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
