Pursuing Perfection —— Management Art of McDonald's
1992 In the early summer, an exotic building appeared at the south entrance of Wangfujing, Beijing. Passers-by saw the golden Double Arch sign that used to be seen only on TV. Since then, children in China have another place to go for holidays and birthdays. That is, from then on, the people in China really began to experience the western fast food culture represented by McDonald's.
Every two hours.
In the 1940s, Dick? McDonald's and Morris? The McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant in California, named McDonald's. Although the business situation is not very good, it is ok, and the brothers are quite satisfied.
1955, McDonald's Brothers sold the right to operate fast food restaurants to Ray, a 54-year-old paper cup milkshake promoter. Klock. Klock is a talented operator. He put forward the concept of fast food chain management in the modern sense. In the following decades, he slowly and steadily pushed McDonald's chain stores to every inhabited corner outside the United States and its territory, thus establishing a powerful burger kingdom around the world. 1984, Ray? Klock died quietly at the height of his career, and his successor inherited his last wish. By the end of 1997, McDonald's had opened 25,000 restaurants in10 countries and regions around the world. It is said that there is a new McDonald's restaurant every two hours in the world. More than 38 million customers visit McDonald's every day. From 65438 to 0997, the annual turnover of McDonald's reached11400 million US dollars, ranking 392nd among the top 500 in the world.
Since the early 1980s, McDonald's has been interested in the China market. They believe that with the development of China's economy, the improvement of people's living standards, the accelerated pace of life and the understanding of western culture, it is feasible to promote western fast food in China. 1984, McDonald's introduced American potato varieties for trial planting in Weichang County, Hebei Province. 199 1 year, after many choices, McDonald's decided to cooperate with Beijing agriculture, industry and commerce corporation to establish Beijing McDonald's Food Co., Ltd. in a way that both parties hold 50% equity. The signboard of the first McDonald's fast food restaurant in China soon stood on the streets of Beijing.
In China, adults and children who are used to greasy Chinese food are familiar with simple, convenient and unique hamburgers and French fries, and familiar with them. Those big golden M's have not only become the beautiful scenery on the street, but also become places frequented by many people from time to time. According to statistics, from 65438 to 0998, McDonald's has spread all over 28 cities in China, with 2 10 chain stores, including more than 50 in Beijing.
People should not only ask, what is supporting McDonald's snowballing development and conquering one food culture after another? Do hamburgers and French fries really have that much magic? Everyone knows that China is famous for its delicious food. Foreign hamburgers and French fries not only stand on the land of China, but are also talked about by more and more adults, children and young people. What is the reason for McDonald's success?
Unique business philosophy
The answer is that McDonald's has a unique business philosophy, and it is with this business philosophy that McDonald's has gone to one glory after another. To put it simply, McDonald's business philosophy can be expressed by four letters, namely Q, S, C,. Specifically, Q stands for quality, S stands for service, C stands for cleanliness, and V stands for value. The idea was put forward by Ray, the founder of McDonald's. Klock was put forward at the beginning of the business. For decades, McDonald's has been committed to implementing this concept and persuading one consumer after another to taste his burger.
Quality. In order to ensure the unique flavor and freshness of food, McDonald's has formulated a series of almost harsh indicators. All raw materials must go through a number of quality inspections before entering the store, among which beef patties need to go through more than 40 inspection indicators; The receiving temperature of milk slurry shall not exceed 4℃; The shelf life of cheese warehouse is 40 days, 2 hours and 4 hours for onions. If these indicators are exceeded, it will be discarded. Put the product and the time card together in the heat preservation cabinet, and throw away the French fries over 7 minutes and the hamburgers over 10 minutes.
Service. McDonald's advocates fast, friendly and thoughtful service. The waiter in McDonald's restaurant is polite, the restaurant equipment is advanced and convenient, the customer's waiting time is short, and the takeaway is also equipped with all kinds of sterilized food packaging, which is clean and convenient. The restaurant is elegantly decorated, some famous paintings and flowers are placed properly, and relaxed music is played, so that customers can enjoy beautiful audio-visual enjoyment after eating. For the convenience of children, some restaurants are specially equipped with children's tables and chairs, set up "Uncle McDonald's Children's World", and even consider changing diapers for children. McDonald's restaurant has employee business cards with Q, S and C rating scales printed on the back. Each item is divided into three categories: good, average and poor. Customers can rate them, and the restaurant will regularly evaluate the performance of employees.
