CEO Biography: Harland David Sanders - Research Paper Example

CEO Biography – Harland David Sanders Harland David Sanders, son of Wilbur David Sanders and Margaret Ann Dunlevy, was born in 1890 in a small village of Henryville in Indiana (USA). His father Wilbur, a poor man, was a butcher, while his mother Margaret was a traditional housewife, responsible for nurturing and looking after her children. Harland Sanders had two biological siblings named Catherine and Clarence. This small family of 5 members came into financial crisis after sad demise Wilbur David. Indeed, Harland then started doing menial jobs such as painter, door-to-door supplier, retail salesman, and car washer and ferryboat operator. He also worked for railroad companies for some time as well as recruited in the army, but later he discontinued these professions. His mother Margaret also found a low paid job at a canning factory to finance her household’s expenditures. Unequivocally, that was the time when Harland learnt cooking so that he could feed his siblings. The grave financial difficulties did not permit Harland to educate himself and compelled poor lad to work full time for the sake of his family. Her mother (Margaret) later married with a farmer so that she could resolve her financial worries (IMBD Article). Harland Sanders developed his cooking abilities with the passage of time and later became dexterous in this food making. Without any doubt, he was a hard working man who always struggled to improve his conditions. Harland had realized from his life experiences that the growth opportunities for an unskilled and uneducated worker were very limited because of those drawbacks. Hence, he became more interested in business and entrepreneurship, rather servicing others at factories, shops etc. Also, he had learnt that he enjoyed expertise in cooking and servicing food to people. Taking the aforementioned into account, he inaugurated his own service station at Kentucky as well as formed a small dining room within the premises to sell food to customers. Harland used his famous eleven herbs and spices secret recipe and started offering fried chicken to customers who ordered food at his station. The taste and delicacy of his fried chicken (prepared in an iron skillet) made him a famous person across Kentucky and finally he received the title of Colonel from the governor in 1935 for his significant contribution to cuisine (Don, n.d). Harland was now well - known as Colonel Sanders. The phenomenal growth of his dining hall at service station enabled him to expand his business operations and form a restaurant at a nearby location. In this way, Colonel was able to increase his productivity and target market. For instance, more and more customers were inclined to visit his restaurant and enjoy delicious crispy fried chicken, which was highly differentiated and had a unique taste the customers had never came across at Kentucky or any other state. It is worthwhile to point out that Colonel Sanders never changed his recipe neither sold to any other food chain; however, he did start using pressure fryer to reduce cooking duration (to 8 – 9 minutes) as part of his product development strategy. In addition, Colonel diversified his business and added a motel to increase revenues and profitability (NNDB Article). During early 1950s, Harland Sanders faced certain difficulties when government decided to build a new interstate and initiated the project. The Colonel had realized that it would be disastrous for his food business whose major target market was passengers and travelers, who tended to stay at motels in Kentucky. Indeed, he was reluctant to quit and switch to other areas but he had no other option to avert monetary losses. Finally, Harland sold his restaurant and started planning for new business ventures in the food sector. Quite unequivocally, Harland (who had no academic background and professional business studies) realized that no matter he had sold his restaurant to second party, yet he could benefit from his cooking expertise, goodwill and the value of intangible asset i-e the recipe. With this in mind, he finally decided to travel across states of USA in search for potential investors who would appreciate his chicken recipe and make him partner to open Kentucky restaurants. The job was tougher than Colonel Sanders’ initial expectations. He was disregarded by many business owners and investors but he continued his efforts and finally convinced “Pete Harman in South Salt Lake, Utah”. The two partners later launched the first official "Kentucky Fried Chicken" site in 1952. It should be recalled that the uniqueness of fried chicken and delicacy were the major contributors that increased brand awareness and recognition of these food outlets. In addition, Harland Sanders paid special attention to produce premium quality hygienic chicken products to enhance customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, business growth, sustainability and profitability (Don, n.d). Colonel Sanders’s business continued growing at a phenomenal rate and the number of franchised food outlets increased to more than 600 by 1960 and income grew to stupendous $300,000 per annum. Without any doubt, he had become one of the richest tycoons at that time because of continued success and growth. In addition, Harland’s company went global when it expanded its business to neighboring Canadian markets, which also had immense business potential. In 1964, at the age of 74, Harland sold his business “operations for $2 million to John Brown and Jack Massey”. However, Colonel Sanders did not stop participating, rather he become the first shareholder of incorporated KFC as well as start playing an active role in decision – making, strategic planning and