Bad Business Practices

The title is something I hear about in my world as I work in business (kinda).  We talk about performance based budgets and best business practices on a regular basis, so this most recent news has me shaking my head.
 
I am going to keep the social issue of whether or not gay marriage is right or wrong completely out of this blog.  I am addressing this strictly from a business standpoint.  My personal opinion of gay marriage will not be addressed.

That said,

To Dan Cathy, President of Chick-fil-a:

ARE YOU A FREAKING IDIOT?!?!?!?!

Businesses should NEVER involve itself in political and social issues, at least out-right.  If you want to fund charities that support your ideals, go for it.  I had family members who did some research and decided to boycott McDonalds a while back because it supported charities that they did not agree with, so the message still gets out there but not so in your face to reach headline news.

But instead, you speak out about a social issue that is not only the hot topic of the year, you drew a moral line around your business.

The bottom line is, you screwed up.  By speaking out publicly, you just alienated a multiple groups of potential customers.  You alienated most homosexuals, those who support gay marriage, as well as those who do not agree with Christianity.  On the plus side for you, you have made Christians and those completely against gay marriage more inclined to come to your restaurant.  But I still believe this is going to hurt you in the long run.

Lets do an example.  Let's say that last week 10 customers visited your restaurant.  I realize there were more, just work with me here.  Of those 10, 6 were Christian and against gay marriage and 3 were for gay marriage while 1 was completely undecided and unaware.  This week, you just alienated those 3 customers.  While you may not think that is a big deal as the 6 Christians who visited last week probably came back this week with there friends to show support to you, that is not going to last.  Eventually, the customer flow is going to go back to that steady 10 as most people cannot afford to eat out all the time.  So you will go back to that steady 6 plus 1.  That is 30% of potential business lost.

Now some may argue (and is some areas of the country, rightly so) that the Christian customers who did not know of its existence prior to this week will choose Chick-fil-a because of their moral fiber.  My response to that is this...I do not know a Christian who did not already know Chick-fil-a's Christian affiliation.  Just because it wasn't headline news doesn't mean that churches were not aware or that their beliefs weren't communicated. 

And let's be honest...no matter how good a place's food is, people are going to burn out and want to eat other places some times, so while you may receive an immediate boost in sales in the coming weeks, that will eventually drop.  Then adding the 30% loss of sales (I will even say 20% if the theory that some Christians didn't know about Chick-fil-a before this week proves true), that is still a BIG loss.  Last year, Chick-fil-a reported 4 billion dollars in sales.  A 20% loss would be 800 MILLION dollars.  That is not pocket change, even to Bill Gates.

Now let's look at who your words hurt.  No, I am not referring to all the members of the LGBT community who were offended.  I am talking about your business owners.  Chick-fil-a, like McDonalds, are not corporate owned facilities for the most part.  They are individually owned.  I have seen the owner of the Chick-fil-a near me.  I don't know if each owner personally agrees with the President's statements, but I know it is their businesses who are going to suffer.  In more liberal thinking areas, the chick-fil-a restaurants will lose more than that 20-30% revenue.  Mr. Cathy may not be aware of this as the restaurants located in more conservative parts of the country may see an INCREASE in sales, making his bottom line even out.  What does he care that a few owners who were unfortunate enough to place their restaurants in liberal areas lose everything?

I feel bad for my local chick-fil-a.  I really do.  And for the record, I don't boycott restaurants over social issues.  If that makes me a hypocrite, so be it.  But I recognize that corporate leaders do not always represent the individual owners and workers in the establishments where I choose to eat.  This is the same mentality people have with cars.  They boycott Toyota and Honda because the CEO's are out of country, but most of the cars are actually MADE in America, while Chevy and Ford CEO's, while American, send plants to Mexico and Canada.  But they are "American Made"...NORTH America maybe, but not USA.

Sorry, the automobile rant kinda put itself in there. 

The moral of the story is Mr. Cathy, while affirming his spiritual beliefs, hurt his business and his owners in practice.  There were other ways to go about sharing the Gospel that didn't send your company into the political hotseat.  My sympathies go to the small business owners who will suffer the consequences of your actions.