Case Study: Culture At Chipotle

Culture at Chipotle
Culture is increasingly important for companies to be competitive and relevant in the marketplace. Chipotle, a fast-casual restaurant company, understood the need to develop culture to attract and cultivate the employees that would help the company grow. Because of the changes, they have made and the employee-centric culture they have cultivated, they have changed their industry and continue to set standards for many industries to achieve. As with many companies, they also have weaknesses in their culture that need to be addressed and improved.
Chipotle Culture Development
Chipotle has come to be known for the culture they have developed over the last several years. Prior to 2005, Chipotle was a developing company, ninety

The program aimed to encourage their employees to be healthy and happy while saving them money on their healthcare costs and reducing turnover (2015a). All these changes were slowly introduced and have recently had a significant growth of employee participation (2015a). The wellness initiative also kept Chipotle’s culture a competitive advantage as others began to adopt their strategies.
Impact of the culture changes. One year after the changes were initially implemented in all the Chipotle locations, 86% of managers on salary and 96% of hourly managers were the result of internal promotions versus 20 percent in year prior (2014c). Sales increased dramatically and hundreds of new stores were opened nationwide. Most recently, many of the employees have taken advantage of the new wellness program allowing them to save money on their insurance and to get healthier

The first dimension identified describes how companies view their customers as either an asset or a nuisance (2011). Similar to companies like Apple and Google, Chipotle values hiring people based on personality characteristics that align with their company values not just previous experience, and the 13 values that Chipotles looks for in their employees has allowed the company the ability to prioritize culture and develop business strategies, such as valuing customers, that effectively contribute to Chipotle’s success. The culture this strategy enables, recognizes customers as an asset within the organization and to employees. To illustrate this dimension of their culture, Chipotle’s employees are expected to demonstrate hospitality and politeness, 2 of the 13 characteristics, to their customers and coworkers (2014b). Chipotle also strives to serve a product to customers that satisfies their needs even when that may not be best for profit-margins. These qualities demonstrate how Chipotle views customers and defines employee expectations. “How the company views customers and clients will influence how its people (employees) treat customers and clients,” argued Flamholtz and Randle (2011, pg. 30). Based on that argument, Chipotle has made a successful attempt at this dimension by building this into the foundation of the culture and values at the