How A Financial Planning & Analysis Leader Found Innovation, Autonomy and a Culture of Care at Chick-fil-A, Inc.

“My background is in finance, consulting and investment banking. I’m used to being in a world where the focus is on profit first. 

But when I joined Chick-fil-A, Inc., I realized: We don’t make decisions here solely based on finance. It doesn’t even come in second. We consider how a decision will impact the greater good, and whether it aligns with our values. We consider the impact on people — on Chick-fil-A franchisee Operators and guests. And only then do we look at the strategy and the financials. 

It's not a public company, so we can focus on long-term growth instead of quarterly shareholder goals. When you decide to run a business that way, you have more flexibility to focus on the things that are important to you. 

Here, people propose new ideas and get the opportunity to implement them. The work we’re doing is super challenging and complex. On my team, everyone comes from management consulting or investment banking or the startup world. They have a super technical skill set that they can draw on. Everyone is coming up with new approaches, and they’re encouraged. Last Friday, I gave a presentation proposing that we fundamentally shift how we’re approaching financial modeling. 

This business has been around a really long time — but there's still white space to create and build. So you have the benefits of a stable, growing organization — along with the kind of runway to innovate you’d expect in a startup. It’s the best of both worlds.”  

— Charles W. Singleton , Principal Program Lead, Financial Planning & Analysis