This episode of the Theology of Business Podcast is sponsored by our friends at GWT2 Energy. You want to increase the profit margins of your restaurant or retail operation? One way to do that is to lower your energy costs. With over 20 years' experience helping restaurants and retailers reduce their energy bills, GWT2 Energy helps owners and operators create a customized energy savings plan that will achieve up to 25% energy savings. To start saving and become more profitable, visit gwt2energy.com. That's the number two, gwt2energy.com. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Theology Business Podcast. I'm your host, Darren Sheer, and this is a show that helps marketplace Christians partner with God in business to help you make disciples of your company, your industry, and your community. On this episode, we're joined by Steve Robinson. Steve was the chief marketing officer of Chick-fil-A from 1981 to 2015. I mean, just think about that for a minute. Think about how Chick-fil-A has grown during that time. And Chick-fil-A makes more money per restaurant than McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway combined. When you think about the initiatives and the innovations and the brand messaging that came through during that time, like eat more chicken, you know, that that statement, Steve, is so pervasive. You may be aware of this. I've got a kindergarten son. Whenever kindergartners and young kids sing happy birthday to each other now, at the very end of happy birthday to you, you know what they yell out? Eat more chicken. Like it was, it was like it's it's so pervasive that I was at uh a kindergartner's birthday party with with my son the other day. And the mom just she just didn't, she wanted just to keep it real simple and didn't want people like yelling things out during her you know, sweet daughter's birthday party. And she said, All right, kids, we're not gonna yell out eat more chicken at the end of happy birthday. Okay, I don't want so it's just it's that it's that pervasive. Um the Chick-fil-A cows, you know, setting up freestanding stores outside of shopping malls, even breakfast. You know, you talk about this in your book, just kind of how that that innovation came about, the decision to uh put fresh cut flowers on the table, all the new sauces, you know, that we take for granted now. You know, they weren't always there. I think, I think throughout my lifetime, the the barbecue sauce has been there, but all these other favorite Yeah, it is, it is the Chick-fil-A peach bowl, fastest drive-throughs on the planet. And in his book, Covert Cows, how Faith, Cows, and Chicken built an iconic brand. Steve details how he and the Chick-fil-A leadership team, intentionally curated by Truek Kathy, kept their Christian faith at the core of the business, staying true to Proverbs 22, verse 1, which says, A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. Steve, thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_05Thank you, Darren. Treat to be here.
SPEAKER_06Well, what was your experience like coming on board, Chick Floyd? Because there was no marketing department when you came on the scene, right?
SPEAKER_05No, there wasn't. I was uh that's a that's a pretty important story. I was director of marketing for Six Flags Over Georgia uh in the summer of 1980. My phone rings, and it's Jimmy Collins, who's the chief operating officer for Truitt. And he called me to say, Listen, we don't have a marketing department. We've got a search going on. Your deep your name keeps coming up. I knew that I knew they didn't have a marketing department because about a year and a half earlier I pitched them on building a Chick-fil-A restaurant at the theme park to build the brand Create Trial, and they wanted to make money at it, which wasn't they wanted to deal with design that way. Anyway, they chose not to do it. So when he said we don't have a marketing department, first thing that went through my mind was, I already knew that, or you would have done that deal with me. But uh that he asked me what I like to interview, and I had a great job, director of marketing, six flags, pretty cool, cool, pretty cool job in the city of Atlanta.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_05And uh, but I thought, you know, here's a private company. Six Flags is now owned by a public company, local, strong values. Um, I think I can spare three or four days and interview. So let me jump ahead to December. I'm still interviewing. Uh, and this is a story that really illustrates the foundation of what made Chick-fil-A special. I'm interviewing with True Cathy. It's the first week of December, and I've been with him about an hour, we're eating lunch in their offices, which at the time was just a converted butler building in South Atlanta. I said, True, what are you looking for in the ideal market in Canada? And he said, Uh, I have absolutely no idea. All I know is whatever it is, I don't want to do it. And I was a little caught off guard, and then he said, But I do know this that if we invite you to come here, it's because we can trust you. We've decided we can trust you, we can have fun together. He said, Because it's our