Colonel Harland Sanders
Harland Sanders was born on September 9, 1890, in Henryville, Indiana. His father died when he was only 6 years old, and soon he had to face the responsibility of helping his mother feeding and taking care of his two younger siblings.
In seventh grade, he quit school, and despite the young age, Sanders rolled up his sleeves and started working on different positions, from farmer to insurance salesman. He even started a ferry boat company in 1920, which closed to start a lamp manufacturing company only to find out another business was already selling a better version of his ideal lamp.
In 1930, at the age of 40, he acquired a Shell filling station on U.S. Route 25 just outside the small town of Corbin, Kentucky. There, he started serving fried chicken to the travelers in his dining room. Four years later, he moved across the road, where he added six dining tables for his clients.
It's in 1936 that he gets the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon.
The Colonel's success kept growing, and in 1937 he moved again to a 142 seats restaurant and motel he called "Sanders Court & Café".
In 1939, Sanders modified the newly invented pressure cookers into a pressure fryer to cut production time without spoiling the chicken quality.
The next year, he realized his secret "Original Recipe" sauce made of 11 herbs and spices.
The Kentucky Fried Chicken
In 1952, Sanders decided to franchise his recipe and started traveling across the country to find partners.
Pete Harman, the owner of a restaurant in Salt Lake City, was the first one to believe in Sanders's project. Harman hired a sign painter named Don Anderson, who invented the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" later chose by Sanders to differentiate his product to the deep-fried "Southern fried chicken" that used to be found in restaurants until then.
In 1955, the new Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, and Sanders decided to sell his restaurant to go all-in in his adventure of creating franchising for his fried chicken business.
By 1956, Sanders had several franchises and partnerships, including the one with Dave Thomas, later founder of Wendy's, who invented the rotating red bucket sign. In the same year, Sanders based the company headquarters in Shelbyville, chosen for the exceptional transport links available in town.
In 1963, over 600 franchises were open, and Colonel Harland Sanders started to realize it was a lot to handle. The same year he met John Y. Brown, Jr, who in 1964 bought the "Kentucky Fried Chicken" for 2 million U.S. dollars with the help and investment of Jack C. Massey.
Sanders also gained a lifetime salary and the role of the controller over the company's quality.
Massey and Brown expanded the company in Canada and moved the headquarters to Tennessee with Sanders's displeasure. In 1966 "Kentucky Fried Chicken" went public, bought it's 600 franchises, and moved the headquarters to Louisville.
The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969 and by the next years was counting 3,500 franchised and company-owned restaurants in 48 different countries.
The expansion counted several failures along the road due to the chaotic and inadequately executed management, like the disaster with the first restaurant opened in Japan that lost $400,000 in the first month.
In 1971, incapable of handling the company anymore, Brown sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken company to Heublein Inc. for $285 million.
Heublein dramatically changed the vision of Sanders and started selling low-quality products. A legal war started between Sanders and Heublein; the first tried to sue the company for wrongful use of his image while the corporation sued him for libel.
Until in 1977, when Michael A. Miles was placed in charge to run the chain, he listened to Sanders's advice, and by the end of 1980, the company was back on its feet.
On December 16, 1980, at the age of 90, Sanders passed away from pneumonia. At that moment, there were around 6,000 KFC restaurants in 48 countries.
PepsiCo bought the company in 1986 and in 1991, changed the name from "Kentucky Fried Chicken" to "KFC" for marketing purposes. The company faced a period of ups and downs, like the launch of new products and the franchisee's disputes.
In 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division, creating a company named "Tricon Global Restaurants," later called "Yum! Brands" in 2002.
Despite going through the Avian flu and having to compete with other famous fast food like Burger King and McDonald, today, KFC is the world's second-largest restaurant chain. It has 24,000 KFC locations in over 145 countries around the world.
Passion + Commitment = Success
Sanders quit school in seventh grade to provide for his family. He wasn't rich or had someone to support him financially. He started as a farmer and changed several jobs over the years; he launched a couple of businesses before creating what would be one of the largest restaurant chains in the world.
Everything Colonel Harland Sanders did was giving customers what they needed, and that thing was a tasty homemade fried chicken he used to eat when he was a kid.
He didn't do anything fancy or too complicated, quite the contrary. His food was genuine and made with love.
Sanders believed so much in his new and original product that decided to spread it all over the country, not by opening subsidiary but franchises collaborating with other self-made restaurant owners.
During the Great Depression (1929–1939), people lost their jobs; they started living on the street and had problems finding food. Despite the terrible economic situation afflicting the world, Sanders began to grow his company from a roadside restaurant and turned it into a successful multiple location franchise.
No matter the time, the school grade or the financial background, Sanders's great work and passion lead him to success, and thanks to his perseverance we can still enjoy his "Kentucky Fried Chicken" dipped in the "Original Recipe" sauce no matter where we are in the world.
"I've only had two rules. Do all you can and do it the best you can. It's the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something." — Colonel Sanders
Resources:
https://www.biography.com/business-figure/colonel-harland-sanders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC
https://interestingengineering.com/the-history-of-kfc-their-past-and-the-tech-building-their-future