Page 46 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

established early on that the McOpCos (company-owned stores)
would only have one vote, in all voting matters within the geo-
graphic co-ops, no matter how many restaurants it operated.
However in many situations, the outcome was heavily influ-
enced by the larger operators who had more votes. The idea was
that the company stores could not dominate the voting process
and control the co-op. Once again; a system of checks and bal-
ances was integrated into the process.
Another example is the ruling that if an operator is disen-
franchised by the company, for any reason, the company can-
not purchase and operate those restaurants; instead, it will assist
in a sale to another franchisee. The concern is that it would be
unethical for the parent corporation to have the power to both
take away a franchise and then keep it for itself. Although often
overlooked, these rather innocuous principles and policies
helped to deliver the message of fairness and integrity within the
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system and its organization.

Honoring Commitments
Company tradition maintained that McDonald’s strived to
honor verbal communications between the company and sup-
pliers or franchisees. If an officer had made a verbal commit-
ment to someone, even though it was not put down in writing,
the company did its best to stand by that commitment. I asked
former president Mike Roberts about that. “I remember when
people would say, ‘This is what the previous regional manager
told me,’ or, ‘This is what the previous zone manager said to
me,’” Mike recalled, referring to assurances made to franchisees.
“And I would tell them that we are going to try and figure out
a way for that to come to life.” Mike always made it a point to
verify the specifics—clarifying whether a franchisee was prom-
ised a specific store versus a new store. And he’d take it from