intent if you come here, you'll never go anywhere else. Now, I've already had four jobs in a period of eight years, um, three of them with six legs, but nonetheless, I've been moving around, and I found that answer surprising and fascinating. And then he said, the most important decision we make here is who we invite into the organization. And then another pause, and he said, We don't train culture, we hire it. Now, this is a man that never got went beyond high school with his education, but uh he was incredibly wise and astute, and he realized uh I realized right then that if he made the number one priority of the business, who he selected into the business, and it certainly lined up with the kind of people I'd already met through the interviewing process. Now, the reason that story's uh important on two points. Number one, he built the business on the foundation of his values, his faith, but the most important decisions he practiced was who he invited into the business. Number two, if he did trust you, he left you alone. And I worked with him for 34 years, and not one time did he ever call me in his office to say, Hey, I think you made a mistake, you screwed up, why'd you do that? And as you know in my book, I unpacked some mistakes, but he never did anything to undermine my confidence and his trust in me. Wow, and as a result, we had the freedom um to think outside the box, to be innovative, and we had the long-term, you're not going anywhere, we had the long-term horizon of being able to think about what's in the best interest of the customer, what's what's gonna really build the reputation of Chick-fil-A's brand? How can we make this business unique and special for people? And so, my my career journey was one that was marked by empowerment because of this, because this guy lived out the very thing he told me in the last interview. Yeah, I don't know what it is that needs to be done. I'm gonna count on you to do that, but if I trust you, then I'm gonna empower you and we'll have fun together. And we did have incredible fun, it was an amazing environment. Yeah, um, I knew I had to retire sometime, but uh it was it was hard to leave because we were we were still having a lot of fun when I walked out the door.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, uh a company who can bring you know cows, you know, people dressed up as cows into the building, you know, that that that's a company that likes to have fun.
SPEAKER_05Well, you know, let me tell you a couple of funny stories about that. He um I never actually showed him the creative that we chose to run. Uh we hired the Richards Group in Dallas in 1995, and they came up with the cow concept, cow billboard in 1996. And we actually put it up before I didn't feel compelled to show it to him. We loved it, my team and I loved it. We put it up on one billboard in Atlanta just before the 96 uh Olympics. And um about it's been up about a week, and my phone rings and it's true. And he never calls me, uh-huh, but he's he calls me, he says, Steve, can you come to my office? And I'm thinking, Oh man, what's on his mind? Um, and it even crossed my mind maybe he doesn't like that billboard. I go up there and he's got another guy's gentleman sitting there with him across from his desk. I'll pick touch your thing. He said, Steve, this is John Smith. Um John is with the Georgia Cattlemen's Association, and he didn't like that billboard you guys have put up. He said, What are you gonna do about it, Steve? You know, he's putting he's putting it in my lap. What do you what do you think we ought to do about that? So I looked at John Smith and I said, John, I know Truett raises Angus cattle on his farm for a hobby, but he makes his living selling chicken. And the initial result seems to be this this this billboard helping us sell chicken. So I don't I don't think it's gonna go anywhere unless Truett tells me to take it down. And true had a big smile on his face by this time and looked at John Smith and he said, uh, I agree with Steve, I think we'll keep using that billboard. So it was one of those many experiences I had where we knew early uh that the the cow, the eat more chicken idea had a hook to it, a memory to it. It was totally outside the box of conventional fast food advertising, and uh the rest is history. You know, when I left, we had worked with the cow campaign and the Richards Group for 22 years. So it was it was a man, amazing experience, but it's another example of how truett was was empowering. He didn't judge it, he didn't prejudge it, he let us run with it, turned into a big, a big part of the brand.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's just one of the great stories from Steve's book, Covert Cows. And you know, when you came into the company within the first couple of years, it was the economy was kind of in the tank, and and Chick-fil-A was struggling. It was the first year that sales declined, correct?
SPEAKER_05That's correct. You yes, yes, good for you.
SPEAKER_06You read the book, yes, sir. And and there was uh a retreat, there was a meeting called where the the actual Chick-fil-A mission statement emerged during that time. What tell us that story?
