Page 137 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Lead by Example

what it took to get the job done, and that’s how we did it. Every-
body understood that. The field managers, it just works all the
way back to the crew. I was in a store one day, and I had been
away from it for a while, and they got busy and I jumped on the
grill. I was doing Big Mac’s and I lost the center section . . . just
lost them,” Tom said, referring to the middle section of the bun.
“And it’s all over, and the crewman that was working with me
said, ‘You don’t do this often do you?’ and with that we all had
a big laugh.”
There was a lot to discover from observing those company
executives as they conducted field visits. Mike Roberts, former
president of McDonald’s, and now a consultant in his own firm,
mentioned to me an incident with Fred that he felt exemplified
the spirit of leading by example. “I was managing a store in
Naperville [Illinois], and I was there less than a month. Fred came
in and visited with every crew person, every station in the restau-
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rant. We looked at the managers’ schedule, the crew schedule,
we talked about local store marketing—it was terrific. . . . He
ingrained in all of us, that this is about the restaurant. . . . Years
later I am with another client, and I ask, do they ever meet any
of their customers? Have they visited any of their facilities out-
side of this one? And the answer is no.” It was that obsession
with the smallest detail—evident throughout the system, and
exemplified especially by top management—that set McDonald’s
apart from the rest.
Personally, I liked visiting stores. I tracked my office versus
field time because I knew how important it was to be visible in
the stores. I placed percentages of field time versus office time to
keep a balance. It allowed me to maintain tabs with store man-
agers and franchisees. I also tried to have as many meetings in
different restaurants as possible. And by walking in for an unan-
nounced visit, I’d get a real feel for a store’s operations. If, for
example, I’d walk in to the back room and find lights that were
out, or not cleaned, it would indicate a sign of neglect that’s likely