KFC Founder Colonel Sanders Rooted His Business in Innovation, Leading to Global Recognition

Known by most as the famous face that adorns KFC restaurant signage and serves as the main character in its many popular TV commercials, what’s lesser-known about brand founder Colonel  Harland Sanders is arguably the most significant part of his legacy.

It’s one thing that Sanders founded what would become a major global restaurant enterprise at 65 years of age, a time when most people are five years into their retirement. It’s wholly another that he did so not just with the secret blend of herbs and spices we’ve all heard so much about, but also with an unwavering commitment to innovation that informed his business model’s emphasis on fast, quality food preparation. 

After working a number of odd jobs through his teenage years into his twenties, Sanders’ entrepreneurial career really began in the thick of the Great Depression, when he acquired a service station in Corbin, Kentucky in 1930. Due to low demand as a result of the economic crisis, Sanders implemented a tactic to boost sales that included selling chicken and steak dishes as comfort food to his customers. The operation became so popular that he eventually removed the service station’s gas pump and turned the place into a full-time restaurant. 

Due to long preparation times, however, the restaurant did not serve fried chicken. 

As his business carried on, Sanders began looking for a way to speed up the cooking process of fried chicken, and in 1939, he found it—by inventing the pressure cooker. The invention, along with his blend of 11 herbs and spices, created precisely the elusive product he’d been seeking: restaurant-quality fried chicken without the wait. With his process mastered, a branded offering known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a new title of ‘Colonel’ bestowed upon him by the governor of Kentucky, Sanders sold his restaurant and began traveling the country in hopes of franchising his business and expanding the reach of his revolutionary cooking process. He would enter a restaurant, offer to cook his chicken, and then make a deal if the owner liked what they tasted. Lo and behold, the tactic worked. 

While traveling and explaining his new cooking process to potential investors and franchisees, Colonel Sanders expanded his chicken empire across the country to 600 locations by 1964, when Sanders sold the brand, remaining a part of its board of directors until his death in 1980. In fact, it was one of the first franchisees who came up with the original bucket idea the chain still uses today. 

Now, the business Sanders built up from scratch through determination and innovation has a presence in more than 100 countries across the world, his name and likeness a household name.