SPEAKER_05Well, it was 1982, and for those that don't know their history, uh interest rates went up to 18, 19, even 20 percent. So, what happens is what you would expect. Um development stops. So, well, at that time, Chick-fil-A had all their stores in malls, and uh in 80 and 81 they'd open together a hundred stores, a lot of growth. But suddenly in 82, when that that price of money went up like that, developers stopped. I mean, even malls coming out of the ground stopped, retail sales slowed down. Shroud actually signed a note to build the first office building, so his personal property was on the line, and our sales went down, and in fact, it went down a lot. So cash flow was suddenly a big, big concern. And yes, he came to our young executive committee. Uh, by that time, I think there were eight of us, and he said, Hey, we got a problem. I want to know what you're gonna do about it. And our initial reaction was we didn't create the problem, but we'll we'll we'll certainly dig in. And he asked us to get off site, so we went off-site uh for two and a half days. He was with us. We did the things that you probably think we would do in the first day. We cut the budget, we put a freeze in hiring, we we stopped all new store construction, uh, other than ones where we had definite leases already signed and we had fulfilled. So we went from over 50 new stores in '81 to I think 18 in 82. Um, and we kind of sat around the room after a little about two-thirds of the day and realized, well, other than that, we really like the plans. In fact, the plans for the next year included the introduction of Chick-fil-A nuggets. Um, so there was the seed of a potential growth right there. And I think it was Dan who, Dan Taffy, who looked at the group and said, Well, we've done that, uh, but but we may have a bigger issue, and that is we have all these relatively new Chick-fil-A operators and staff members that join the family, and they cannot be real clear about how we look at the business, and more importantly, how true it looks at the business. Um, why are we in business? I mean, what's the most important thing to us? Is it just sales growth? Is it just profitability? How do we help people understand who they've hitched their wagon to here? And so we spent the next day and a half talking about why does Chick-fil-A exist? And I'll I'll just give you a high fly-by summary. We heard most of that conversation started by listening to Truett. Truett, what's important to you? And um, Truett informed us in no uncertain terms that as far as he was concerned, Chick-fil-A was a gift. The business was a gift, the sandwich was a gift. Uh he didn't he didn't like the crisis, but he made it clear: listen, I've been through other crises before. I've had two major medical issues, I've had a store burned down, had another store that didn't work, I lost a brother in an airplane crash. So this is not my first rodeo when it comes to a crisis. I look at this business as a gift from God, and my responsibility, our responsibility is to steward it well. If he chooses to prosper it, great. If not, that's okay. That led to us a day and a half putting putting down words and phrases on poster boards and eventually writing Chick-fil-A corporate purpose. First time it had ever been put in writing, to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that's entrusted to us, and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A. Three big ideas glorify God by being great stewards of people, resources, and then having a positive influence on all who come in contact with the business. And um, in other words, let's run a business that glorifies God, but let's do it by being really good, excellent leaders and managers of what's put in our hands. Yeah, and if we do that well, then hopefully we have a chance to have a positive influence people we serve. And the and the influence really comes through the local leadership of the operators who run those Chick-fil-A oper those those businesses, those independent operators. Yeah, they're not they're not managers, they're independent contractors. And so true it, all of us felt a great deal of freedom to say, hey, the greatest opportunity for stewardship, the greatest opportunity for uh positive influence in our communities is how do we equip these operators to uh not just sell a lot of chicken sandwiches, but attract and develop great people and serve their communities. So uh yeah, that meeting to solve a cash flow problem uh resulted in the corporate purpose. It sits on a bronze plaque out in front of the original office building that did get built. Uh, not one word is changed, and and I I can assure you uh it is still the center point and probably uh the number one litmus test of how decisions decisions are made at Chick-fil-A. Um, I know we went back to it constantly. You know, we're about to do this or think about this or make this kind of investment. Is this going to live up to the standard of the corporate purpose? And uh you have now the second generation of Kathy families leading that business. They're still fully committed uh to what's written on that bronze flag.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, beautiful. You know, and the structure of that that corporate purpose is is a lot like the great commandment Jesus gave, you know, love God, love people. Yeah, glorify God, and then to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A. I mean, that's really the love, yeah, the love people aspect.
SPEAKER_05And uh, I I would tell you, Darren, um, that experience caused me personally to step back and and spend time with Diane. And are we clear about our purpose? And we crafted our own personal and family purpose. Uh it's very similar to the Chick-fil-A purpose. Glorify God, being great stewards, have a positive influence. But in obviously, in our case, um it became a filter on how we made decisions and how we tried to lead and develop our children. And uh so that whole that whole experience was a life lesson, um, not just for a business, but for those of us who were part of it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, and the you know, and that's the outworking of the of the corporate purpose. It's having it's having a positive influence on you.
