Good cow, Bad cow…….

Thinking about the change that I wish to make, which was to get Chick-fil-a to not support anti-gay organizations, I have gone back and forth with figuring out if this was an appropriate change to shoot for. Personally, I love the overall chick-fil-a service and experience that I get when I come into a restaurant. The President of Chick-fil-a ,Dan T. Cathy pointed out  that the company’s mission is to provide a welcoming environment for everyone, but I do not feel that each customer is as equally value in the company’s eyes .

While researching and reading about this topic and  recently watching a video that the President and Chief Operating Officer of chick-fil-a Dan T. Cathy did in response to the donation incident involving the anti-gay organization, Pennsylvania Family institute incident which was posted on the company’s facebook page, I decided to work on another angle for what I wanted to change.

In response to the video posted on their Facebook page directly, I do not understand why the company chose to post their response on a Facebook page rather than their national website. I feel that a matter as serious as this should be seen by all customers and not limited to just Facebook users. In fact most of Facebook users probably are not even aware that there was a video posted on the company’s social media page.

I feel that the questions I have about the company’s operation have been described in an article issued by the HRC, which stands for Human Rights Campaign. In the article they raise questions such as; Does the company include sexual orientation and gender identity in its non-discrimination policy? Are their policies in place to examine whether to make donations to certain groups? The funny thing is which was stated in the article that I find very interesting is that we do not know the answers.  According to the article by HRC, “we do not know this because the company does not participate in the Corporate Equality Index.”

The Corporate Equality Index is a tool to rate U.S. businesses on how they are treating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered employees, consumers and investors. The Human Rights Campaign stated that they have sent a letter to the company encouraging them to participate in the CEI and to ensure that LGBT people are protected, not by words but by actual corporate policies, but have not had any participation from the company.

Having celebrated 40+ years of tradition and over 3 billion dollars in sales, the company is rooted by hard work, humility and biblical principles. Based on these principles, all of Chick-fil-a’s restaurants operate with a “Closed-on-Sunday” policy, without exception. The question is how much of their beliefs are imposed on their customers if any and how does this affect them and the company’s want to create raving fans.  This current incident has helped shed light on the company policies and how they may not benefit all of their customers. A measurable step that I want is for the company to fill out the Corporate Equality Index, to get additional assistance and advice through the process to ensure that the company is being creating policies that are truly inclusive of all of their employees and customers.

I think this will help the company understand why who they support plays a huge role on how they are perceived, and how they change this to be portrayed as a company that “values all people”