Why We Exist
In the early 1980s, Truett and Jimmy established the executive committee, with Dan and Bubba and the top officers from finance, design and construction, real estate/legal, marketing, and operations. At one of our first meetings, Buck McCabe, chief financial officer, distributed the corporate financials. Though we had discussed sales and expense numbers before, this was the first time I had seen the entire report. Buck guided us through the report, explaining key points.
My eyes landed on a line that showed Chick-fil-A’s charitable giving, and it was about 10 percent of the corporate profits. Truett was tithing corporate profits! As sole owner of Chick-fil-A, he might have directed that portion of income to his personal bank account or reinvested it in the company. But he believed Chick-fil-A was God’s company, and Truett saw himself as a steward of the asset more than an owner.
That moment early in my Chick-fil-A career became a huge encouragement to me. I was coming to understand the promises of Malachi 3 around tithes and offerings, and implicitly embedded in that is how we view money and our stewardship responsibility. In this incredible and faith-based promise, God says that if we will follow this principle of tithing, honoring, and worshiping Him, He will bless us. He does not describe what those blessings will be. He does not say we’ll never have problems. He just says, “I will bless you.” He says, “I will protect you from the devourer. I will protect your crops. I will protect your fields.” What does that mean? I took it to mean exactly what it says. He doesn’t promise prosperity, but rather blessing and protection when we are faithful.
Reflecting on the long-term success at Chick-fil-A, let me state with no false humility: we were not that smart. And, quite frankly, other Chick-fil-A executive committee members would also say we weren’t smart enough individually or collectively to explain the success of Chick-fil-A.
We had a founder and CEO whom the world would not consider particularly educated (he never attended college). Truett had a speech impediment when he was younger, but he overcame it so that now, when he spoke, people listened. He was one of the wisest people I have ever met. Truett Cathy applied what he knew to be biblical and Christian principles in his life and in his business. Within months of my joining the company, I had already seen numerous examples. Then I saw that line on the financials, showing that he was applying one of the most challenging principles to his business. During the course of my thirty-four years at Chick-fil-A, I saw a man in a prayerful, humble, obedient, servant relationship with God, and I saw that same man lead a company of men and women to heights the world marveled at. He created a simple product—boneless breast of chicken between two pieces of white bread with two pickles—that the world fell in love with.
Watching him interact with thousands of people over the years, I saw him respect the dignity of every person. He tried to see every person as God sees us. This is biblical, ground-level principle one, and business principle one as well. The Bible says that in the beginning we were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). We have a soul, a spirit, and a personality. Truett believed that truth and taught it by his example. I suspect as a boy he watched his mother as she ran the family’s boarding house and treated everyone with dignity—not just as a renter, but as someone to serve.
The Bible also says we were created “a little lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7 NKJV). We were created to lead and have dominion over creation. God put creation in our hands. That is stewardship. I came to understand that everything we enjoy, everything we touch and have in our hands, including relationships, money, and talent, we have a stewardship accountability for.
I share this from a position of honor, and I marvel at how God favored Truett and Chick-fil-A. When Truett had something important to say, God gave him the words to say it in an impactful and usually simple and clear way. He modeled for all of us how to apply smart business principles, which he did not see in conflict with biblical principles. Neither do I. And when we applied them, things worked, and in many cases they worked exceptionally well.
Truett created a business that reflected who he was as he tried to live out what the apostle Paul challenged us to do—live in the image of Christ.
I don’t know if Truett intended to demonstrate stewardship to the executive committee through tithing the business, but he did to me. I thought about it many times over the decades as we made decisions.
Crisis Clarifies Purpose
In the early 1980s, the global economy faced a significant recession. In the United States, unemployment and interest rates skyrocketed, and retail sales were in a tailspin. Chick-fil-A was not immune to its devastating effects. In 1981, the company saw same-store sales drop for the first time in its history, and this continued into 1982. Shopping malls, the exclusive location of Chick-fil-A restaurants, had stopped coming out of the ground, halting new store growth. Worse, the capital and financing costs of having opened stores in more than a hundred malls in two years weighed on the corporate profits, as did the $10 million note for the new home office. And don’t forget the $2 million “First ’n’ Best” debacle.
