Chik-Fil-A’s Business Succeeds By Focusing Attention Elsewhere

By Linda Orlando

S. Truett Cathy is one of the country’s leading businessmen. The founder and chairmen of Chick-fil-A first ventured into the restaurant business in 1946 when he and his brother Ben opened a restaurant in Atlanta. The diner, called The Dwarf Grill, prospered as it grew larger and was renamed The Dwarf House. In 1967, Cathy founded and opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlant’s Greenbriar Mall. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Cathy’s restaurant was the first to invent and market the boneless chicken sandwich. He pioneered the idea of placing fast-food restaurants in shopping malls, with employees standing in front of the counter handing out samples of the tasty chicken to shoppers passing by. Cathy’s company operates the third-largest quick-service chicken restaurant company in America, with per-unit sales for free-standing restaurants that are actually higher than fast-food giants like Burger King and McDonald’s. Yet Chick-fil-A is different from other fast-food restaurants in one extremely significant area: their restaurants close earlier than most other fast-food joints, and they are always closed on Sundays.

S. Truett Cathy makes no bones about why he does not choose to do business on Sundays, the traditional day of rest for American families in generations gone by. "Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to things more important than our business. If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we needed to be in some other line of work. Through the years, I have never wavered from that position." Cathy attributes most of his successes in life to his commitment to serve God and others, particularly young people. He has helped thousands of employees, foster children, and other young people through the WinShape Centre Foundation he established in 1984 to help "shape winners." He has also been well-loved for years by the hundreds of young men whom he taught in Sunday School for the past 50 years. "I see no conflict between biblical principles and good business practice," Cathy said in an NBC interview. "Corporate America needs faith in something more than the bottom line."

Cathy’s faith has served him well both personally and professionally. Today there are more than 1,040 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 34 states and the District of Columbia. The company has enjoyed an unparalleled record of 34 consecutive years of annual sales increases. Even though the company gives all its employees Sunday off to spend with their families and to express their faith, their restaurants make more in sales in six days than most other national chains show in their seven-day weeks. Chick-fil-A has a credo of four rules that each employee is instructed to adhere to at all times:

• Climb With Care And Confidence
• Create A "Loyalty Effect"
• Never Lose A Customer
• Put Principles And People Ahead Of Profits

The success of Chick-fil-A may seem to be due to a flavorful recipe for fried chicken, but the company’s success is in fact based on the inspiring recipe for success S. Truett Cathy instills in all of his employees.