By Francesca Fontana

In Personal Board of Directors, top business leaders talk about the people they turn to for advice, and how those people have shaped their perspective and helped them succeed. Previous installments from the series are here .

Niren Chaudhary said an adage came to mind when he thought about how to lead Panera Bread Co. through the coronavirus pandemic: "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

The chief executive of the sandwich-and-soup chain looked for ways to adapt to the health crisis while making sure workers weren't left behind. Panera started selling groceries like milk, and fresh produce, capitalizing on intense demand for household staples. At the same time it allowed furloughed workers to dine free once a week. and arranged opportunities for out-of-work employees to fill open positions at CVS Health Corp. until they could return to Panera.

"I believe that life has to be a balance of ambition and compassion----doing big things but doing them with heart," Mr. Chaudhary says. He took the helm at Panera last year after holding executive positions at fast-food giant Yum Brands Inc. and Krispy Kreme, a doughnut chain owned by Panera parent company JAB Holding Co.

Compassion is a consistent theme in Mr. Chaudhary's life, shaped by the lifelong struggle of one of his children. His daughter, Aisha Chaudhary, died at 18 years old in 2015 of pulmonary fibrosis.

"Seeing her suffer so much up close deepened my sense of empathy and desire to give back," he says. "When it's time to hang my boots, I want to be remembered as somebody who helped people become much better."

Among Mr. Chaudhary's trusted advisers:

DAVID NOVAK

Co-founder and former CEO, Yum Brands Inc.

Mr. Chaudhary spent 23 years of his career at Yum Brands, joining the company in 1994 as president of Yum's operations in India before becoming the global president of Kentucky Fried Chicken in 2015.

Yum Brands had 100 stores in India when Mr. Chaudhary arrived in India, and he was overwhelmed by the challenge of bringing life to these brands in a new country. Mr. Novak advised him to not worry so much about the brand and the strategy, and focus on securing the best talent.

"I really took that advice to heart," he says. "Now, the first thing I do is make sure I have the right team around me."

A few days after Mr. Chaudhary's daughter died in 2015, he was surprised to find Mr. Novak standing at his door. He estimates that Mr. Novak spent about 50 hours traveling on commercial flights to spend four hours with him, comforting him after his loss.

"That expression of humanity and compassion and care----I recognized how much that means to people that you work with," Mr. Chaudhary says. "That you care for each other as humans, not only in terms of what I can get from you."

RANJAY GULATI

Professor, Harvard Business School

After Mr. Chaudhary lost his daughter, he didn't know what to do next.

"I took a bit of a sabbatical and went to recharge my batteries at Harvard," he says. In 2016, Mr. Chaudhary attended Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, where he met Mr. Gulati, then-chair of the program.

Since then, Mr. Gulati has been a mentor, guide and friend to Mr. Chaudhary, someone who can give him valuable business input and help him clear his head.

"Professors have the uncanny ability to simplify the complicated," he says. For instance, Mr. Gulati has taught him that company leaders can't innovate their way out of a proverbial "death spiral."

"His lesson was that if you're in trouble and you over-innovate, you accelerate the death spiral," he says. "It's counterintuitive, but just step back, do less and focus on the core of who you are."

PETER HARF

Chairman of JAB Holding Co.

Mr. Chaudhary met Mr. Harf in 2016 while interviewing to join JAB's Krispy Kreme brand. The two of them connected over their respective family losses.

"He had lost his wife, I had lost Aisha, both because we were not able to find a bone marrow donor," he says. "We decided we must work with each other."

Mr. Harf taught him many lessons about maintaining a small company mind-set when running a large company, about following one's instinct and thinking like an entrepreneur. But Mr. Chaudhary learned another lesson from Mr. Harf: How to convert pain into purpose.

After his wife died from leukemia in 1991, Mr. Harf founded the bone marrow and blood stem cell donor database DKMS. Mr. Chaudhary's daughter died after she was unable to find a matching stem cell donor.

Like Mr. Harf, Mr. Chaudhary has found purpose in sharing his daughter's story in the 2019 Indian film "The Sky Is Pink," and in promoting awareness of stem cell donation through DKMS.

"We joined hands, Peter and I, to try and see if we can make a difference," he says.

PAUL MICHAELS

Former CEO, Mars Inc.

The two men first met in 2017, when Mr. Chaudhary was Krispy Kreme's chief operating officer and president of its international business and Mr. Michaels served on the board.

Mr. Chaudhary says they connected immediately, and since then Mr. Michaels has been a valuable source of advice and insight into building brands through storytelling.

"I learned from him that all of us, irrespective of our titles, are brand builders." he says. Mr. Chaudhary often goes to Mr. Michaels to get clarity on the story he is trying to tell when building brands.

The former Mars chief executive is also a source of personal inspiration to Mr. Chaudhary, who admires his tenacity and says Mr. Michaels is "1,000% on his game, every single day."

"I believe that the human experience is all about resilience in the face of adversity and to just keep going," Mr. Chaudhary says. "I'm inspired by people who are doing just that, who are grateful for the gift of every day that they have."

Write to Francesca Fontana at francesca.fontana@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-14-20 0015ET