Have you ever been advised that Chick-fil-A’s sometimes unorthodox business practices are a detriment to your bottom-line? And how have you responded to critics?

Cathy: I don’t think we make any sacrifice by being closed on Sunday. It has helped us to attract the caliber of people who appreciate every Sunday off; whether they go to church or not, that is their decision. We say, Gee, if you’ll eat with us six days a week, we’ll let you eat somewhere else on Sunday. That way they can compare us with our competition. We certainly have demonstrated that, in most cases, we can generate more sales in six days that our competition does in seven days.

Collins: We have people who ask questions just like you have, but we’ve never had anyone, as far as I know, to suggest that we would make more money if we were open on Sunday. I’m sure there are people who think that. But we don’t believe it. No one is going to eat at the same restaurant all of the time. So, we just help people arrange which day they are not going to eat at Chick-fil-A.

Has it been difficult to maintain a clear sense of mission through the incredible growth of the Chick-fil-A brand?

Collins: Not at all. Actually, if you think about our rate of growth, if you annualize it out, it has not been that dramatic. It’s been good and steady, which probably is a better way to describe our organization. We are just good, steady plotters. We don’t go in surges and mad dashes and that sort of thing. We just steadily, day after day, and keep pursuing the same objective, which is to satisfy every customer.

Beyond what Chick-fil-A does as a company, you also encourage your operators to become involved with the community. How?

Collins: First of all, you do that by selecting the right people. All retention starts with selection; it doesn’t matter whether it’s the operator of the store or the employees in the store. We try to select a person, ideally from the community in which the store is going to be located, where they already have connections: family, friends, business relationships, social relationships. Operators are tied into the community, and we encourage them to capitalize on that. We not only get business opportunities from that, we also get opportunities to make a contribution to the community, and it’s a two-way street. People like to do business with folks who are making a contribution, whether it is to their school, their church, or their club. It creates a lot of goodwill for the Chick-fil-A brand.

Chick-fil-A has been extremely successful. Why don’t we see more chains trying to emulate Chick-fil-A’s formula for success?

Collins: The values and the culture of any organization are established by the chief executive or the owner, in the case of smaller businesses. When the chief executive remains the same, you can expect the values to remain the same. If you change the chief executive, you always run the risk that things are going to change. Here at Chick-fil-A, we have an advantage in that Truett Cathy has been the head of Chick-fil-A from the very beginning. We have another advantage, too, in that he has his family involved in this business to the extent that the next chief executive will obviously be one of his sons. And because that son is absolutely committed to the same business principles and the same cultural environment as his father and has been a member of the Chick-fil-A staff for more than twenty-five years, we believe that we can expect to see this same kind of operation extend on for another generation.