Day 123 - 09 May 95 - Page 53
1 who is our Field Service Manager, will from time to time
2 also visit with a franchisee in his or her restaurants as
3 well as sitting down, you know, at the regional office or
4 some other meeting place to discuss business matters.
5
6 Where appropriate, we, at our suggestion, will bring in
7 additional professionals to provide guidance and counsel to
8 a franchisee. For instance, if a franchisee is having a
9 problem in staffing his restaurant or is not doing a
10 particularly good job in managing the personnel in his or
11 her restaurant, then we might have Human Relations or a
12 Human Resources consultant to spend some quality time with
13 the franchisee.
14
15 If the franchisee, for instance, is, let us say, having
16 some difficulty in mining the promotional opportunities
17 that are existent in his trading area, we might have the
18 Advertising Manager in the region to come out and -----
19
20 Q. Just pause there, because I was more concerned with direct
21 supervision, even though if anything untoward is discovered
22 it may be advice which is given rather than directions, but
23 there is direct supervision by Field Consultants and Field
24 Service Managers who are actually employed by McDonald's
25 Corporation, as I understand it?
26 A. Yes. We review the quality of the operation and, as a
27 matter of fact, will provide a written summary of our
28 findings which is made available and discussed with the
29 franchisee, and that will cover all aspects of his
30 operation.
31
32 I might, my Lord, say that we are in the process of even
33 upgrading that relationship. Presently, we have undertaken
34 a strategic initiative by which we are asking our
35 franchisees to, with our assistance, develop a business
36 plan, a fully comprehensive business plan, which will
37 provide for all aspects of his operation.
38
39 So, our consultation generally is pretty comprehensive. We
40 cover everything from, you know, the maintenance of
41 equipment, calibration of equipment, to the holding of raw
42 product, to the service of the consumer, to the cleanliness
43 of the rest rooms, the repair and maintenance of the
44 building -- you name it; everything from the kerb to, from
45 kerb to kerb.
46
47 In carrying out this consultation with the franchisee,
48 generally speaking, the majority of the times
49 recommendations are made regarding the operation. If we
50 see some things that are not being attended to properly or
51 thing that needed to be ratcheted up a bit, we will make
52 recommendations to the franchisee. If this franchisee
53 requests some additional assistance from us to make it
54 happen, we will do that.
55
56 Where there are some serious cases of non-observance of
57 procedures or recommended policies, then our language in
58 our communication will be a little stronger. We will say:
59 "You should get this done by such and such a time and we
60 will be back in in six months or three months to review
