Page 124 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

up a mop and mopping and not saying ‘will you do this for me?’
and actually doing it yourself . . . it sends out a message that if
it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander. We started at
the bottom, and look where we are, but we didn’t forget where
we came from.”
That leadership was there for all to see, even if you didn’t work
in McDonald’s, or, for that matter, were a Padres fan. During a
Phil Donahue interview, Phil asked Ray about his hands-on expe-
rience in growing the system. “Did you clean the toilets?” Phil
asked. To which Ray replied, “You’re damn right, I cleaned the
toilets.” Ray then added, “And I still would today if I saw a dirty
one . . . in a McDonald’s.” Ray’s message was loud and clear. All
units must have clean bathrooms, and Ray wasn’t above pitching
in, if it meant getting the job done.
Ray walked the talk. He set the tone for both his standard of
operations and his own willingness to do whatever it took to
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make McDonald’s successful.
It’s a philosophy Jim Cantalupo demonstrated as well during
his tragically short tenure as CEO. Former McDonald’s execu-
tive Claire Babrowski told me about a late Friday night strategy
session in which they were updating the system’s emergency
action plan, in the event that the U.S. beef supply was ever put
in question. Jim, who had gone home for a bit, returned because
he knew the team was working late. After listening to the
debate, he thanked the team for the hours they put in, and told
them he knew they’d reach the right decisions. He said three
things mattered: “how would it affect the operators, the restau-
rants, and the system.” As he walked out, he turned around and
said “and I didn’t say profitability.” It was a profound comment.
Not many CEOs of a public company would put the operating
system over profits—unless they understood, as Jim did, that it
was the system that drove profits. And he wanted to make that
point clear to his employees.