Clean. When you walk into McDonald's restaurant, you will feel that the environment there is fresh, elegant, clean and tidy. McDonald's has set strict hygiene standards. For example, employees must rub with special disinfectant hand sanitizer for 20 seconds before taking up their posts, then rinse and dry. McDonald's not only pays attention to the hygiene of restaurants and kitchens, but also pays attention to the cleanliness of restaurants and ancillary facilities, and even the toilets have set hygiene standards. The owner of McDonald's thinks that if a customer walks into a dirty bathroom after eating, it is hard to imagine that he will visit this restaurant next time.
Value. The so-called value means reasonable price and value for money. McDonald's food emphasizes taste, color and nutrition, and the price is consistent with the service provided, which makes customers feel really worth it after eating it. At the same time, McDonald's also tries its best to provide a pleasant environment for customers, so that customers can enjoy spiritual and cultural enjoyment after eating, which is intangible value. A Beijing citizen said in an interview with the media: "Compared with Chinese fast food, McDonald's is indeed a little expensive, but our whole family is willing to come here to eat fast food, because the quality and price of McDonald's food and service are the same, which is simply a word: value."
Scientific management means
When McDonald's entered Beijing, some domestic colleagues also came here to learn from it. What surprises them most is that the management here is very organized. The restaurant has established a standardized standard of behavior, and the employees strictly follow the standard procedures.
Klock believes that if fast food chain stores want to succeed, they must adhere to unified standards and implement them persistently. In the third year after the birth of the first McDonald's restaurant, klock developed the first McDonald's operation training manual (Q&; T Manual) This manual records the relevant policies of McDonald's in detail, as well as the processes and methods of various work in the restaurant. On the basis of summing up experience and absorbing the latest management achievements, the company will revise and improve the manual every year. For more than 40 years, the operation training manual has become the "Bible" to guide McDonald's operation.
The company has also established a post observation and inspection system, which decomposes all work into more than 20 stations. Each workstation has established a post observation checklist (SOC), which lists the post responsibilities and precautions in detail. When new employees enter the company, they should receive on-the-job training, including watching videos of post standard operation and practicing under special guidance. Managers should track the actual operation of employees, and the post completion of employees should be recorded in the post observation checklist. It is said that the purpose of doing this is to sum up experience and pursue a scientific and perfect management realm; On the other hand, by looking at the employee's post observation checklist, make an assessment and decide on hiring, promotion and punishment.
The manager of McDonald's has a pocket quality reference manual, which contains the receiving temperature, storage temperature, shelf life of semi-finished products, production temperature, production time and shelf life of finished products, as well as the data of machinery and equipment. With this manual, managers can check and guide at any time and place, correct problems in time when they find them, and ensure that the product quality can reach the specified standards.
In order to improve the quality of managers and cultivate senior management talents for restaurants, the company designed a set of Management Development Manual (MDP), which is actually a restaurant management textbook with McDonald's characteristics, that is, combining the actual situation of McDonald's, explaining the methods of restaurant management, and giving a large number of cases, requiring managers to complete it in combination with actual work. When managers have mastered certain theoretical and practical knowledge, they should also systematically study some corresponding courses, such as basic operation courses, basic management courses, intermediate operation courses, mechanical courses and so on. After completing the above study, if you want to be a restaurant manager, you must also go to the University of Hamburg in the United States to take an operation course. So far, hundreds of people from McDonald's in Beijing have studied at the University of Hamburg in the United States.
Strict procurement procedures
The slogan of McDonald's is, "There is only one flavor". No matter where you are in the world, as long as you walk into a McDonald's restaurant, hamburgers or big Macs taste the same, which is also the value of McDonald's brand.
To make the products have flavor, the prerequisite must be standardization, especially the standardization of raw materials. To this end, McDonald's has established a strict procurement system. According to the regulations, the raw materials needed for restaurants cannot be purchased in the market at will, and must be provided by McDonald's distribution center. At present, Beijing McDonald's restaurant needs more than 200 kinds of raw materials provided by Beijing McDonald's special distribution center. The raw materials of the distribution center are provided by the designated manufacturers. At present, McDonald's has more than a dozen suppliers in Beijing, including Simblau, Baimai, Eastport, Kraft and O.S.I.
McDonald's has set strict purchasing standards. The purchasing department of McDonald's is responsible for the quality supervision and inspection of the manufacturer's raw materials. If unqualified products are found, they will be returned immediately and corrected. If they can't make corrections within the time limit, the manufacturer's supplier qualification will be suspended. In order to ensure the smooth supply channels, McDonald's proposed to establish a relationship of "open account books and grow together" with manufacturers, that is, both parties supervise the financial affairs of suppliers, * * * control the product cost and * * * make profits together. In fact, many McDonald's suppliers are old customers, and the two sides have established a cooperative relationship of mutual trust and mutual benefit in long-term cooperation.
