Page 25 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Introduction

So my quest was to transfer what I learned from the system
into simple language that was clear and actionable for all man-
agement levels. In my consulting practice, we like to reduce these
principles to three keys: People, Environment, and Direction.
Ironically, these are the basics I learned on the restaurant floor.
As a store manager, the roles and behaviors of immediate assis-
tant managers and crew were no different from the department
heads and staff I worked with years later as an officer. In fact,
most complexities I saw at the officer level were often no dif-
ferent from the challenges faced by operators, managers, and
crew on the restaurant floor. The same principles applied. And
the truth be told, I wasn’t alone in my observation of this. You
will read about a number of former executives in other organi-
zations now, and how those principles have helped them in their
current leadership positions.
You may notice that in these pages I and others refer to
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“owner/operators,” “licensees,” and “franchisees” interchange-
ably. They are one and the same. McDonald’s is built on a system
of involved owners—entrepreneurs who follow the company’s
standards and who are active in their stores, every day. Those
owner/operators who met the system’s criteria for expansion
qualified for more stores. And multiple operators had to estab-
lish a solid midmanagement group of supervision and, in larger
organizations, director-level employees, some with ownership
interests as well. Still, only the strongest operators could expand,
and just like the single-unit licensees, they were required to be
involved in day-to-day operations within their organizations.
There were no absentee operators, as Ray Kroc noted many years
ago, in his own indelible style: “We have a lot of millionaires in
our company, but they better not act like millionaires, or they
won’t be here!”
In writing this book, I incorporated “lessons learned” at
appropriate times to help focus key points along the way. I think