Five Guys - 1986 - Jerry and Janie Murrell

Five Guys was founded in 1986 by Jerry and Janie Murrell and their sons, all five of whom are part of the business. In 1986-2001 Five Guys opens five locations around the DC metro-area and perfected their business of making burgers. Now, over 20 years after Five Guys first opened, there are over 1,000 locations nationwide and over 1500 units in development. Five guys continue to receive media attention and have grown a cult-like following around the world (www.fiveguys.com).

In this assignment, the following questions will be answered as to how Five Guys continues to be a success and why customers continue to flock to their restaurant; determine how Five Guys’ philosophy sets it apart from other fast-food chains; analyze the original values for the start-up company and how it remains strong today; enumerate three (3) factors that contributed to Five Guys’ success in such a short time and what effect, if any, external markets had on these factors; and assess how ethical and social practices are part of the Five Guys’ culture and provide examples to support your choices.

The purpose of this project is to examine Entrepreneurial Leadership at Five Guys burgers and fries. Entrepreneur is defined as a person who seeks a profitable opportunity and takes the necessary risks to set up and operate a business. Leadership is defined as the ability to direct or inspire people to attain certain goals. From these terms we will try to create a meaning for the terms Entrepreneurial Leadership. However, according the Fernald, Solomon and Trabishy (2005), Entrepreneurial Leadership deals with concepts and ideas which are often related to problems that are not of an organizational nature. As a result, in the upcoming project, I will discuss how these factors, in relation to Five Guys Burgers and fries.

Quality versus low prices has been a well know debate in the Business world for years. The opinion of what is quality is very subjective and may be defined