
Before the corner office came a failed broadcasting plan, a grocery aisle, and one stranger who noticed the care he took with a shelf. The lesson still shapes how Taco Bell's CEO thinks about culture, curiosity, and the useful limits of expertise.

A finance chief learned to count more than dollars: stores, livelihoods, second chances. Now the CEO of Not Your Average Joe's is testing what durable growth looks like after two very different corporate rescues.
He studied the science of bread, learned scale at Panera, tried to make Friendly's friendly again, and returned to his bakery roots at Levain. John Maguire's career is a lesson in fixing what customers can see - and what companies prefer not to.