Page 74 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

A Line in the Sand
I spoke with Claire Babrowski, former senior executive vice
president and chief restaurant operations officer at McDonald’s,
who now serves as chief operations officer at Toys “R” Us. “You
know that management was looking for trust and respect,” she
told me. Claire was referring to a line in the sand; it wasn’t
enough to like someone, you needed each other’s frankness.
That was the case when I served as a training manager in the
early 1970s. At the time, my team conducted training “road
shows” throughout the region, and we were constantly tweaking
to get them right. We measured our success by giving our trainees
surveys in which they provided feedback on the content, presen-
tation, and quality of our programs. We reveled in those sessions.
Over dinner, we read the feedback aloud, particularly if it was
very good—or not so good, giving us all a reason to jab the poorly
reviewed consultant. While it was all good-natured and fun, and
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many a beer was spilled laughing or chiding someone, these ses-
sions had a purpose. They set the standard for our product. It got
so that even a slight comment that was not positive was met with
introspection and, of course, pressure on the consultant who was
responsible. Yet I may have set the bar too high.
One night, after dinner, I was left with one consultant, the
most senior of them all. Danny was a great consultant. About
six years older than most of us, putting him at early thirties at
the time, he had served at other corporations besides McDon-
ald’s, although he had been with the company for the last five
years. Danny took the daily stresses in stride, and because of his
wonderful personality, he was a hit with the operators and staff.
He was a wonderful counterbalance to our high-energy, high-
pressure group. A fixture at all after-hours socializing, he
became one of the unofficial leaders within the entire region,
and provided the glue that kept the staff together. All organiza-
tions usually have someone like this, and they contribute to the