A Few Leadership Lessons From Dan Cathy

Truett Cathy

It all started with Truett Cathy, but his son has done a fine job of carrying on a great tradition.

Yesterday I did make it down to the University of Tampa to hear Dan Cathy, Chief Operating Officer of Chick-Fil-A, give a lecture on entrepreneurship and leadership.  I went into the morning with very high expectations and I am very pleased to report that the University of Tampa and Mr. Cathy were able to live up to those expectations.  I will touch on a couple of the highlights below, but I can say that I do not believe that there are too many people that understand the fundamentals of leadership better than Mr. Cathy does.  I won’t steal all of his material but here a few of the highlights that he hit on:

Raving Fans – This was a term that he used repeatedly throughout his presentation.  He explained that there are people that like Chick-fil-A, people that eat there regularly and people that have made it an integral part of their lives (the raving fans).  It was clear that his mission is to increase the number of raving fans.  The night before Mr. Cathy’s presentation, Chick-fil-A hosted a dinner and dance for 400 of their raving fans in Tampa.  People that made Chick-fil-A part of their lives were rewarded with a truly first class event at no charge to them.  What other fast food restaurant does that?  Chick-fil-A hosts these types of events all over the United States.  I am confident that the 400 people that attended had a spectacular time and I am equally confident that they will tell everyone that they know about the event.  Which in turn will create more raving fans.  Raving fans are the best marketing your company can get.

Remarkable Experiences – While he was in Florida, Mr. Cathy also went to several of the area amusement parks.  Not because he likes roller coasters, but rather he wanted to see how they create remarkable experiences for their customers.   Think about it.  When a family goes to an amusement park, a lot of times it creates memories that they will have for their entire lives.  Those are remarkable experiences.  It does not happen by chance.  You literally have to feel like you are in another world when you enter the park, a magical world.   It takes a lot of planning, logistical support, and an army of dedicated employees to pull that off, and those are the things that Mr. Cathy was trying to understand better so that he can incorporate them into Chick-fil-A.  He wants your fast food experience to be remarkable.   That is a pretty lofty goal.  I always find it inspiring to be around people with lofty goals.  Yesterday was no exception.

Evolution is Mandatory – He talked a lot about how Chick-fil-A has changed through the years.  They used to only be in shopping malls, now they only open stand alone stores, and they are starting to experiment with an urban store model.  Mr. Cathy goes to the electronics trade shows to see the latest technology and then he looks for ways to incorporate that into his restaurants.  They are starting to use IPads in their stores so that customers can place orders from the dining room.  He said something that I believe will stick with me for a long time, “If the rate of change externally is greater than the rate of change internally, then your organization is doomed to fail.”  I did not get the impression that Chick-fil-A has anything to worry about.

Needless to say, this was a great experience for me, but I would like to turn it into an educational experience for all of us.  My questions for you are:

  1. What can you do, or what things have you seen done that help to create raving fans for a business?
  2. Have you ever been taken by surprise by a remarkable experience as a business that you were not expecting a remarkable experience?  If so, how?
  3. How are you ensuring that your company is evolving?  What are you doing differently than you competitors?

You do not have to have answers to all three.  I am happy to receive any comments or thoughts that you may have on any of the topics covered today.


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