Case Study: Chick-Fil-A And Leadership

In 1946, in Hapeville, GA, Truett Cathy opened the first Chick-Fil-A restaurant. It was first called The Dwarf Grill which soon got renamed as

Truett started experimenting with different ways to cook and serve chicken quickly and economically. He started serving a fried chicken breast fillet on a bun to keep customers from getting grease on their fingers. He then went on to perfect the “chicken sandwich” by experimenting with different cooking methods, seasonings and spices. When he finally felt it was right he had ended up using a special blend of seasonings and cooking the chicken in a pressure cooker with peanut oil, then adding a pickle to the finished sandwich. This would eventually become the Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich and become a lasting part of the Chick-fil-A formula.

I learned about the Chick-fil-A Franchise Opportunity through my own personal research. I began to research an opportunity with Chick-fil-A when I purchased my home in Elgin and found myself driving to Austin to enjoy Chick-fil-A with my children every Saturday.

According to the Chick-fil-A Team Member handbook, “... we strive to maintain an atmosphere of hospitality for all customers. We want to create a pleasant experience for all who visit our restaurants. We maximize the opportunity to build the business and to positively influence others by creating a welcoming environment. We are hospitable to all customers.” Employees are specially trained to provide a favorable experience when handling visitors or long-time customers. Chick-fil-A began in 1946 in Hapeville, GA, when Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant, Dwarf Grill. Credited with inventing the original boneless breast of chicken sandwich, Mr. Cathy founded Chick-fil-A, Inc. in the 1960s and pioneered the establishment of restaurants in shopping malls. The first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in a mall in suburban Atlanta in 1967. Starting then, Chick-fil-A has steadily grown to become the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States, with more than 1900 locations. Many reviews on the dining experience are 3.5 to four out of five stars. Based on 91 reviews from Consumer Affairs dot com, the average rating was four out of five

Chick-fil-A was established as a company in 1946, it was first known as Dwarf Grill and later became known as Chick-fil-A in the 1960’s. The company has since then grown into a billion-dollar corporation with over 2,000 restaurant locations in 43 states, the company is still privately held and family owned.

It is a centralized system, where decisions and recommendations come from the top down. However it is also flexible giving any employee the freedom to reach out to an upper level director. This succession of power lets Cheesecake Factory operate smoothly and competently. Each location manager has to go through extensive training to be able to be in that position and is well qualified to look over the whole restaurant. Given the success of Cheesecake factory, I would say they should keep their hierarchal structure the same and if anything they should add higher monitoring of lower levels. The upper levels seem to operate efficiently, but upon reading employee reviews of working at Cheesecake factory, there were several that were unhappy with their general managers. Many of them claimed that the management was unapproachable, and did not pay attention to the hard work of the employees. It was also said that the managers tend to be overbearing and lack communication skills with employees. Another overarching theme was the inconsistent breaks because they are up to the discretion of the manager. My recommendation would be to invest more in the employees and the directors that are above the general managers to make sure that the employees are satisfied. Promote company values more and participative leadership and more incentive for employees to go above and beyond and focus on team building as opposed to individual competition. In one of the reports they even said themselves that the success of the business is due to happy employees. “Our future growth and financial success will be highly dependent on our ability to attract, develop and retain qualified staff members who are capable of successfully managing upscale, high-volume casual dining restaurants, and consistently executing our extensive and complex

One key responsibility of working as a manager is to recognize the best way to organize and run an organization. A manager who can work with and put into motion the structure and plans of a company is very important to the life of the organization. Chief Executive Officer of Chick-fil-A Dan T. Cathy is an example of such a manager and business owner. Chick-fil-A began its journey in 1960 in Hapeville, Ga. Since then the second

Chicken! Chicken! Chicken! Southerners are crazy about it! Chicken is an iconic meal, from grandma 's kitchen to fast food restaurants. Sometimes grandma 's home cooked chicken is not always readily available, so what is the next best option? This is my review of two very popular fast food chains, the main item on each menu is none other than chicken. These two restaurants go by the name Chick-fil-A and Zaxby 's. Chick-fil-A has a bit of an interesting story, with the franchise being very comfortable with the Christian faith. Because of this, all locations are closed on Sundays and holidays. Information from their website shows that Chick-fil-A cares for its community and is involved in several fundraisers for churches and schools. Zaxby 's observes normal hours and does not really take part in community events. I visited the Chick-fil-A over on Harris Lane in Bessemer, Alabama at around noon. This Chick-fil-A just opened a few years back and has been very popular since. On a different occasion, I visited the Zaxby 's just a few miles down the road from Chick-fil- A, located on Academy Drive. The website describes Zaxby 's as a “chain eatery serving up fried chicken fingers, wings, sandwiches, and other American comfort eats”. These two competitors offer very similar menu options, but completely different environments. Although Chick-fil-A has better customer service, Zaxby 's has tastier food and an overall better ambiance.