problem – solving. Later, he preferred retirement from business at the age of 80 years, and thus resigned from the Board of Directors of KFC (Don, n.d). It is worthwhile to point out that Harland Sanders was different from other professional CEOs, strategic managers and leaders because he did not have any academic background neither had know- how of business and accounting principles. However, he did have a vision, critical thinking skills, creative abilities and an innovative mind, which enabled him to successfully expand his business all across the world. He was a hard – working fellow who endeavor throughout his life to improve his financial and business position. The best example of his struggle is that he met more than 1000 investors to discuss his classy recipe and persuade them to initiate a business project. Indeed, his motto was “Nothing ventured then nothing gained” and “Nothing is impossible to win with a wish to do well”. As far as his leadership style is concerned, it should be highlighted that Colonel Sanders paid special attention to his personality and dressing. His famous white suit, shirt with a black tie and carrying a cane become the icon or symbol that helped in creating a unique and distinctive image in the minds of customers. In other words, consumers started relating his appearance with KFC that later increased awareness, reputation and market image. Colonel was a benevolent person and a gentleman who always encouraged his workers and focused on innovation. It should also be noted that previous researchers have not written much about leadership style of Colonel Sanders; however, all authors and autobiography writers agree that founder of KFC was more focused towards marketing, sales, promotion and advertising of his company’s food products. It should be emphasized that a leader should have qualities such as vision, creative and critical thinking, adaptability, emotional stability and control, conscientiousness, capability to sense future and risk-bearing. Colonel did have most of these qualities as revealed from extensive research about his personality and career. However, it is justified to conclude that sales and marketing was his area of interest in comparison to management and administration. First of all, Colonel transformed his restaurants from simply dine-in places to take – away food points, where customers could simply order and take their food to their homes. This contributed significantly towards the success and expansion of KFC food outlets. For instance, Sanders constantly used informative, persuasive and reminder advertising and marketing campaigns, which later resulted in phenomenal expansion of business from 600 franchises in 1960s to more than 3,500 in 1970s. In addition, he also introduced home delivery facility at his franchised outlets so that food lovers, who could not show up at restaurants due to conveyance issues or other restrictions, would be able to enjoy from premium quality fast food KFC products (McCarthy, n.d). Heublein Inc. was the second buyer of KFC that acquired it in 1970s. The new buyers also continued the policies of old management as well as improved existing policies, which resulted in sales of over $800 million in late 1970s. Later, the Heublein Inc. sold the operations to KFC’s third buyer “R.J. Reynolds Industries” in early 1980s, but the new buyers failed to handle and manage business operations in an efficient and effective manner. Therefore, Reynolds Industries sold the KFC operations after few years for over $800 million to PepsiCo Inc, which is also the owner of leading food chains such as Pizza Hut. Over the years, Pepsi also maintained the policies, more specifically quality maintenance and aggressive advertising of Harland Sanders. Pepsi also improved internal designs and display of KFC outlets, introduce new variety (zero fat items) to increase product portfolio and expanded operations all across the world. In late 1990s, KFC had successfully opened and operated more than 9500 stores worldwide out of which 5000 were located across USA alone. In 2008, KFC catered more than 12 million customers globally at more than 12,000 food outlets and touched mammoth sales revenue of $11 billion (Internet: KFC.com) References: Daszkowski, Don “Colonel Sanders Bio - Kentucky Fried Chicken Story” About.com (n.d) http://franchises.about.com/od/mostpopularfranchises/a/colonel-sanders.htm Nair, Deepak “Business biography: Colonel Sanders” Helium.com (n.d) http://www.helium.com/items/149073-business-biography-colonel-sanders Lee, G. “Business biography: Colonel Sanders” Helium.com (n.d) http://www.helium.com/items/838601-business-biography-colonel-sanders Woopidoo Biography “Colonel Sanders Biography - Life” Woopidoo.com (n.d) http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/colonel-sanders/index.htm “Harland David Sanders” The Billionaires, January 22, 2010 http://sang-milyader.blogspot.com/2010/01/harland-david-sanders.html Tamminga, Bill “Qualities of Excellent Leaders: Leading an Organization to Triple Digit Growth” Evancar Michael (n.d) http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Qualities-of-Excellent-Leaders-Leading-an-Organization-to-Triple-Digit-Growth.html Academic Dictionary “Harland Sanders” En.academic.ru, 2008 http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/23393 IMDB Article “Harland Sanders” imdb.com (n.d) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0761571/bio NNDB Article “Colonel Sanders” nndb.com (n.d) http://www.nndb.com/people/557/000109230/ McCarthy, Mason “The World Famous Colonel: How Harland Sanders Got His Start” Evancar Michael (n.d) http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/1439/The-World-Famous-Colonel-How-Harland-Sanders-Got-His-Start.html Read More