Page 106 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

ognize that if they don’t, the entire system is compromised. If a
consumer has a bad experience at a store in the Bronx, they will
have the same poor impression about the store on Long Island,
or anywhere else, for that matter. “That’s why the link has to
always be the same. Each link has to carry its own weight,” Ron
noted. “The liability extends to all franchisees. You can’t have one
or two who says, ‘I’m not going to test my meat or follow a beef
integrity process because there’s a liability.’ The standards have to
apply to everyone and have to be followed by everyone.”
There are, of course, financial pressures in following those
standards, and some owners will grumble about the time and
money needed to achieve those high standards. But on the
whole, they understand the value behind their investment at
operating superior restaurant operations. As Ron put it, “We
looked at theorists who don’t have standards and businesses that
do whatever they want to do. And they fail. And they have this
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domino effect when that happens.”
McDonald’s standards are no surprise to prospective franchisees.
“What’s key in McDonald’s for the franchisee is the interview pro-
cess. The expectations, what this is about and what you are will-
ing to do,” Ron said. “So as long as you understand coming in all
the things that you have to do—I may have to mop and that’s why
the on-the-job training program and also the training program that
franchisees go through—you get to see it and feel it. Then you have
a choice. The training is up to two years. That’s a long enough time
to decide: Do I really want to do this? If you spend two years and
you still want to do it, then you should be in.”
Still, operators and managers sometimes had trouble living
up to those standards. If their business did not draw a crowd,
as was the case in one of the first restaurants I managed (it was
in an up-and-coming neighborhood, which initially was under-
populated), it was hard to earn the revenue needed to keep the
store humming. These restaurants were designed to do volume—