For Kevin Hochman, the day begins long before most people are awake. The president and CEO of Brinker International, which owns Chili’s, told Business Insider that he typically wakes up between 5 and 6 am, and some of his best ideas come to him during his early morning run.
“I usually start between 5 and 6 am,” Hochman said.
Before heading to the office, he spends the early hours checking emails, going for a 3.25-mile
(roughly 5 km) run, and later taking his dog out for a walk. But for Hochman, the routine serves a bigger purpose than simply staying active.
Morning workouts as brainstorming sessions
Hochman said many of his strongest business ideas emerge during those quiet hours outdoors, when he has uninterrupted time to think about the company and its direction.
“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.”
That routine mirrors the leadership style that has shaped Chili’s recent turnaround — one focused on listening to employees, refining operations and reassessing how the business functions.
From early-morning ideas to packed workdays
After finishing his morning routine, Hochman arrives at Brinker International’s headquarters in Dallas at around 8:30 am. From there, the day becomes packed with meetings, restaurant visits, and conversations with employees across the company.
One of the key parts of his schedule involves holding “listening sessions” inside Chili’s restaurants, where he speaks directly with workers about what is going well and what could improve.
During those discussions, Hochman often asks employees what excites them most about the company and what changes they would make if they were leading it themselves.
“A huge amount of the changes that we’ve made at Chili’s have come from sessions like those,” he said.
He pointed to one example where employee feedback helped simplify inventory checks by reducing them from weekly to monthly.
Inside the test kitchen and leadership meetings
Not every day looks the same for Hochman. Some are spent with senior executives reviewing customer feedback, business performance and upcoming product launches. Other days take him into Chili’s test kitchen, where he works with teams to evaluate menu experiments, discuss food trends, and sample potential dishes.
“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.
Leading a restaurant giant
Managing a restaurant chain with more than 1,000 locations means Hochman’s calendar is filled with discussions involving restaurant operators, corporate teams, and investors.
Even though his responsibilities range from long-term strategy to details like menu presentation, the foundation of his workday remains unchanged: an early start, exercise, time with his dog, and the quiet moments where new ideas often take shape.