French fries are the main product of McDonald's. The potatoes needed by McDonald's require long fruit shape, shallow buds, and certain standards of solid content and sugar content. The Simblau Farm established by McDonald's near Beijing was produced according to this requirement. The farm imported advanced agricultural machinery from the United States and hired agricultural experts to realize large-scale production. 1998 The output has reached 12000 tons. McDonald's French fries processing plant in the suburbs of Beijing has also reached a certain scale. In addition, raw materials produced in Beijing need to be sent to the quality inspection center for inspection according to the batch number, and also sent to the laboratory of Hong Kong Asia-Pacific Center for evaluation and scoring every month. McDonald's holds product evaluation meetings twice a year in Beijing. At that time, standard samples will be airlifted from the United States, and suppliers and buyers will be asked to compare them, find out the gap and formulate improvement measures.
Someone asked the owner of McDonald's what is the secret of McDonald's success, and the boss firmly replied: complete. This word can be understood as "complete" and "comprehensive", but it is not as appropriate as "perfect", because McDonald's own road is a process of constant pursuit of perfection.
comment
The dispute between Chinese and Western fast food has been going on in China for many years. No matter what people say, McDonald's is undoubtedly successful. The following example can illustrate this point. From 65438 to 0998, the new generation market monitoring organization organized a comparative survey of Chinese and Western fast food. The agency visited 4007 families in Beijing, and the results showed that in the past year, 70% people had eaten Chinese or western fast food. Of those who have been to fast food restaurants, 98% have used western food, while only 35% have used Chinese food.
Among the top 10 customers in Beijing fast food market, 7 are western fast food and 3 are Chinese fast food. Among the consumers aged 15 ~ 19, 100% have eaten western fast food. Among all the respondents, the proportion of people who have been to McDonald's accounts for more than 90%, ranking first among Chinese and western fast food.
The survey results also show that 59.6% of McDonald's consumers are loyal consumers (the most frequent customers), which is what we usually call repeat customers. The idea behind McDonald's business philosophy is that "the customer is God". It is said that the restaurant manager who graduated from the University of Hamburg in the United States not only got a diploma, but also engraved a motto, which read: "Policy 1 customer is always right. Policy 2 If the customer is really wrong, please reread the policy 1. "
(Policy 1: The customer is always right. Policy 2: If the customer is always wrong, please read policy 1. ) McDonald's adheres to this creed and takes customer 100% satisfaction as its service tenet.
The patronage rate of fast food market in Beijing
Serial number Fast food restaurant category patronage rate%
1 McDonald's western style 90.9
2 KFC western style 79. 1
3 California beef noodles western style 23.5
4 Pizza Hut Western Style 19.6
5 Quanjude Chinese Style 15.2
6 ChristianRandPhillips Chinese Roasted Chicken 13.5
7 Letianli Western Style 12.9
8 Chinese Ronghua Chicken 10.4
9 Big Mill Western Style 9.8
Rogers West 6.6
Source: 65438+ International Business Daily, April 25th, 0999.
It should be said that "the customer is God" is not difficult to understand, but it is often easier said than done. In China's urban and rural areas, we often see signs such as "Customers are God" hanging in some shops and restaurants, but when dealing with them, it is not like that. It is common for customers to retreat in a hurry or get angry. McDonald's does not preach "customer is God" verbally, but it embodies the concept of "customer is God" everywhere in its business philosophy, and puts this concept into practice, and falls into every detail of enterprise management.
The value of McDonald's is that it has adhered to the business philosophy for decades. McDonald's founder Ray? Klock once said: "Go your way, nothing in the world can replace perseverance;" There is no substitute for talent. We see that most people are very talented, but they have accomplished nothing. Talent can't be replaced, and those who are born smart and get nothing are almost a joke; Education can't replace it. The world is full of educated vagrants. Therefore, only perseverance and firm confidence can make us invincible. "
I remember when the McDonald's restaurant in Beijing just opened, a reporter interviewed the owner of McDonald's and asked him a question: Is it a pity to throw away McDonald's hamburgers 10 minutes after no one bought them? Can you sell it to employees at a lower price? The boss's answer is that this is a rule of McDonald's for many years and cannot be violated. When asked about the reason, the boss replied that the price reduction seems to be beneficial to the restaurant, but it will actually encourage waste to a greater extent. In our daily life, we can often see that some enterprises have formulated strict rules and regulations, drawn up beautiful slogans, and acted with great fanfare for a while, but before long, the sound of the waves remains the same. The reason is that these enterprises lack perseverance and endurance, and as a result, enterprises always fail. In this regard, the experience of McDonald's has given us useful enlightenment, which deserves our deep thinking.