The benchmark by which I view CEOs was established by a former client who steadfastly avoided the media limelight despite orchestrating one of the most successful mega-mergers of all time and creating a company that still ranks in the top tier of the Fortune 500. The client also consistently ranked as delivering the biggest investor bang for the buck because the returns he generated far and away exceeded his corner office peers given his comparatively modest compensation. I’m not mentioning his name because he didn’t want favorable mentions when he ran one of America’s biggest companies, and I doubt he’d appreciate a shout out now.
The CEO led by example. His company operated on very thin margins, and that was readily apparent by his office. The well-worn and mismatched furniture possibly would have been rejected by a thrift store, and the company’s lobby had plastic plants to save on the costs of a service to water them. The CEO not only flew coach, but he also didn’t object to being assigned a middle seat. When flying with his sales folks, who offered him their upgrades routinely received because of their elite frequent flyer status, he declined.
Humility and a judicious avoidance of the media limelight are also traits of the two business leaders I admire most these days: Fidelity’s Abigail Johnson and SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell. Overseeing a company with $15.1 trillion in assets under administration makes Johnson one of the most powerful people on Wall Street, and Shotwell—SpaceX’s employee No. 7—built a rocket company achieving feats that eluded NASA. Johnson rarely talks to the mainstream media, and as best I can tell, Shotwell never has.
Admittedly, Fidelity and SpaceX are private companies, so they don’t have to impress Wall Street or anyone else with their management prowess. I imagine there are some CEOs in the S&P 500 imbued with a modicum of modesty and humility—I’m just not aware of them. What’s obvious is the prevalence of narcissistic CEOs leading America’s public companies, a phenomenon that’s been documented by organizational psychologists in peer-reviewed research and seemingly has become more widespread than ever.
CEO narcissism is characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy. CEO narcissists believe that rules and even their own mandates don’t apply to them. Having affairs with subordinates is universally verboten, yet there have been quite a few CEOs who have been exposed having affairs with subordinates, including tech CEO Andy Byron, who was caught in a romantic clutch on a Jumbotron “kiss cam” with his company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, at a recent Coldplay concert.
Rules for Thee …
CEOs are increasingly demanding that employees return to the office, but they aren’t leading by example. A survey of 500 UK-based CEOs revealed that only seven percent of chief executives in that country go into the office five days a week. That certainly holds true for Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who by any measure is the poster boy for CEO narcissism.
Niccol is one of America’s most lavishly paid executives. Although he worked only the last four months of the year, he received $96 million in 2024 compensation—6,666 times the pay of the median Starbucks employee. Starbucks’ board handed him the chairmanship as well, giving him absolute control. Corporate governance experts have long viewed allowing CEOs to chair their boards as poor practice, since it effectively lets the executive control the agenda and oversight.
Despite his obscene largesse and the trust implied by the board’s move, Niccol refused to relocate his family to Seattle, where Starbucks is headquartered, insisting instead on running the company from tony Newport Beach, California, where he has long lived. In May, Business Insider reported Starbucks was seeking a qualified pilot for its latest Gulfstream jets, so it’s safe to assume Niccol doesn’t mingle with the little people when traveling to Seattle or elsewhere.
BI recently revealed that Starbucks outfitted Niccol with a remote-office Taj Mahal: a 4,624-square-foot workspace designed by a leading architectural firm and built by a boutique contractor with luxury finishes, floor-to-ceiling Pacific views, “gothic white oak flooring,” custom sinks and countertops, “elegant lighting,” and a fancy cappuccino machine that retails for about $14,000.
The lavish spending is especially galling given Niccol’s offer of $6 million in stock grants to top managers—if they help him meet cost-reduction goals by the end of fiscal 2027. Meanwhile, he’s mandated headquarters employees work from the office at least four days a week because, in his words, “we do our best work when we’re together.”
Niccol’s self-centeredness is no surprise to those familiar with his past. When he became Chipotle’s CEO in 2018, he moved the company’s headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach—uprooting hundreds of employees to spare himself and his family the inconvenience of relocating to Colorado.
Niccol’s Chipotle Myths
Niccol’s boosters like to frame his Chipotle tenure as a master class in leadership because he restored trust in the brand after a series of food-handling illnesses, increasing revenues to $11.3 billion in 2024 from nearly $5 billion when he joined. During Niccol’s tenure, the company’s stock soared tenfold, from $6 a share in early 2018 to more than $60 when he left in mid-2024, while its market cap grew from $9 billion to more than $80 billion.
That said, Niccol inherited—rather than created—a brand that had already cultivated cult-like loyalty with its “no freezers” freshness and affordable premium positioning. While Niccol cut costs and introduced some innovations like order screens, delivery, and “Chipotlanes” drive-throughs, his most tangible contribution was raising prices.
