital in
2014, powers branded credit cards for the likes
of Amazon, Google, Lowe’s, Banana Republic,
T.J. Maxx, and PayPal (which, by the way, owns
Venmo). But Keane understood this partnership
required a unique pitch. “When you’re striking
partnerships, you can’t get too comfortable and
just rest on your laurels,” she says. Indeed, earlier
in the year, Walmart had announced that, after a
20-year partnership with Synchrony, Capital One
would become its new credit card issuer.
Keane organized a task force of millennial
BUSINESSPERSON OF THE YEAR
Q3 2016 Q3 2019
0
100
200
$300 million
CHIPOTLE NET INCOME
(QUARTERLY,
TRAILING 12
MONTHS)
$309.8 M.
80
FORTUNE.COM // DECEMBER 2019
example of how good
getting the basics right
can be. “When it’s done
well, it’s one of those
dishes you talk about for
a while,” he says.
It’s an appreciation
that has served Nic-
col well since joining
Chipotle in March 2018.
He was tasked with
turning the chain around
after a spate of E. coli
food scares beginning in
- A raft of executives
departed, and the stock
sank some 66%.
The company had
become defensive, Nic-
col says, rather than
embracing the innova-
tive approach to ethical
eating that made it such
a sensation in the first
place. Oh, and customers
told him the food had
gotten, well, bland.
“We had to get better
at making the food,” he
says. Niccol began by
shoring up the essentials,
for instance, making
sure employees were
retrained in making
guacamole the “culinary”
way, tasting it to make
sure the flavors were
in balance. He then
debuted some classic
fast-food strategies
Chipotle had long
eschewed: launching
ad campaigns and
introducing new
menu items, a rewards
program, drive-thru
windows, and additional
assembly lines to meet
delivery-only orders.
The changes have
driven revenue growth
of 13.1% to $5.4 billion
over the past 12 months,
and the chain quickly
became one of 2019’s
best- performing stocks,
hitting a record high
in July and again in
October. Meanwhile, the
company has delivered
an impressive run of 12
consecutive quarters of
revenue growth through
the third quarter of
- In 2019, it expects
to open 140 to 155 stores
and, in 2020, up to 165—
from just over 2,500
stores at the end of the
third quarter of 2019.
But even as the chain
grows, says Niccol, “we
can never go backwards
on the things people
already love about the
business: the guacamole,
the chips, the chicken,
or—as my 8-year-old
daughter would point
out to me—the white
rice,” he says.
And his job isn’t done.
He admits he’s not quite
happy with the queso—
yet. —Katherine Dunn
MARGA R E T
K E ANE
CEO SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
Chipotle Racks Up a
Growing Pile of Chips
PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA GREENFIELD
