Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 34


     
     1
         Q.   You made gains from the partnership yourself?
     2        A.  What type of gains are you referring to though?  I
              mean, we made gains in many ways.
     3
         Q.   Information, advice, forward thinking?
     4        A.  It was invaluable.
 
     5   Q.   Then it says:  "In undertaking this project, McDonald's
              committed itself to an unprecedented level of scrutiny by
     6        an outside organisation".  Mr. Langert, McDonald's might
              not know whether that was true or false, might they?
     7        McDonald's might not know whether this level of scrutiny
              was unprecedented or not?
     8        A.  Well, my opinion is I think it was, but no, we do not
              know how other companies conduct their business.
     9
         Q.   The EDF might know that, might it not?
    10        A.  I think they would be in a better position to do that,
              yes.
    11
         Q.   "In order to maintain the independence of the parties, the
    12        agreement that established the task force included several
              protections, including a provision that each side pay its
    13        own expenses"; is that true?
              A.  Yes.
    14
         Q.   How is the EDF funded, do you know?
    15        A.  It is all from individual contributions and it is also
              from foundations.  They take no corporate money.
    16
         Q.   Please turn over to the next page, 139.  If there is
    17        anything I miss on any of these pages that you want to
              draw attention to, you tell me and we will go back to it.
    18        The second paragraph starting:  "The task force devoted
              considerable effort to understanding McDonald's business.
    19        Numerous hours were spent in various McDonald's
              restaurants, and the EDF task force members each worked in
    20        a restaurant for a day.  The task force benefitted from
              the willingness of McDonald's and its suppliers to open
    21        their doors for a review of their operations."
 
    22        McDonald's, I understand; which suppliers were persuaded
              to open their doors for this review?
    23        A.  I believe, if we go back to near the front of this
              document, you will see a list of many of our suppliers.
    24        As a general answer, we literally opened our doors to
              every aspect of our business.  Anything they want to see,
    25        anybody they want to talk to, any information they wanted
              to study, they had a complete open book; nothing was left 
    26        in any drawer. 
  
    27   Q.   Can you remember, did you -- at this time you were
              Perseco, not McDonald's -- have to twist any arms or break
    28        any legs to get the suppliers to open their doors to this
              project?
    29        A.  That was the more difficult of this project.  Within
              the McDonald's company itself, that was easy.  Working
    30        with our suppliers, that took a lot of effort.  I was
              involved in arranging these meetings because they were

Prev Next Index