Page 94 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

There were other consequences as well. As Jim Lewis, a fran-
chisee, mentioned: “If an operator went to a franchisee meeting
and you wanted to speak to the group on the floor, if you were
not a good operator, then you had no relevance and no credence,
nothing, no credibility with the group.”
Although a QSC visit was announced to the entire crew of
the location, the anticipation, and desire to be the best, was
huge. It demonstrated vividly to us the power of getting a team
focused. Never underestimate the competitive spirit that is
ignited within a team when challenged! As John Cooke, a retired
McDonald’s senior vice president, mentioned: “A by-product of
the full field process was that it identified those who run A-store
operations. This is the top performer, and the company pro-
motes these individuals as a standard of excellence for all owner/
operators to meet.”
We learned to be creative with the results of grading. Instead
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of just harping on those operators who struggled to get their
stores higher ratings in QSC, we also worked it from another
angle: profits. The company conducted an exhaustive analysis
at one point and discovered that for each letter grade improve-
ment in operational levels that a store achieves, it increases
annual sales by an average of more than $100,000. This find-
ing got the operators’ attention. Now we had an incentive that
was fact based, and one that many could grasp: run a better
operation and more customers will come. That’s pretty basic,
but putting measurement behind QSC gave it an understanding
that was universal in its appeal to all. Selling the importance of
QSC became much easier. And the momentum that drove us to
constantly improve never stopped. As Ray Kroc once said,
“Whatever we are doing today, we can do better tomorrow.”
And we took those words to heart.
In the book The Wisdom of Teams, authors Jon Katzenbach
and Douglas Smith state: “A demanding performance challenge