SPEAKER_05Yes, as it's starting with that group in that room, no question about it.
SPEAKER_06Yep, exactly. So powerful.
SPEAKER_05Now, interesting, the next year, you didn't ask, but the next year, uh, the economy wasn't any better. But you could sense when we announced and unpacked that purpose, um um, kind of a cloud lifting uh from the business. And in 1983, we had a 36% sales increase. Same store sales went up 29%. Uh, we were able to obviously get through the cash flow crisis, uh, or checkfully wouldn't be here today. Um, so I think people focusing on the long term and understanding why the business existed created created a relaxed environment. And um people just like Diane and I, people found alignment with it, and we just went to work and as it turned out, God bless.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. There was this uh this, and I don't know if this is like an apocryphal story from Chick-fil-A, but there's a story about when Chick-fil-A was kind of struggling and and Boston market, there was some competition there, uh, and and there was uh an aggressive approach to wanting to open up new stores very quickly. And then as the story goes, true cathy slams his fist down on the table and says, Gentlemen, we don't need to get bigger, we need to get better. And when we get better, our customers will demand that we get bigger. Is that is that the way the story went?
SPEAKER_05Or well, it's partly true, but not totally. True, we in the 90s we were growing rapidly, and we were borrowing money for the the site, dirt, the dirt, and to build the building shelf. We were using cash flow then to finish out the restaurants. In other words, we were kind of replicating the mall concept. Chick-fil-A went on, uh, build the find the site, build the restaurant, finish it out with cash flow, and right down to the first inventory. Well, the result of that is we get into the mid-90s and we've got a lot of debt on the books. And Truett turns 80 and he comes to the executive committee. He doesn't slam his hand. I I never saw Truett slam, I never saw him slam his hand on the a desk or a table ever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05He simply came into the meeting room, he said, guys, um, he seldom came to the meeting. Jim Collins, in fact, asked him that day, True, uh, what do you got on your mind? Because obviously you're here. And he said, Well, I don't feel like a guy who just turned 80 ought to have 250 million dollars of debt on the books. Now, in the the scale of the business, in the grand scheme of the business versus cash flow, it was not a lot of debt. But he grew up in the Great Depression and he he hadn't forgotten 1982. And he just basically said, slow down, I want to get out of debt. So that led to a decision, all right, how do we get cash cash flow dependent, debt-free? And we had to adjust growth plans. And I would tell you, there are what the side benefit beyond getting debt-free, which took about seven years. It didn't happen overnight. We set up we set a course and we got there. But the other great thing that came out of that being dependent upon cash flow was it forces you to live within your means. Um you don't get out ahead of your skis and grow too fast. And there were a lot of brands out there, um, uh, and maybe even the one you mentioned got out ahead of their skis and grew too fast. And it forced us to really, with every investment, say, okay, is this the best use of a dollar versus using that dollar over here? And what what if we're gonna hire talent, which what what's the priority of the talent we hire? And we're not gonna be able to hire everybody we want, and we've got to prioritize it, we've got to draw a line and say we're not gonna we're not gonna build beyond this point, we're not gonna hire talent beyond this level. And we developed the discipline of, as I said, living within our means. And uh, I think it was one of the besides getting the financial health and getting debt free, I think it created a tremendous process of due diligence and zero-based budgeting in the business. And we learned how to be even better stewards because of through simply saying, I want to get out of debt. Yeah, there's probably a lot of application to us personally, people listening. Um if the the best the best way to be a great steward is to have a freedom to um exercise judgment over every dollar and not have a debt holder who's already got an allocation of it that you can't touch.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and true understood that. Yes, he he wanted he wanted freedom to allocate resources the way he wanted to do that, and that included tithing and building his foundation and and giving back to the communities in which Chick-fil-A served. I mean, one example, last year Chick-fil-A gave $15 million in scholarships to store employees. But he started that program in the mid-70s when the scholarship was $1,000 for a team member, and it's still going strong.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But but it's a lot easier to do when you're you're not on the hook for a lot of other obligations.
SPEAKER_06Right. And and in the Chick-fil-A stores, there's this, and and just throughout the culture, there's this second mile principle, you know, that Jesus talked about uh going the going the extra mile. Correct people that ask you to do things. Right.
