Page 179 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Communications

decision to help the brand,” noted Jeff Stratton. “We are all at the
table together. And it is the spirit of collaboration. And while at
the end of the day, the company has to make the decision, they are
respectful of that, but appreciate that they have had their say.”
As Peter Grimm, a 35-year supplier of buns as well as owner
of a distribution organization for the system, told me: “This is
not a top-down deal, you can’t stuff things down an independ-
ent businessman’s throat, and the independent businessman
can’t make the franchisor do what he wants all of the time. This
is a place where you have to understand compromise; this is not
black and white all the time. There is a lot of gray, and to nav-
igate and survive you need to understand what shades of gray
there are and how to deal with them.” That flow of give and
take and understanding each other’s position helped to train
many of the management within the system.
It was also working with operators, who, by their very nature
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are strong, independent entities. (Didn’t we want strong and suc-
cessful people in our operator ranks?) So egos, personalities, and
sheer intelligence were always at play as well.
These gatherings are still part of the culture, all the way up
the corporate ladder. Jeff Stratton spoke with me about a tradi-
tion leading up to the company’s food-improvement committee
sessions. “One of the things that we did was we had a dinner
with that group, and now we do this all over the world,” he told
me. “We have dinner with the group the night before the meet-
ing, every single time; we never miss. And while the purpose of
that dinner is social, one memorable time Fred told us about a
number of stories, and it became emotional for him, but was
very positive. Jim [Skinner] has done that with his experience
with the management team as well.”
Back when I was a restaurant manager, I realized people lis-
tened when you had something to express. Rick McCoy spoke
about the importance of communications in the field: “It’s a