Chick-Fil-A is an American food restaurant franchise having its head office in Georgia, USA. The company was established in 1946 and has gradually entrenched itself in the American food industry as a cultural icon in the Southern United States for its specialty in preparation of chicken sandwiches. Chick-Fil-A prides itself for the establishment of over1690 branches located within the United States alone as well as its economic contribution to the larger part of Western America and California. It realized sales of around $4.6 billion in 2012, which reflected a 14 percent increase over the overall performance experienced in the previous year by the chain while the same-store sales performance increased by 8 percent. In Houston, Texas, the greatest performer realized a 7.2 million total gross sales in 2012. Chick-Fil-A uses a significantly distinct model, notable in the retention of the ownership of each restaurant since its acquisition. Chick-Fil-A selects the most suitable restaurant location, undertakes its construction, then takes over its ownership. Chick-Fil-A requires a payment of only a $5,000 as capital to become an owner of their branch while its rival franchises pay almost $2 million. The company receives over 15, 000 submissions annually from interested franchise operators for the available 70 slots. Chick-Fil-A receives a bigger allocation of income in comparison to other chains amounting to $190,000 per year. Chick-Fil-A’s solid mission statement and its

How may I serve you? This is the greeting everyone gets when they dine at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. The company's relentless pursuit to build relationships with its customers goes beyond chicken sales. As a leader or manager, scanning your organizations external environment for opportunities and threats will assist in keeping employees motivated and the customers loyal during turbulent times. This paper will evaluate the external environment of Chick-fil-A, determining the extent to which opportunities exceed threats, or threats exceed opportunities.

Chick-fil-A is affected by numerous external forces which challenge upper management’s ability to make Chick-fil-A "America’s best quick-service restaurant". Through intense strategic planning, based upon the vision, mission and corporate values, Chick-fil-A has been able to establish a unique position in a very competitive industry. The corporate purpose of Chick-fil-A, "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come into contact witch Chick-fil-A", their commitment to family and the community, and their sound business decisions, have made Chick-fil-A one of the most profitable and fastest growing quick-service restaurants

Chick fil A is a unique company and is clearly different from most fast-food restaurants; employees are kind, helpful and maintain a clean environment no matter where they located. As stated previously Chick-fil- A’s corporate purpose is constructive in addition it emphasizes their culture “To glorify god by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil- A.” (cite) This statement truly shows how the company’s leadership has created a culture where service is just as important as profit. The emphasis of this section of the paper will be to research while also analyzing how Chick-fil-A makes people a priority and how doing things in an uncommon way has certainly helped Chick-fil-A create a strong culture as well as a successful business.

Chick-Fil-A, is one of the fastest growing chicken branches in the United States. They are also the company that invented the Chicken Sandwich. If you ever go to a Chick-Fil-A, you will know that they didn't invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich. The reason that Chick-Fil-A puts that there is so that they can try to get people to go to there store, it is almost like a way of marketing for there franchise. The main topics are how Chick-Fil-A is passing all the other chicken restaurants, the History of Chick-Fil-A from 1946- 2000, and the History of Chick-Fil-A from 2001-present day.

Chipotle is facing numerous challenges due to the fact that E. coli outbreak which requires the corporation from the key stakeholders to keep it under control and apply the new food safety protocols which can aid to bring the regular customers back. Although the main cause remains a mystery, Chipotle’s E. coli outbreak has been authoritatively declared officially over by the experts. However, since the poisoning outbreak, the impact of the reduced number of customers affects the profit which the company used to enjoy before such eventuality (Scholes 27).

The major competitor to be outlined is Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A provides customer delight and satisfaction which is the company’s competitive advantage. Chick-Fil-A has created innovative dining experiences focused on building meaningful relationships with their consumers. Implementation of new services such as “Moms Valet’ has had positive impacts on the customer experience.