SPEAKER_05Matthew 5, 41.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, even even when it feels unjust that you have to go to that to that length, you know. And I I've seen stories of of Chick-fil-A workers changing people's tires and you know, just just I mean, when you talk about going the extra mile, so what how did that kind of make its way? And it obviously this has been there really from the beginning because that's truett's heart. It was, but in terms of like the the biblical um framework for that and how that that really became prominent culture, how did that happen?
SPEAKER_05Well, probably in the early 2000s, um, I can't give you the exact year, Truett visited a Britz Carlton. He was on a trip. And he got impressed by how he was anytime he said thank you to a team member in the hotel, they'd always say, My pleasure. And he noticed that when that happens, you can't help but have eye contact with the person, and there's this you kind of natural reaction to smile, and you have a personal connection. Short liked it. And he came to one of the Chick-fil-A seminars, which was the national meeting, and asked all the operators if you would ask your team members when somebody says thank you, tell them my pleasure. Well, I'll shorten the story. He makes that request three years in a row at the national meeting, and there's not a lot of traction. He he's out visiting stores and he's not seen a lot of it or hearing a lot of it. And finally, after the third year, uh, Dan, Kathy, and myself, and a small group of people, we we pulled together and we said, Hey, how serious about this? There's wisdom in this, he has a natural heart hospitality. How do we institutionalize hospitality? Consistency, just like two pickles on a sandwich. And Dan was the one that said, Why don't we draw on the principle of Matthew 541? Where Christ said, Hey, if the it was in the context of the Roman Empire, if a Roman soldier asks you to carry his pack a mile, which was the law, I say you carry it too. Do the unexpected. Uh earn a platform to share who you are and who you serve. That's basically what Christ tells them. So, how do we how do we create a hospitality model around that principle going next to mile? And again, I'll shorten the story. We spent seven years working on it. We benchmarked great hospitality service businesses. We studied their their hospitality habits, we figured out how they trained, we looked at how they measured, and we set out to do the same thing. We got some tremendous consultants to help us, and we formulated uh hospitality behaviors that customer value based upon customer feedback. We built training programs around them, we put in measurement around them, just like we expect two pickles. How do we how do we measure hospitality performance so it's consistent? If it's not consistent, it won't be a brand signature. And by year seven, we had proven to operators through test stores that they not only could do it, but it it would actually help their sales. And it wasn't just a warm fuzzy that wouldn't have an impact on the business, it would actually help the business. Yeah, and so by the late 2000s, uh second mile service became a norm for the brand. And uh Chick-fil-A operators perform across the board beyond our expectations. And you think about trying to train and equip 50,000 employees, that's what it was when we started. It's over 150,000 team members now. And for you to have a consistent my pleasure second mile experience, quite frankly, is probably harder than making sure there's two pickles on every sandwich. Yeah, as Dan says, we're we're trying to we're trying to train some young people in habits many of them have never been trained in. Uh respect they've never been uh trained in. Quite frankly, respect maybe they've never been shown. And how do we train them to show it? Yeah, and it's a challenge. But but having the operator model where you have a business leader who is attracting the kind of talent to the business they need, which now includes attracting hospitality talent, they pull it off. Um, I don't think the average fast food manager could ever do it, but Chick-fil-A operators could do it and they did it. And it's clearly now a part of the brand, it's part of the brand experience. And I I would say it's probably um more impactful than even the cow campaign because you're impacting every guest's interaction in the restaurant, in the drive-thru, even in the community, uh, when Chick Fully does events and delivers food, etc.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And and going back to the the corporate purpose, that part about having a positive impact on all, you know, on a personal level, when somebody says thank you to me, guess what I say?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's contagious. It's contagious.
SPEAKER_06And yeah, I've had a I've had a lot of Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches, but it because of that consistent consistency, I think I can remember only one time in you know, probably I don't know, what well over 10, 15, 20 years of going to Chick-fil-A restaurants that somebody when I said thank you, that they didn't say my pleasure. Maybe they were probably brand new or something like that, but it was it was so it sounded so like off character, you know, off because it is so consistent. And um, and that is that is incredible.
