Chick-fil-A HQ, Atlanta Georgia

Yesterday my boss and I had a training session at the Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta. This is actually the second time I have attended this session. The first time was in 2002 when we first brought the franchise on campus. Then after a couple of years, I moved to another location, but now I am back. I needed a refresher, and Susan needed to get a feel for the company.

CFA (as I usually refer to it in print) is an interesting an unique American company. It is definitely a Southern thing, although the franchise is spread out over 36 states. I had never heard of it until I moved here. The original chicken sandwich and the best you will eat, evah! As one person pointed out yesterday, when she moved South, she thought CFA was a cult. Kinda it is, yes.

Anyway, their headquarters are just gorgeous, on 77 acres of wooded land with lakes and walking trails and fountains and rock walls.



The architecture is something to behold as well. The elevator is very fast. It grabs your attention as soon as you walk in the front lobby.

The big attention grabber is the car collection they have in the breezeway. It's amazing!

That T-Bird is my personal favorite, but then, there's this one from the movie set...

Truett Cathy is the founder of CFA and grew this billion $ business from one diner that he and his brother started right after WWII. The company is still private, and has controlled it's growth and it's debt, and right now in our catastrophic economic climate, is in pretty good shape. He has always invested in his 'people' (employees) although he has very high expectations for every single one of them, and I'm talking about from these fancy offices all the way down to the dishwasher at a franchise store. He puts his money where his mouth is. He's had a scholarship program for high school kids for years. On this campus, there was a day care located near the front gates, that is basically subsidized for corporate employees. He pays well. He's done alot of things in his life, but it seems his passion, at this stage in his life, is the work he is doing with foster kids. He has several homes located all over Georgia that house these children. He claims 120 foster kids, at 87 years old, and in his latest business book, this is what he is talking about.

In all, a remarkable story. For a training session, yesterday was pretty fun.