Truett called his executive team together and asked us, “What are you going to do about it?”
In the current mall and retail sales environment, we had no quick answer. So we scheduled a two-day retreat at nearby Lake Lanier Lodge for the executive committee to discuss with Truett his question and our options. In that small room with Truett were Jimmy Collins, Dan Cathy, Bubba Cathy, Bureon Ledbetter, Buck McCabe, Don Millard, Perry Ragsdale (who led design and construction), and me. For the better part of the first day, we reviewed our plans and our finances, confident that per-store sales would respond to the new nugget and soup products.
Those hundred new stores we had opened in 1980 and 1981 had been a drag in the early months of their operation because Chick-fil-A was still a new idea. In 1982, those hundred stores had just begun to grow their customer base and their sales. We were opening only eighteen new restaurants in 1982.
From a marketing standpoint, we had developed strategies to highlight our new products, with tools to maximize sampling and Be Our Guest cards offering free nuggets or soup. We planned extensive in-mall giveaways; nuggets were easy to sample at the lease line and also take around and share in mall offices. A great new finger-food entrée was ready to go.
Given the financial pressures, though, we had cut headquarters’ marketing expenses severely, so we couldn’t financially supplement advertising that the Operators might be planning. Once again, however, the key to building the Chick-fil-A brand resided with the Operators, not the corporate marketing department. Operators were appropriately becoming the primary marketing agents of the business, and that process was accelerated, in part out of the financial reality that we didn’t have any cash lying around to supplement their spending.
I believe crisis does more than reveal and shape character—it is also a primary catalyst of learning and creativity. Human nature drives us to be more proactive, sensitive learners when we’re in a crisis. We’re more receptive to the counsel of others.
The sun rose on the second day of our retreat, and we came together again. We agreed, based on day one, that our 1983 plans looked good. Dan Cathy changed the subject and suggested we look deeper than new products, financials, and plans. “Why are we in business?” he asked. “Why are we here?” He noted, and the rest of us agreed, that folks at Chick-fil-A were concerned, maybe even a little afraid. They had hitched their futures to Chick-fil-A. How did leadership see the future? What were our plans? Did we need to be really clear about why we were in business—what’s really important—in good times or bad?
What was the purpose of our existence? To push more and more chicken sandwiches across the counter? No. Serving chicken sandwiches quickly was not the reason Chick-fil-A existed; that was never how Truett Cathy saw Chick-fil-A. But neither he nor any of us had crystallized in words why Chick-fil-A did exist. We all embraced Truett’s values, and they were embedded in the culture. But now it was time to put our “why” into words. Everyone at Chick-fil-A needed to know. That became our day two assignment.
Our “purpose” model, as I just noted, was Truett, who, at sixty-one, could have retired and turned over his 255 Chick-fil-A restaurants to Dan and Bubba and lived off the income stream for the rest of his life. Or he could have sold the business. But he still had things to do. Like his wife, Jeannette, had told him twenty years earlier when he had his cancer scare: “God isn’t finished with your life yet.”
All for God
Since 1946, at the end of their first week operating the Dwarf Grill (later Dwarf House), Truett and his brother Ben had closed the restaurant on Sunday. Truett maintained that closed-on-Sunday policy with the founding of Chick-fil-A, and he often said it was the best business decision he ever made. He closed his restaurants on Sunday to honor God. He also tithed the company’s profits to honor God. He had taught Sunday school lessons to thirteen-year-old boys since 1951 to honor God and give his team a day of rest. But these things were just the outward signs of a heart truly devoted to the God he loved. Truett didn’t live this life and honor God out of a sense of duty but out of loving desire. He wanted to do these things. And he had nailed down these nonnegotiables long before Chick-fil-A took off.