SPEAKER_05Well, it's and it's certainly not one of the reasons it was so powerful, is certainly not the norm in the fast food category. And I'm I'm not slamming other brands, it's just not part of those experiences. They tend to be very transactional oriented, get your food, get you out. Uh, Chick-fil-A has always been a brand, and this simply made us better at generating building relationships, right? Not transactions, relationships. And over time, what's happened is we now have we don't have a marketing department, we have a marketing army of Chick-fil-A fans, customers, yeah. Um, and and uh second mile service has been a big part of that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I mean, it's even just the idea of um the Chick-fil-A restaurant. I mean, when I when I think of other fast food places, I think of the name of the, you know, like uh you're going to McDonald's, you're not going to a to a McDonald's restaurant.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_06When people think about Chick-fil-A, they think about they're going into a restaurant. And that's the that's the verb. I remember Dan Cathy talking about this a while ago, but the the actual meaning of the word restaurant.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_06What is that?
SPEAKER_05Place of restoration.
SPEAKER_06A place of restoration.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_06Wow.
SPEAKER_05And uh uh Shuri talked about it. So Chick-fil-A's always been built on a premise of being a restaurant, a place of restoration. They make they make every store has its own kitchen. If you walk back into these kitchens, um it's like it's like a V8 and a Maserati. I mean, these kitchens are designed to produce fresh food. Yeah, um, they're not bringing food pre-made in any way into those restaurants. I mean, the closest thing it is the the waffle fries are pre-blanched, but everything in those stores is fresh made. So they have a heritage of being a restaurant because you're making fresh food.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And that came out of Truth's experience when he ran the dwarf house, which was a diner, and that's all he knew was making fresh food. But then you you add on to that, um, create an experience in the restaurant where you actually can sit down and somebody will bring you your food, refresh your drink, clean the table, uh, carry your order to the table if it's large. That's a restaurant experience. Um, it's not self, it's Chick-fil-A's really, unless you choose to be self-served by going to the counter, it's really not a fast food restaurant. They serve you in the drive-thru, they'll serve you in the dining room, they'll bring food to your office, they'll deliver food now to your home. Um, it is a restaurant. And um if you're gonna if you're gonna be a restaurant, why not create an environment where people feel refreshed, restored?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. And it's uh it's a restaurant, it's not a a political action committee. No, no, it's uh it's it's a place where people come to get restored and that's right, feel special and and respected. And and so with that second mile principle, can you tell us some of the uh the things that were happening when protesters were coming and the way the protesters were treated? And for those that we have a lot of listeners from around the world that might not be as familiar with the um you know the backstory, but you know, Chick-fil-A kind of came under fire for for something.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, well, it came on fire because um Dan Cathy was transparent and said he believed in traditional marriage, right? Uh and it got picked up and it got spread through the social media, and although we had always, and still to this day, I know this is still the case, did not want the restaurant to be a political social platform. Um, that happened. And so the response was we're not gonna get into a social media debate, we're not gonna stray from the premise of being a place of restoration and rest, we're not gonna we're not gonna get involved in politics or social uh debate. So we just turned to the operators and said, Listen, do what you do best. So when there were protesters, not many, but there were some stores that had protesters on their own. We didn't coach them. Operators would go out, offer them free lemonade, offer them a sandwich. Some of them even offered to take them to the back of the restaurants and give them a kitchen tour. Many of them, many of the the eventual customers uh chose to do that. And what happened was people found out, protesters found out, um this is really not this is really not the organization I'm reading about on the web. Um these people showed dignity and honor to me. Um and so the protesters the next day, many many times weren't there anymore because what they experienced didn't line up with what they've been hearing and reading. And that's how we dealt with it. We we left it in the hands of the people who served day-to-day, the operators and their team members. Uh, and they dealt with it graciously, they showed people honor, dignity, and respect, and it calmed down.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_05Now, did the brand take a little bit of a hit? Uh, it did, but predominantly with people who had never uh experienced Chick-fil-A.
SPEAKER_06Right, right. And people were being taken on tours of of the kitchen and you know, yeah, just really rolling out the the red carpet with that.
SPEAKER_05Roll out the red carpet. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's exactly right. I love that. So Chick-fil-A has has clearly transitioned from a regional brand to a national brand. And and you talked about the moment where you know you were on the field at the the Chick-fil-A peach bowl, and you know, this is this thing, this thing has gone to a whole new level. Yeah, what is it, what is it gonna take for Chick-fil-A to really become an international brand?
