A Secret to Chipotle’s Good-food-fast Innovations

Michael Giberson

At Slate, Matthew Yglesias tells the story of a business that is booming: Chipotle’s Mexican Grill, “a company that shows there’s clearly room for growth and innovation in even the most basic sectors of the economy.”

The chain has been expanding rapidly, Chipotle’s stock has risen 500 percent over 5 years, and yet:

… the food service industry can’t seem to get any respect. Politicians don’t name-drop burrito innovators as examples of the kind of entrepreneurs they want to encourage, and despite food’s ubiquity in our lives, culinary progress is slighted as a source of human progress.

Chipotle’s growth since its 2006 IPO should be seen as a great American success story. There’s nothing new about fast food, of course. But it’s not as if Steve Jobs invented the cellphone.

Yglesias follows with, “In many ways, the Chipotle burrito is very similar to the iPhone.” Maybe that analogy is a little strained, but it doesn’t matter, we get a peak at some of Chipotle’s key innovations. The article usefully reminds us that not all innovations are high tech or high science.

(The article gives a brief shout out to burger chain Five Guys, also a family favorite.)

MORE: Another story of entrepreneurial insight in action: Risk and stealth paid off in Eagle Ford shale.