As far as management teams go, the gang at Chipotle gets a lot of things right. Since the spinoff from McDonalds in 2006, Chipotle has managed to grow profits from $1.28 per share to an estimated $12.60 by the end of this year. When you increase profits almost ten-fold in under ten years, it’s probably a pretty darn good automatic indicator that you’re doing something right.
And for those of you that appreciate the process of how things get done, you can’t help but tip your cap towards how Chipotle management has generally treated shareholder capital. Chipotle has no debt, no preferred stock, no pension obligation, and hardly any encumbrances on the balance sheet (Chipotle does rent about $185 million worth of machinery each year, but other than that, no outstanding commitments). And the company has actually managed to reduce its share count from 32 million to 31 million over … Read the rest of this article!