SPEAKER_05Well, I think, first of all, at a macro level, they have to stay true to their purpose. There they don't need, and and I don't have any question that that will happen. Uh family-owned, second generations leading now, a lot of third generation leaders already involved in the business. They love the business, they're committed to the purpose. And as long as they stay focused on the purpose and telling the stories that embody the purpose, including how how and why it was written. That to me is the starting point. Um, then when you think about international, the first opportunity is to maximize their opportunity right here in the United States. Uh, they have, I think today they have a little over 2,400 locations. Um, they could easily have eight, nine, ten thousand locations in the United States, you know, over probably over a period of a decade. Uh, I think they're gonna have the resources to grow that kind of clip. It's up to them. International, I think the great biggest challenge they'll face, and they know it, is one, can we live out the purpose and can we recreate the Chick-fil-A operator model? If they cannot recreate the operator model, they'll probably have a very difficult time recreating the experience, the guest experience, uh, at the level that they are able to create it in in the United States. They are already opening stores in Canada. Um, they are they're doing them, they're not using a partner, they're going to Canada, they're making the investments, they're finding independent operators up there, they're setting up all the infrastructure to serve Canada, and they're performing incredibly well because it's their, it's not just their investment, it's their model, operator model, and therefore it's their experience. If they can figure out a way to create that in other nations, terrific. They may very well be able to go beyond the United States and Canada. To me, those those will be the hurdles, and I and I don't think that's I know others in the business feel the same way. And it's a it's uh it's an incredible, it's an incredible stewardship issue right in the middle of the purpose statement. How do you steward this business that God has clearly favored well? Um, and how do you do it well, first of all, in the country that has already uh blessed you and given you the foundation that you have, and then secondly, then how do you do it well somewhere else? Uh it it's it's an incredible opportunity. Yeah. Um, I I cheer for them, I pray for them. There are days when I wish I was still there to be involved in it, but there's a lot of really smart, smart people there that also love Christ who uh I think will do a great job.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, I I hope this, you know, that those those Chick-fil-A's will start to go all over the world and praying for that to happen. I know when I was in the military and stationed in Kuwait, sure would have been nice to have a Chick-fil-A nearby, you know. Yeah, there because evidently in the Middle East and and really all over the world, you know, fried chicken is uh you know, we we as as humans, we love some fried chicken.
SPEAKER_05You get beyond you get beyond the corporate purpose and the operator model, and we start diving into the infrastructure and supply chain issues about going to places like that.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_05Uh, and the cultural context of wherever you're gonna go. Yeah, uh, it's it's a real challenge.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So um they're gonna they're gonna need a lot of discernment and wisdom.
SPEAKER_06Yes, amen. We're praying that God will continue to pour it out. So covert cows is the book. The subtitle is How Faith, Cows, and Chicken Built an Iconic Brand. I know people can get that on on Amazon. And I actually listened to the audio book probably, I don't know, six months ago before I got connected with Steve and have just been looking forward to this and and have enjoyed this conversation. Uh Steve, is there anywhere else where you'd like people to go and find out more about what you're doing?
SPEAKER_05Well, I think uh Barnes and Noble also carries the book. Uh, for their information was published uh by a division of HarperCollins, uh uh Nelson Publishing. And um they're doing a great job with it. And I have a website uh or I'm on LinkedIn if somebody wants to uh you know reach out to me. I sure do.
SPEAKER_06And what is the website for our listeners?
SPEAKER_05Srobinsonconsulting.com. Srobinsonconsulting.com.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Well, Steve, we appreciate your time. And um, there's there's so so much here that I know that our our listeners are gonna want to go back and listen to this probably while they're heading over to Chick-fil-A for dinner.
SPEAKER_03I hope so. I have a I have a pension. Continue to support me.
SPEAKER_06I was getting hung, I was getting hungry just preparing for this interview, you know, just thinking about Chick-fil-A biscuits and and spicy chicken sandwiches and all that good stuff. But um, it's just love watching what God is doing through Chick-fil-A and and so thankful for um the leaders like yourself who have um who God has used to to make it happen. Thank you, Darren. Certainly living out that that corporate purpose 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. And and I think everyone would agree that uh that this is happening. So we sure appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Darren. I appreciate your uh reaching out. I've enjoyed our visit a lot.
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