McDonald's Fast Healthy Food

McDonald's Fast Healthy Food

Business Policy 499

Professor

February 11, 2012

McDonald's Fast Healthy Food

Fred Turner was hired in 1956 to manage McDonald's first restaurant in Illinois. Turner was a quick learner and before long he had mastered the task of overseeing the restaurant operations. Turner was ambitious and full of ideas that could set McDonalds apart from the rest. He was a natural leader and when he was asked to train new franchisees and develop standard operating procedures, he caught the CEO's vision and turned McDonald's operation into a science.

Turner wanted each franchisee to operate in the most effective way possible. So, he created a manual that broke down each process. These steps involved a time and motion study that defined operating techniques in minute details. This way the team could operate under an assembly line type of operation and handle any customer capacity. This manual was designed to help managers with everything from how long to cook their burgers to how many staff should be at each station. The manual even showed managers how to prepare shift schedules, financial reports and sales projections. Turner also established the "Hamburger University" (HU), a training center he used to train more than 150 trainees each month. With Turner's leadership style and ambitious attitude, he was asked to visit many franchisees to evaluate their job performance. He developed a report that evaluated the four following areas: service, quality, cleanliness and overall performance. This created a new position for McDonald employees known as a field consultant. Before long, there were over 300 full time field consultants ensuring the franchisees were meeting the criteria Turner had developed. Turner became McDonald's president in 1968. He revamped McDonald's organizational structure and empowered managers to make decisions at the restaurant level. Turner's first five years of being president caused annual sales per restaurant to double and the number of McDonalds outlets tripled. Turner is also responsible for introducing McDonald's "mascot" Ronald McDonald. His advertising projects set McDonald's apart from the rest of the restaurant business.

Turner had vision and he was determined to ensure his vision would happen. As the text shows, Turner had strategic intent, leaders' clear sense of where they want to lead their company and what results they expect to achieve (Pearce and Robinson, 2011, p. 328). Turner showed his belief in leadership development by training and evaluating (Pearce and Robinson, 2011, p. 331). There is something to be said about leadership and followership. When you have someone like Turner who shows perseverance, passion and leadership principles, it's hard not to want to be under leadership like this (Pearce and Robinson, 2011, p. 332-334).

When Greenberg became McDonald's CEO in 1998 it was almost like he said, watch out, there's a new sheriff in town. Greenberg told Wall Street, "I'm a different person. I have a different style" (Pearce and Robinson, 2011, p. Case 8). From the beginning, Greenberg's vision was to change the image of McDonalds to a more dynamic global brand. CEOs before him started from the bottom and worked their way up the ladder but Greenberg didn't have that same experience. He was going to make some changes, and they were going to be done his way.

Greenberg decided to hire executives from other firms instead of hiring local people who knew the customers. He also decided to change the menu and sell products unknown by McDonald's customers. Instead of keeping the McDonald's brand he decided to make some acquisitions with other companies like Chipotle, Aroma Café and Donatos Pizza. The interesting part of this is that customers in a Harris Poll showed "more than 90% of consumers listed both taste and quality as ''very important'' factors in their choice of a restaurant, while location and speed were selected by barely half. Why? With an abundance of choices, consumers no longer choose McDonald's just because there's one around the corner. And with new entrants offering ethnic fare, vegetarian menus, and fully stocked salad bars, fast food no longer has to mean fried food" (Leonhardt, 1998). It seems like Greenberg could have been using the beginning stages of Six Sigma process, Six Sigma is a rigorous and analytical approach to quality and continuous improvement with an objective to improve profits through defect reduction, yield improvement, improved consumer satisfaction and best-in-class performance (Pearce and Robinson, 2011, p. 373). While Greenberg was trying to change the menu, purchase other food industries, and completely change the way McDonalds operated in the past, a worldwide campaign against the fast-food industry was taking place. There were several legal battles against McDonalds that damaged the company's reputation and as if this wasn't enough, sales plummeted.

Jim Skinner took over as CEO of McDonalds in 2004. Skinner started his career working at McDonalds as a burger flipper. He was known as an easy going down to earth kind of guy who was easy to communicate with. There seemed to be something different when Skinner became McDonald's new CEO.

Unlike Greenberg, Skinner was listening to the customers and his two biggest goals were to improve customer service and provide a more nutritional, healthful, better quality food choice. Part of being a manager is embracing change and taking risks. While the worldwide campaign against the fast food industry