Page 130 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

And the by-product was well-trained people who did so much
more than merely understand your role because of a published
regulation, said longtime supplier Ted Perlman. “You find out
more and more that interaction shown by example makes peo-
ple responsible,” he said.
Most operators grasped that they had a vested interest in
leading by example. “The owners are there every day. Seven
days a week, they’re on site,” Frank Behan pointed out. “Greet-
ing customers, showing help what they stand for. That’s what
we had when we had Ray.” And that was a legacy that was
handed down from each successive management team.
Jim Skinner, current CEO, certainly got that message. He
mentioned to me that “leadership by example at McDonald’s
may be one of the most important things we do. You have to
walk the talk; you have to demonstrate through your leadership.
They [the employees] want leaders, and they want people that
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are going to get up in the morning and behave in a way that
their best interest is looked out for. I try to embrace that value
and lead by example in everything I do.”
That constant in-the-trenches experience combined with con-
tinuous mentoring and recognition helped propel McDonald’s
ahead of the competition. Stakeholders were too involved to
ever risk being out of touch. Former divisional president Debra
Koenig put it this way: “You absolutely have to be engaged in
every experience, and so you can’t be disengaged if you are in a
McDonald’s. Picking up the lot, bussing every table—I think
that’s true throughout, and I can’t begin to tell you through all
of my positions with McDonald’s where you would jump behind
the counter when they needed you.”
Management at other companies are probably too ensconced
in the executive suite to scrub a toilet as Ray had. They are not
down in the trenches, seeing things as the public does. If the cus-
tomer is truly the reason we’re in business, all levels of manage-