Chili’s CEO Kevin Hochman starts his day before sunrise, and some of his best business ideas come to him once he’s on the move.
“I usually start between 5 and 6 [a.m.],” Hochman, who is president and CEO of Chili’s parent company Brinker International, told Business Insider.
After checking emails, he heads out for his daily 3.25-mile run, followed by a walk with his dog. However, Hochman’s morning routine isn’t just about fitness: those quiet, early-morning hours have become an informal strategy session for Hochman, one that helps shape decisions at a chain with locations across 49 states and more than 70,000 employees.
“Between running and walking the dog, you get a lot of ideas on what the things we should be working on are,” he said. “It typically generates a lot of ideas when it comes to thinking about the business.”
The habit reflects Hochman’s broader leadership approach, which has helped fuel Chili’s turnaround: constant employee feedback, attention to detail, and a willingness to rethink how things are done.
Hochman gets to Brinker International’s Dallas headquarters around 8:30 a.m.
Hochman’s days shift from solo brainstorming time to a packed schedule of internal and external meetings, restaurant visits, and “listening sessions” with employees inside Chili’s restaurants, where many of Chili’s biggest changes actually originate.
Hochman told Business Insider that during these sessions, he often asks employees what they’re most excited about at Chili’s and what they would change if they were in his position.
“A huge amount of the changes that we’ve made at Chili’s have come from sessions like those,” he said, like streamlining inventory counting to be monthly instead of weekly.
Other days are focused on big-picture decisions with his leadership team, reviewing product launches, customer feedback, and performance across the business.
Sometimes, he’s in the Chili’s test kitchen reviewing menu ideas, discussing trends, and tasting different versions of items to see what works best.
“We’ll taste some things, like how we can present our fajitas better,” which the chain is currently experimenting with, “or dessert innovation,” he said.
Ultimately, running a restaurant chain with more than 1,000 locations means “a lot of meetings,” he said, with teams ranging from restaurant operators to corporate staff and investors.
While his day bounces from high-level planning to the details of how food is prepared in each restaurant, it all starts the same way: with a run, a dog walk, and ideas that could eventually become the next big thing at Chili’s.
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