DAY 25
HATCH By David Farmer VP, Product Strategy & Development at Chick-Fil-A @ David_Farmer Chick-fil-A was born out of innovation.
T
ruett Cathy had been running a small diner for almost 20 years when he made a simple, but life-changing discovery. By taking the bone out of a chicken breast and pressure cooking it, he could prepare a chicken sandwich fast enough to meet the needs of the shift workers he served on their short meal breaks. Seems simple enough, but to that point, no one else had done it. That discovery, coupled with his tasty recipe for seasonings and breading, led to the “invention of the Chicken Sandwich” and the opening of the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in 1967. Other innovations soon followed for Truett, including pioneering food in malls before food courts existed, and creating a unique Operator Agreement that enables talented restaurant Operators without significant financial resources to be in business “for themselves, but not by themselves.”
mark in 2000, the focus was squarely on quality and continuous improvement. Subtle changes were common, but rarely was there dramatic change. The formula for opening and operating restaurants was working – so why mess with it? While continuous improvement is important, it became apparent that this focus would not be enough to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place around the business. New competitors were popping up (e.g., Chipotle, Five Guys), new technologies were becoming prevalent (e.g., smartphones, social media), new customers were emerging (e.g., millennials), and a new food culture was being fueled by TV shows, celebrity chefs, food bloggers, and ethnic culinary trends. For Chick-fil-A to remain healthy, and be an industry leader, more radical innovation was needed.
These innovations provided Truett the platform he needed to grow his business rapidly, riding the wave of mall construction in the 70’s and 80’s. Recognizing that the pace of new mall growth was not sustainable, Chick-fil-A opened its first freestanding restaurant in 1986. The willingness to re-invent the business proved critical. Today, freestanding restaurants make up the overwhelming majority of locations and sales.
In 2008, I was part of a small innovation benchmarking tour to Silicon Valley – arguably the epicenter of innovation in the world. Dan Cathy, Truett’s oldest son and the current President of Chick-fil-A, was also part of the group. We visited Google, HP Labs, IDEO, Lucasfilm, Autodesk, Pixar, and other organizations that were doing groundbreaking work. I remember sitting in the d.school – a pioneering innovation center on the Stanford campus – and deciding that we were going to launch our own innovation practice to feed a “culture of innovation” at Chick-fil-A.
As the business grew, first hitting the $1 billion sales
By 2009 we had established a small, full-time
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