Gabrielle Nielsen, Erin McNally, Nick Yang, Josh Masminster, Clay Sukys, Christian McIntyre,
Nick Merz, Antonino Salamore, Brett Peters
Business Pathways 1041-006
Professor Kelly Wright
15 November 2017
PACE Business Profile Group Paper: Wendys
To analyze how Wendys exemplifies PACE, we split the work between all team
members. Most members, including Gabrielle, Josh, Erin, Nick Yang, and Clay wrote half a page
about one area of PACE. Antonio Salamore didnt write, but he chose to present. Some
members, like Christian, Nick Merz, and Brett, volunteered to do both. In total, the presenters are
Christian McIntyre, Nick Merz, Antonio Salamore, and Brett Peters.
P- Professionalism (Christian McIntyre) (Nick Merz)
Wendys expresses a lot of professionalism through its website as it offers insights to not
only the food it serves, but also the businesses values, integrity and careers available. This shows
professionalism as it is an effective way to communicate with employees and potential
customers. It also displays the NASDAQ stock price on the first page of the website and whether
it has increased or decreased. This again is showing great communication to stockholders, as this
is a feature that is rarely displayed so obviously on any other business main websites. They
include an entire segment on the website for Investors displaying information such as stocks and
business earnings.
In todays society more and more people are interested about what theyre eating, now
Wendys offers a full nutrition and ingredients chart and also vows to provide better quality food
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and good animal welfare. These can be very important to potential customers today implying that
the business is always looking for the right change to remain competitive.
While Wendys is known as a top fast-food chain all throughout the world, most people
do not look deeply into the company or into Wendys as a whole. All customers and consumers
see is just a big red building with a red headed girl that serves burgers, fries, and more.
Consumers need to realize how well Wendys actually promotes their product and how well their
product is for their customers. A couple years ago, a big new addition to Wendys was showing
their customers that they have Fresh-Cut Fries. This really brought more customers to the
Wendys locations and allowed their customers to experience the taste of a fresh cut fry that had
been cut every morning. The company really cares about the wellbeing of their customers by
complying with them if their order is wrong or if their products do not match a customers tastes.
Most customers view Wendys as a family friendly environment that they can always count on to
go to for a nice nutritional and consistent meal and a restaurant who always produces a fun
loving environment for everyone. They always want what is best for their customers and not for
themselves and this is what allows them to represent the Professional aspect of PACE.
A- Academics (Gabrielle Nielsen) (Josh Masminster)
Not only does Wendys care about their food, but they care about the employees and their
education. To prove this, Wendys has partnered with Get Schooled, a non-profit organization, to
create Wendys Learn. Wendys Learn gives high school students, parents, and adults the tools
and resources to attend college or go back to school. Such an idea costs money, and Wendys
helps with that aspect as well. On Wendys Learns portal, Wendys offers lessons about the
differences between the ACT and SAT, how to prepare for college, how to transition from
community college to a four-year university, and how to apply to colleges.
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To offer more help, Wendys Learn has text hotlines for college questions and they offer
feedback on college application essays. Through snapchat, Wendys Learn gives college tours.
They also help with finding scholarships, writing recommendation letters, and waiving college
application fees. To spark change, the franchise holds challenges like the 2017 Fall Attendance
Challenge, Graduate for Ms Challenge 1, Detroit College Challenge, and Mission: Admission,
in order to engage schools across the country. Wendys gifts the winning institutions with school
grants for their students.
In terms of more financial support, Wendys Learn helps potential college students find
grants that their state offers. The franchise also offers tuition assistance to its employees, outside
of Wendys Learn. Through hotlines, tuition assistance, college tours, country-wide challenges,
and scholarship help, not only will Wendys help you find higher education, but they also help
pay for it too (GetSchooled).
Another way in which Wendys is involved with academics is their Wendys High
School Heisman award. While this award looks at a student's athletic ability, Wendys also pays
attention to their school success. To be eligible for this award, students must maintain a 3.0 grade
point average or high. Students must also prove themselves to be leaders and role models in their
schools and communities. Students can do this by performing in one of the forty-seven school
sponsored sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee in the Summer and Winter
Olympic Games or the National Federation of State High School Associations. If students can
show these qualities they will be rewarded. State winners will receive $1,000, National Finalists
will receive $5,000 and the National winners will receive a $10,000 scholarship towards their
academics. This is a great way for Wendys to show their support of students working on
reaching their goal of academic success.