As we attempted to answer Dan’s question, “Why are we in business?” we were trying to put into writing the way Truett had been living out his business practices and his life—the way he had already been leading us.
So the first phrase of our answer became “To glorify God”—that is, to give God glory and reverence because He created us, loves us, and is the source of everything in this world, including all that we have and enjoy. The Ten Commandments begin with God. The most ancient Old Testament scripture states, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV). And Jesus acknowledged this as the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29–30).
But how does one glorify God? Looking again to Truett for guidance, we realized he saw everything that he owned, whether possessions or relationships, as a gift from God and thus belonging to God. So if God owns everything, then Truett was simply a caretaker. A steward, looking after God’s possessions that He had put temporarily into Truett’s and our hands. Therefore, “we glorify God by being faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us.” Nothing in the statement we were crafting was more important to Truett than that phrase “by being faithful stewards.” The most important word in that phrase was by, just two letters. His premise was this business does not glorify God unless it is built upon great stewardship of the assets, talents, influence, and relationships entrusted to us. He felt accountability to his Creator—accountability for everything the Creator put into his hands and, thus, our hands—so he wanted a business that focused on doing those things well.
Then there is the second phrase in the greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” With that command, I am again reminded of Truett, one of the most loving, generous men I have ever known. Bestselling author Ken Blanchard wrote a book called The Generosity Factor based on Truett’s life, saying he had never known a more generous person.
Why are we in business? In part, “to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A,” a statement that is completely consistent with Truett’s attitude toward the business. Operators throughout the chain hire thousands of young people every year to work in Chick-fil-A restaurants, and for many of those young people it’s their first job. Imagine the influence Operators have by creating a safe, positive, loving work environment. Then their team members extend that love into the dining room and take it home to their families and into their schools, creating a positive influence wherever they go.
By the end of the second day and hours of drafts, debate, and prayer, we had written a purpose statement to express why we exist:
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 in contact with Chick-fil-A.
The Holy Spirit had orchestrated something we had not even planned to do. We had captured in words how Truett had already been leading the business. We all had been attempting to live his model, and now we had a statement to help us and those who followed us. We were not a “Christian business,” but rather a business where the owners and leadership aspired to apply and live out biblical principles.
In 1982, at our moment of deepest financial crisis, we stepped back and determined why Chick-fil-A existed. We embraced that purpose and were sobered by it. We were all a part of leading a unique business, to say the least. For me, I knew without question that I was where God wanted me to be.
Now, how would we unpack this for the staff and Operators? The company appeared to be in crisis. This would be the last thing they would expect to come out of a leadership meeting dedicated to dealing with our financial and sales challenges. We decided to wait—to pray and think about it. When we came back to the issue, we had total consensus to introduce the corporate purpose at the same time we would announce our commitment to our 1983 plans for growth, including new product rollouts. In essence, if Chick-fil-A is God’s gift to Truett, then He can choose to bless us going forward or shut us down.
The reaction? Amazing. A peace seemed to fall on the business. Folks loved the purpose statement. They identified with what they already knew: Chick-fil-A was about more than profits. And everybody leaned into their work and trusted God to lead us out of the crisis. Or not. (The staff even gifted a bronze plaque of the purpose statement to Truett later that year. It still sits at the front door of the Chick-fil-A support center.)
Then in 1983, Truett astounded us with a decision that defied logic and yet further revealed his heart for God and for young people. After Truett spoke to a group of business students at Berry College near Rome, Georgia, he and Jeannette toured the campus with the college president, Gloria Shatto. The school had been started in the early twentieth century by Martha Berry, offering education for the first time to poor mountain children. The Berry trustees had recently closed the beautiful Berry Academy high school campus. Truett and Jeannette admired the granite dormitories and classroom buildings in their idyllic wooded setting, thought about the history of the place, and wondered what would become of them. They both had strong feelings while there, and Jeannette even said, “I feel like I’m standing on holy ground.”
During a period of a few hours, Truett had a vision for housing students recruited within Chick-fil-A who would live in the former academy dormitories and attend Berry College on scholarships funded by Chick-fil-A and the college. (The plan would later expand to include foster homes for children and a summer camp.)
