Page 149 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Courage

identity—knowing who you are and what you stand for. As Fred
put it: “It was huge. . . . I was sweating bullets; it was a hard deci-
sion. I knew we’d find a way later on to get in. We had to stick to
our formula—had to stick with who we are and how we do things.
And we face this decision all over the world; now as we expand
and get into other countries we’re going to face it more and more.”

Lesson Learned

Walk away from deals that don’t feel right, no matter how
much time was invested or how much money you might stand
to gain. Trust your instincts, and put your energy to more
favorable opportunities instead. As the saying goes, “You need
to know when to get off the train.”

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Courage as a Legacy
Fred’s prediction proved correct, and the heirs to his legacy
showed the same boldness. CEO Jim Skinner related a story of
similar circumstances when looking for the best possible fran-
chisees in Latin America: “We had a decision to make in Latin
America for licensing. We had other choices, and could have
gone with a more heavily financed individual, but we would
have violated the system by doing that. We are sticking to our
values, and Ralph [Alvarez, chief operations officer] and I both
thought about it overnight, and we went with the right person
in the right place at the right time. He was committed to the
people in his organization and committed to the system. And
those decisions take courage.”
Back in January 2003, when Jim Cantalupo took over the
reigns as CEO of McDonald’s, he inherited a company that had
suffered several quarters of poor sales. And when Wall Street is