Page 152 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

some of the established owners, who feared that additional fran-
chisees would mean they’d have less of the pie. But I ran with
the concept. I added six new operators in 1988, nine in 1989,
and 13 in 1990. Of the 28 new operators, four were Hispanic,
five were African American, five were women, and one was Chi-
nese. This rocked the status quo on a regional level, but I was
picking up on the corporate lead, and I didn’t back down. In my
conference room, I kept as a reminder a plaque upon which is
inscribed Niccolo Machiavelli’s famous words:

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous
to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the
lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Change is never easy, and this incident was no different. To
me, diversity made sense; it was an extension of the culture of
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opportunity in McDonald’s. I wanted to make a difference by
setting new policy in the region, and it figured into our growth,
which over the next few years kept us in the top three regions
nationally. In the end, the courage to carry out what I thought
was right brought outstanding results. And the operators were
great in helping and welcoming the new franchisees. They
understood after the initial introduction that these were some
really talented individuals with the same aspirations as they had
years back. The new group of operators became a much better
model of the population they served.
Courage figured into every decision, including which opera-
tor qualified for expansion and which did not—decisions that
literally meant millions of dollars in revenues for franchisees—
and the outcome often emotionally affected those who were
denied. Some were politically connected, and yes, they’d go bal-
listic when told they didn’t qualify this time around. Having
standards and metrics gave me the objective tools I needed to