Guilty as Charged!

Here is the first part of the confession. I love Chick-Fil-A. I always have. Every since high school when I would go to the Cherry Hill Mall just to have that special chicken sandwich with the grilled bun and the pickle. Years later I would go out of my way in Williamsburg to find Chick-Fil-A, and when I visited my brother in Atlanta I would work my schedule around their not being open on a Sunday so that I could get my chicken sandwich fix. I even looked into a Chick-Fil-A franchise, every so briefly. I think I made my point.

During my recent trip to Atlanta I heard a McDonald’s commercial advertising a “Southern Chicken Sandwich”. When I heard it I thought, uh oh for Chick-Fil-A, McDonald’s is test marketing a similar sandwich. I felt bad for them, the work that they put in developing, marketing and delivering what I still believe is the best chicken sandwich, now to be taken on by McDonalds. Well, I thought, maybe the test would fail. Today they debut at my local McDonald’s and I confess, I ordered two sandwiches.
As soon as my sandwich came, I unwrapped it, not from the familiar foil wrap but from the familiar styrofoam box that the Quarter Pounder comes in. I then popped the top and there was the grilled bun and the two pickles. So I took a bite. The honest truth, it was a good sandwich, but not even close to the original. However, with McDonalds behind it (one of our clients as is Burger King), I expect for those that don’t know Chick-Fil-A will enjoy it. Tomorrow they are giving them away for free.

So what does that have to do with team building? For those of you who have been reading my blog, in the team building business we are all challenged with copy cats. In a previous post one of my competitors (who called Teambonding the best in the business), challenged that innovation (by copying some of our programs) and made the argument that a copy can be an improvement to an original. We have had similar experience where we have updated and upgraded our original team building programs with great success, not however by copying our competitors. Having the Southern Chicken Sandwich and the new not so sweet, Sweet Tea, the argument can be made that innovation by copying isn’t innovation at all.

Will McDonald’s copy the Chick Fil-A cow and what about Maggie Moo?