Truett came to the executive committee and laid out his plan and asked for our advice. He was not asking for a vote or for our approval—this would not be owned or operated by Chick-fil-A, Inc., but rather by a foundation that he and Jeannette would establish and fund.
But consider the ramifications of a commitment of this magnitude, starting with the refurbishing of dorms and a dining hall. Truett and Jeannette envisioned 125 scholarship students living in the dorms. The foster homes and camp would require even more infrastructure and staff. Less than a year earlier, Truett had asked us what we were going to do about the financial crisis we were facing.
He and Jeannette took us all up to Berry, along with his pastor and best friend, Dr. Charles Q. Carter. We were impressed but not convinced. Every member of the executive committee advised against Truett’s idea. But Truett and Jeannette believed this was what God was calling them to do. They followed through on all their plans, creating the WinShape Foundation in 1984. The influence of the scholarships, children’s homes, and camps exceeded all their expectations. It had unprecedented impact and is still going strong decades later.
Principles of the Chick-fil-A Culture
Some readers may have a difficult time grasping the fundamental principles that underlie Chick-fil-A. They are ones I have learned in my Christian walk and have attempted to apply to my life, as did Truett. We didn’t apply those principles perfectly at Chick-fil-A, but when we relied on God’s promises, like treating people as we would want to be treated, or honoring the Sabbath, or tithing, or so many others, the mystery of God’s favor occurred. His favor seemed to clearly follow our steps of faith.
God favored Truett with wisdom that he developed and exercised by reading his Bible, particularly the book of Proverbs. He relied on that wisdom to select strong, capable leaders in every area of the company. He also relied on that discernment in selecting every restaurant Operator in the early years of the chain.
The executive committee individually and collectively sought God’s wisdom and perspective. We prayed for it regularly. We relied on divine insight and the corporate purpose as a filter. We studied other leaders and tried to become leaders who did more than just run a successful business; we wanted to have a positive impact on all those we led and serve in a way that might lead people to ask, “Why is Chick-fil-A so different?”
In the year after we faced major sales declines and established the corporate purpose, same-store sales increased by more than 29 percent over the previous year—including new stores, total sales went up 36 percent. The mall industry had not turned around, but Chick-fil-A had.
In 1983, another tangible picture of an amazing turnaround came when forty-six Operators were given Lincoln Continentals as part of the reward program, Symbol of Success, which Truett had started in the 1970s. It worked like this: Operators who increased their sales by 40 percent in a year would receive the car for a year, and if they repeated a second 40 percent increase, they kept the Lincoln for good. The forty-six cars were parked on the tarmac at Hartsfield International Airport when those Symbol of Success winners returned from the 1984 Operator Seminar in Bermuda.
The Lake Lanier meeting that led to the corporate purpose took my understanding of Truett’s perspective about what he owned and didn’t own to a whole new level. I had worked at two companies where, like almost all public corporations, leadership acknowledged its accountability to shareholders. They were stewards on behalf of shareholders. And I understood that; I owned stocks.
When I came to Chick-fil-A, I felt a similar responsibility to the single shareholder, Truett.
But what I heard Truett, Dan, and Bubba say to corporate leadership in that meeting was, “You are stewards who are accountable to a much higher level than to us. Chick-fil-A isn’t about us. This business and this sandwich are gifts.”
Before that meeting and afterward, Truett often said there was nothing complicated about putting a piece of boneless, breaded chicken breast on a buttered bun with two pickles. So the sandwich was a gift, an opportunity to build a business in a space with no comparable competing product. And he rode the wave of mall development, another gift, as we built the business for fifteen years.
With that perspective, when the wave of mall development hit the shore and crashed in 1982, we knew that if Chick-fil-A was not ours, then God must have something else in mind. Our role was to acknowledge and steward God’s gift, honor Him, and positively influence others along the way. And to seek His wisdom on the next steps to accomplish this.