Page 161 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Courage

them progress and kept falling short.” Later that evening, Tom
went home, consumed about the events of the meeting. He
wrote a letter that night, supporting the BMOA’s goals and
making a commitment to meet specific goals within five years.
Then Tom considered his options. “I said, ‘Well, I could do one
of three things with this letter when I re-read it. I [could] take
it to the [executive] management team; I could take it to the
president; I could take it to the CEO.’ But if I do that, it isn’t
going to say what it says now when I’m done. It will get
watered down.” Ultimately, Tom decided to send the letter as
is. “This was a personal commitment, and it was a personal
commitment letter,” Tom noted. “I didn’t say McDonald’s Cor-
poration will. . . . I said I would make sure that things hap-
pen.” The letter triggered controversy, but Tom kept his stance.
“Everyone felt we were making a commitment that couldn’t be
met and we overstepped what we could accomplish,” Tom said.
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“I had a plan. I knew what it was going to take before I wrote
the letter. I knew the commitment.” When I asked Tom how it
resolved, he said, “I was retired, and I got a call from the head
of minority operations, Ray Mines, and he said, just simply . . .
we did it. It got done.”

Alone in a Crowd
The company perpetuated a culture of risk taking, of “telling
it like it is.” And no one ever got fired for taking a risk—an
important detail behind McDonald’s accomplishments. As Ray
Kroc said, “You’ll become successful and happy when you plan
something and the necessary risks. If your plans don’t work
out, try something new.” I saw early on at McDonald’s that
avoiding risks, skirting and being indecisive, were hardly tol-
erated. Because we were encouraged to challenge, and the