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C- Character (Erin McNally) (Nick Yang)
Wendys does much more than burgers and fries. The Dave Thomas Foundation for
Adoption created Wendys Wonderful Kids (WWK). WWK was created in 2004 to fund
adoption recruiters in all fifty states, Canada and the District of Columbia. They place children
who have been waiting for unbearable amounts of time in foster care into families. A child is
adopted from foster care every twelve hours and if they are in this program they are three times
more likely to be adopted.
Wendys also makes sure that their workers are in a safe environment. They do this by
exceeding the government regulations and standards pertaining to the humane treatment of
animals. Studies showed that handling animals in a humane way is better and safer for farmers
and/or livestock workers while preventing unneeded suffering of the animals.
Wendys does a great job at environment protection by always considering energy
efficiency in the section of all equipment, goods and services. Wendys also announced their
participation with the Department of Energys better Buildings Challenge. They set a goal to
reduce energy consumption in their U.S. company-owned restaurants by 20 percent per
transaction by 2025. Wendys supports the commitment the U.S Green Building Council
(USGBC). As a long-term member, they have made to develop a prosperous and sustainable
future through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. All of these great things
represents that Wendys has a strong character and do much more than just sell food.
E- Engagement (Clay Sukys) (Brett Peters)
Wendys has always excelled at is its customer interaction. Almost every Twitter user has
seen a viral tweet from the food chains Twitter account. Wendys often makes comical
comments to other restaurants about their food versus the others; their Twitter account is prime
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in the eyes of users. In fact, when you search Wendys in Google, one of the first options is
Wendys Twitter.
Along with social media, Wendys does a great job providing affordable food while still
turning a nice profit. The commercials they put up are consistently decent, without too much
talking unlike some other big companys commercials. Deals such as the 4 for 4 (4 items for 4
dollars), often previewed on commercials, bring a lot of customers in.
At a boastful customer satisfaction rating at 78%, higher than any other major burger
joint, Wendys does a great job overall with engaging and satisfying customers. Wendy's excels
in customer satisfaction. They do this by having excellent employee engagement. Wendys
motivates all their employees and does their best to make the employees want to succeed. One
way they do this is by providing prize incentives based on your customer satisfaction rate in
some of their stores. They are also known for promoting employees as often as possible so they
can have the desire to work hard. When you have happy motivated employees you tend to have
happy customers that want to return. Wendys had a ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction
Index) rate of 76 in 2017. ACSI is an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of
consumers across the U.S. economy. This is relatively good as Mcdonald's ACSI is 69, and Jack
in the box is at 75. Engagement in the community and the world does so much for a business
than just your average marketing. This way, they are remembered for much more than burgers
and fries.
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References
Professionalism:
Fresh Fast Food Near You. Wendy's, Quality Is Our Recipe LLC,
www.wendys.com/en_US/what-we-value/.
How It Works. Wendy's High School Heisman, Wendy's,
www.wendyshighschoolheisman.com/about/how-it-works/.
Academics:
Wendy's Employee Network, Get Schooled, getschooled.com/wendys.
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Character:
Corporate Environmental Sustainability & Responsibility. Wendy's, Wendy's,
www.wendys.com/en-us/about-wendys/environmental-sustainability.
Responsibility. Wendy's, Wendy's,
www.wendys.com/en-us/about-wendys/responsibility-
overview?_ga=2.259868042.1448631907.1508943115-1493610471.1508943115.
Engagement:
ACSI: Wendy's Restaurants in the U.S. 2000-2017 | Statistic. Statista, ACSI,
www.statista.com/statistics/216701/wendys--customer-satisfaction-in-the-us/.
Gallucci, Nicole. Behold: The Sass Master Behind Wendy's Twitter. Mashable, Mashable, 5
Jan. 2017, mashable.com/2017/01/05/sassy-wendys-social-media-
manager/#N6yGJUAxEiqP.