{"id":17130,"date":"2026-09-29T09:49:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T09:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=17130"},"modified":"2026-09-29T09:49:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T09:49:53","slug":"danny-meyers-promote-from-within-culture-80-of-his-gms-started-as-hourly-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=17130","title":{"rendered":"Danny Meyer’s promote-from-within culture: 80% of his GMs started as hourly staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Good morning. Danny Meyer is often accused of being an optimist. \u201cI\u2019m just as tired as anyone I know of uncertainty, cynicism, negativity, skepticism, bad news,\u201d the founder and executive chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group told me yesterday. He can\u2019t fix the tax code or the tariffs, though he did apologize to Canada for the latter after detecting my accent. What he can control is the question he starts every day with, and the title of his book that goes on sale today: What Could Possibly Go Right?<\/p>\n

The last time Meyer wrote a book was 20 years ago, when he published Setting the Table, which popularized the idea of \u201cenlightened hospitality\u201d that put employees first and investors fifth (in a tier of five). The book was influential but, Meyer says, incomplete. \u201cI had never scaled anything. I had no experience having a second version of anything, never mind over 700 versions of something like Shake Shack,\u201d he said. \u201cI had also never closed a restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Meyer\u2019s failures and how he dealt with them while continuing to grow are at the heart of his new book. And there\u2019s plenty of good advice from the front lines of a 41-year career that\u2019s spawned fine-dining icons like Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, and Eleven Madison Park (since sold), alongside catering, fast-casual, and newer concepts like Ci Siamo, which will soon open in Boston. Entrepreneurs, in particular, could learn a lot from this guy.<\/p>\n

But Meyer also offers a valuable perspective on how leadership scales from personal ambition to an infrastructure for success. I\u2019ve watched how he\u2019s mentored others over the years, giving not just capital but good advice. He stepped down as CEO in 2022, handing the reins to restaurant veteran Chip Wade. \u201cI had a couple of false starts with it before,\u201d Meyer said, noting that it worked because he developed a process for empowering others and learning to let go. \u201cWhat are all the things on the calendar that someone else on our team could do at least as well\u2014or maybe better\u2014than I can?\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s kept the title of founder and executive chairman, along with other responsibilities. \u201cThey all start with C. I still am our chief culinary officer. I\u2019m our chief cultural officer: everyone is responsible for culture, but the buck has to stop with me. And I\u2019m our chief creative officer, so when we have a new restaurant opportunity, I\u2019m in the room helping to create what that concept should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most important is the role of engaging employees: \u201cFor 80% of our hourly workers, it is the first job they\u2019ve ever had, and for 80% of our general managers, they started off as hourly workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, for all the complaints about New York, it\u2019s where you\u2019ll still find Meyer on a typical day: \u201cNo one is here by accident. It\u2019s way too challenging,\u201d he told me. \u201cI think we all are getting our knives sharpened on the edge by being around so many strivers, and I just find that so energizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/p>\n

Top leadership news<\/p>\n

Introducing the Fortune AIQ 75<\/p>\n

The Fortune AIQ 75 list highlights select Fortune 500 companies that are making the most progress on adopting and scaling AI. See who made the list here as well as a close-up look at company strategies that work.<\/p>\n

AMD buys World Labs in an $8.2 billion AI deal<\/p>\n

AMD is acquiring World Labs, the physical-AI startup cofounded by Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal valued at $8.2 billion. The deal brings World Labs\u2019 work on AI models that understand the physical world into AMD\u2019s chip business as AMD competes more directly with Nvidia in robotics and other AI applications.<\/p>\n

Europe sees an opening as U.S. scientists look abroad<\/p>\n

U.S. scientists and researchers are increasingly considering work overseas amid funding cuts and concerns about academic freedom. Europe is responding with initiatives such as the EU\u2019s \u20ac500 million Choose Europe for Science program, though lower pay and bureaucracy are still obstacles.<\/p>\n

The markets<\/p>\n

S&P 500 futures are down 0.01% this morning. The last session closed down 0.77%. The STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.32% in early trading. The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100 was up 0.28% in early trading. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 was down. 0.60%. South Korea\u2019s KOSPI was down 0.27%. China\u2019s CSI 300 was up 0.10%. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng was down 0.48%. India\u2019s NIFTY 50 was down 0.51%. Bitcoin is up at $84k.<\/p>\n

Around the watercooler<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia is reaping a massive oil windfall, making it perhaps the Iran war\u2019s only winner. Tehran\u2019s proxies actually \u2018did Saudi a favor\u2019 by Jason Ma<\/p>\n

China has quietly got Trump by the soybeans by Mia Osmonbekov<\/p>\n

AI companies must watch out for freeloaders burning tokens for free\u2014and wrecking margins one sign-up at a time by Sarita Singh<\/p>\n

Billionaire David Rubenstein tells young workers to learn how to read and write in the AI era: \u2018Learn how to speak effectively and persuasively\u2019 by Emma Burleigh<\/p>\n

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n

#Danny #Meyers #promotefromwithin #culture #GMs #started #hourly #staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Danny Meyer is often accused of being an optimist. \u201cI\u2019m just as tired…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[1277,898,22101,22104,22105,22102,22103,2398,3817],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}