An old friend of mine has been promoted to the role of CEO of Pret and I’m really happy for him. He came up through the ranks so he knows the business inside out, I’m certain that the business is in safe hands with him. This has got me thinking about the nine years that I spent at Pret, I was fortunate to advance reasonably rapidly from assistant manager to regional director in just under seven years. I learnt a lot and came away with many happy memories although as always there is this nagging Feeling of “what if?” Who knows how things would have turned out if I stayed. I’m pretty certain that I would have made it to UK operations director but after that, who knows? I suppose that as you grow older the number of “what ifs” grows as you make more career decisions. To be honest, I only have two regrets in my career. The first one was leaving Pret when I should have hung on for another year or so until after the sale to Bridgepoint. My biggest regret was leaving SSP to go to Egypt, that was a mistake of monumental proportions and one that had a negative impact in both my personal life and my career.
Still, it’s to late to change the past and I’m much too busy working to restore the fortunes of Patisserie Valerie.
random outpourings 