1. Rich Snyder was twenty-four years old when he assumed leadership of In-N-Out after his father passed away. Do you think his young age was an asset or a liability for his leadership? Or did it matter in the first place?

2. In an era of jalapeno poppers and extreme fajitas, do you view In-N-Out’s long-term strategy of offering only four, simple food items as risky? Why or why not?

3. Do you think an entrepreneur could walk into a bank today and expect to receive financing for a business plan based on In-N-Out’s extremely simple menu? Why or why not?

Or So In-N-Out Would Have You Think Walk into any of the 258 In-N-Out Burger locations, and you’ll only fi nd four food items on the menu: Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double-Double and French Fries. You can wash those down with a Coke or a milkshake.

But stand next to the ordering counter long enough, and you’ll hear customers recite a litany of curious requests. None are on the menu, but sure enough, the cashier rings each one up with a smile: Animal Style (a mustard-cooked patty with extra pickles, cheese, spread, and grilled onions), Flying Dutchman (two patties, two slices of cheese, no bun or garnish), Protein Style (heavy on the fi xings, wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun), or any permutation of patties and cheese slices up to a 4  4 ( four patties and four slices of cheese barely contained in one bun). Th e open secret of the secret menu is only part of what keeps customers coming back for more.

A Simple Formula for Success In-N-Out’s motto is straightforward: “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.” And so is the chain’s formula for success—it only makes a few food items, it consistently makes them well, and it earns the trust of its customers by not deviating from this premise.

Robert LePlae, head of creative giant McCann Erickson, commends In-N-Out’s ability to consistently execute their simplebut- eff ective concept of fast food done right. “Th ey don’t abuse the privilege that they have built up with their customers,” he says. “Th ey haven’t commercialized the ‘secret menu’. Th ere is a powerful trust between the company and the customers that is deeply ingrained.”

In-N-Out’s former CFO, Steve Tanner, agrees that honesty is the best policy: “If you have to tell somebody you’re something, you’re probably not.”

In addition to making the best burgers around, In-N-Out’s other primary successful trait is its insistence on playing by its own rules. A fi erce entrepreneurial streak ran through the Snyders, In-N-Out’s founding family, and from the sock-hop décor to the secret menu to its treatment of employees as long-term partners instead of disposable resources, the chain prefers to focus on its formula for success instead of conventional defi nitions like shareholder return or IPOs.

Th e funny thing is, it works. Unwilling to grow at a speed that would sacrifi ce quality or consistency of the customer experience, In-N-Out has resisted going public or franchising. Yet—or maybe, because of this— they best rivals Burger King and McDonald’s in per-store sales. ………………