Over the past decade, Chipotle’s menu prices jumped about 43%, meaning much of the revenue growth came directly from customers’ wallets, not operational breakthroughs. Under Niccol’s watch, Chipotle quietly tried reducing portions, sparking online outrage and a lawsuit alleging the company downplayed customer dissatisfaction from its “skimpgate” scandal.
Niccol, who is named in the lawsuit, claims there was no company-wide directive to cut portions, seemingly implying that low-wage employees took it upon themselves to bolster Chipotle’s profits. Regardless, Niccol transformed Chipotle’s culture into a bottom-line fast-food mindset—something the company’s founder steadfastly avoided.
“(Niccol’s) experience and worldview is processed, profitable, and not very organic foods,” Michael W. Morris, a professor at Columbia Business School, told BI. “He’s an MBA quantitative marketing kind of guy, good at cutting costs in supply chains.”
Chipotle’s Fast-Food Culture
BI reported that Chipotle’s once-rigorous training program—reminiscent of the Culinary Institute of America, where the company’s founder attended—was gutted. Employees increasingly struggled to meet performance standards, leading to high burnout. In 2024, a Glassdoor review study of 550+ large employers ranked Chipotle second for employee burnout, behind only Progressive Insurance.
Meanwhile, Chipotle’s labor infractions piled up:
- $20 million settlement with NYC over nearly 600,000 scheduling and paid-leave violations—the largest worker-protection payout in the city’s history.
- $2.9 million settlement in Seattle for failing to give extra pay for schedule changes and retaliating against workers.
- Multiple NLRB charges for unfair labor practices, including alleged threats and retaliation against organizing workers.
Chipotle even closed a Maine location the day before its workers’ union election hearing.
Turnaround Great Success?
When founder Howard Schultz ran Starbucks, it was a premium brand with baristas proud of their craft. Today, the cachet is gone. Niccol’s “back to our roots” strategy involves baristas with mandated smiles scribbling vacuous messages on paper cups while customers linger in redesigned stores with more electrical outlets to plug in their digital devices and tune out the world. Although Starbucks continues to hemorrhage sales and customers after nearly a year with Niccol at the helm, as one might expect from a narcissist, Niccol maintains that his turnaround is ahead of schedule.
Some Wall Street analysts and the media have embraced Niccol’s hype, but Niccol’s turnaround ultimately depends on his front-line barista employees—and they aren’t fooled.
Since Niccol’s appointment, an estimated 80 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, including some in the Deep South where union opposition is formidable. At Downtown Disney, workers have staged repeated work stoppages over staffing shortages and unrealistic corporate expectations.
One disgruntled employee issued a message addressed directly to Niccol:
“We are the ones who foster connections with customers and keep them coming back, but time and time again, you are ignoring our demands and making our jobs harder,” the employee said. “Your priorities are all wrong. While you spend money on celebrity appearances and posh manager conferences in Las Vegas, many of us are struggling to pay rent, and while you’re adding complicated new Frappuccinos to the menu, we are fighting through under staffing shifts that make it impossible to get our drinks out within your newly declared four-minute rule. We deserve better.”
Niccol announced his “four-minute rule” for employees delivering orders to customers in October 2024 at his first conference call with investors—an effort to improve customer experience and boost sales.
Disneyland is in Anaheim, about 20 miles from Niccol’s Newport Beach home and 13 miles from John Wayne Airport, where I’d wager Starbucks parks its Gulfstreams to whisk Niccol to Seattle and other destinations of his choosing.
Jury is Out
Some CEO narcissists succeed, at least for a time, and Elon Musk serves as Exhibit A. But Niccol faces some especially formidable competition, including from a fast-growing Arizona-based chain called Dutch Bros, which unlike Starbucks is experiencing impressive sales growth and opening stores, rather than closing them.
“When you look at the same-store sales, plus the store growth, it’s clear that Dutch Bros is gaining share from Starbucks,” TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles said.
Notably, Dutch Bros CEO Christine Barone has proven leadership experience managing a premium brand, having previously served as CEO of True Food Kitchen, a healthy eatery I frequented before it closed its Santa Monica location. Luckin Coffee, which obliterated Starbucks in its native China, has established a beachhead in New York City and is expected to expand across the U.S.
Perhaps Niccol’s turnaround really is ahead of schedule. Yet during a recent visit to a Los Angeles Starbucks, not much appeared to have changed as Niccol’s one-year anniversary as CEO is less than a month away.
I’d consider myself blessed if Dutch Bros or Luckin Coffee opened in my neighborhood. I can’t imagine either chain is as unwelcoming or serves the overpriced, low-quality coffee beverages of my local Starbucks.
A shout out to Business Insider for its stellar — and refreshingly contrarian — reporting on Starbucks and CEO Brian Niccol on whose recent scoops I’ve relied on heavily for this commentary. Kudos to BI as well for its exclusive, critical coverage of AT&T CEO John Stankey’s return-to-office mandate.