According to Maze (2013), Chick-fil-A's sells in unit volumes are greater than Chipotle, McDonald's, and Panera Breads. As a matter of fact, the organization's earnings last year exceeded $5B. This was almost $1B more than their closest competitor, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) (Harwell, 2014). In his research, Maze also found that Chick-fil-A received an average of over 20,000 franchise applications each year. Of those, a maximum of 80 are accepted to become operators aka owners. Maze concluded that these number where comparable to getting a job at Google, .4% chance of success.
According to Grand Strategy Matrix (2010), companies that flourish in a quick growing marketplace and that out performs their competition, e.g. such as Chick-fil-A, are quadrant one firms on the Grand Strategy Matrix. These organizations are in excellent strategic position to focus efforts on current markets and products. They can afford to exploit external opportunities to increase revenue in numerous areas to include market development, product development, and innovation strategies.