Coalition of Franchisee Associations

October 15, 2019

Control Freaks in Action - Part Dos

Subject: Leaks in the McDonald's system

While it's very convenient for McDonald's HQ to blame any leaked information or plans
on the Owner/Operator community 99% of the leaks in the McDonald's system come 
from employees of the outside advertising agencies and PR firms.

These people are loyal to no one and are always networking for their next job. 
It's 
important they establish connections with reporters and trade pubs who cover the 
advertising business.

But that makes NDAs a great way to shut down communications among Owner/Operators
while the agency people continue to sing like birds.
.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMEN

STAND STRONG NFLA and NOA

NO NDAs!!!

Anonymous said...

In 2003 McDonalds published a booklet entitled "FOREVER RAY". It was a compilation of Rays thoughts,plans and ideas. It is what he built this business on. Find it and read it if you can. Sadly the current top management team has destroyed his legacy and forgotten the past.



MMGA
Join the NOA
"None of us is as good as all of us".... RAK

Anonymous said...


Noa is doing fantastic work! I want to renew and pay my dues. However, I don’t know when they are due and there is no place to find out or who to contact if you forgot your password and can’t retrieve it. Please advise on how to proceed....thanks

Richard Adams said...

If you're looking to do that here, you can't - but you can go here:

https://nationalownersassociation.com/pages/noa-membership

Seems pretty straightforward.
.

Anonymous said...

The dues are due now. You should have received a number of emails about this. You can call always call Blake’s office for more information or go to the National Operators Association web site.

MMGA

We should sign NO NDAs

Anonymous said...

Pressure seems to be coming from Corp about these NDAs. Stand strong NFLA. Don’t sign them. Never forget — BBV2020


Anonymous said...

Pay your NOA dues, Never sign an NDA. Only EVER make rational business decisions, uninfluenced by anyone but your accountant,, attorney or spouse!

No one else has a true interest in your success, especially not the suit from Chicago whose bonus depends on extracting equity from your restaurant. I'd throw in that this is the brand that killed off Ronald McDonald, but it feels like piling on.

Anonymous said...

With earnings report due this week....I have a few questions for the analysts out there. Why does anyone believe that McDonalds is a leading and progressive technology company when I can’t even connect to WiFi in any of the restaurants without issue? What is so impressive about a mobile app that doesn’t work half the time? Heck, the last time my kid tried to play a game at one of the gaming kiosks it wouldn’t work? Now McDonalds is buying technology companies in hopes of developing more subpar technologies to boast to analysts? Please do your homework and go to a local restaurant near you and try these “technologies”. I believe you will be surprised at the fact that McDonald’s management tells you one thing but the reality is that most of what they are selling you doesn’t work as it should. Now the company wants to use the technology company(s) they recently acquired for over 300 million to lead when franchisees could buy the same type of technology of the shelf at any big box store at a fraction of the price they intend to sell them. And then they will try to convince you that franchisee debt isn’t an issue. Especially when you look at individual store performance. Most franchisees I know were cash flowing more money 10 years ago at individual locations with around a million less in sales. Analysts, please ask these questions. Because with the company’s short minded strategy, technology that doesn’t work, forced to franchisees to buy at a premium, without increased customer counts, debt is a bigger issue for franchisees then I am sure they will share on the call.

Anonymous said...

The so called "NDA Agreement" email just sent out by Mark and Chris K is woefully short on details. It is clear about "outside entities information" but mentions nothing about the elephant in the room- Will Operator Reps be able to freely communicate potential plans to their Operator constituents without MCD interference? The inability to do this is what hoodwinked the old NLC with BBV2020, and put in place a flawed , expensive and ill conceived plan without field input.

Did the NFLA get rolled? Time will tell.


#MMGA
Join the NOA....its cheap insurance!

Anonymous said...

The BBV2020 debt is crippling many operators, yet MCD is hard at work on a 2023 plan which undoubtedly will require MORE expensive crippling debt, destroy more Operator equity (while enriching MCD profits and stock price), and ultimately fail just like BBV2020. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !

Stand strong NFLA. Don't go wobbly like the NLC !

Join the NOA to protect your hard earned equity.

Anonymous said...

MCD has lost Rays "Culture of Caring" about Owners. They preach that we pull together, and then through their words and actions they pull us apart. Want proof? See the recent email to second gen operators telling them to defy their parent(s) and trust MCD. Or corps pitting Large vs small operators. Or the whole NDA debacle which hinders Operator representatives from communicating with the owners they represent. Or corps failure to recognize the NOA as a legitimate owner representative body.

#MMGA

Anonymous said...

It mentions the "free flow of information between the company, elected owener/operator leadership and suppliers.".

What about the general O/O community? Is communicating with us not important?

Anonymous said...

As the Fall meetings begin today, the Real Question, is McD. & the Operators Leadership working on things that matter to the customer?

It seems to me that we are working on things that the customer does not care about. Examples (EOTF) MOP I am averaging less than 1 per day in Q3, Kiosk usage 21% of my 25% inside orders during Q3 and of the stores that have delivery we are averaging 1.5 per day for Q3. (Food & Marketing) the BBQ Sandwich Sales 9 per day & Chicken Tenders overall 8.5 per day per restaurant.

I do not believe our customers are asking for any of these things to stay Contemporary.

I do believe they will knock down our doors if we get focused on what they want. That is Good Food at Electrifying Speed. How do you do that, focus on turnover of products in the Kitchen to start? It is faster to do 50 Big Macs than 5 of 10 different products. Selling a lot of 1 offs has never been our strong suit. You can do that 2 ways 1). Eliminate low performing products 2). Market what you want to turnover. Then Marketing MUST tell the People of the USA what we are, we are Good Food / FAST. I took over a patch of restaurants In 2017 we have increased Sales & GCs by 20% each year Focusing on these items. Can you imagine what it would be like if we could move even Faster?

We are trying to please too many people and NOT take care of our Core Business; The Moms carting kids to practice, the Business Person in a hurry, the Teenager running late. If that lane in DT is longer than 3 cars they are going somewhere else. This is an instant society, not a Leisure one.

I hold both McD & Leadership operators responsible for us getting slower. Both have taken us down this destructive path, Both are equally to blame, NOW let’s Fix It.

McDonald’s and Leadership Operators are you really working on the right things or just trying to make yourselves feel good at the Customers and Operator's expense?

Signed: Customer Advocate

Richard Adams said...

"It mentions the "free flow of information between the company, elected owener/operator leadership and suppliers.".

What about the general O/O community? Is communicating with us not important?"

It looks like they've created another "Star Chamber".
.

Anonymous said...

BTW- MCD missed revenues for Q3. Expect more desperate flailing with your money and efforts to crush NOA

Anonymous said...

As has been mentioned, franchisors divining and conquering franchise owners starts with cutting off communications between franchise owners, then crushing them alone when they complain, telling them that they are the only ones having the problems that they complain about. Sound familiar to anyone?

Franchise owners in other brands have defeated these and other strategies that management is rolling out (notice to suppliers to stop supporting NOA, anyone? Bueller?) we are just taking it. Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel here? Just like management, trying to invent something at high cost to restaurant owners that the mom and pop shop can buy off the shelf for less?

It's the last thing management wants to see you doing: learning how to protect your own equity and talking to their paymasters about unit economics. Pay your NOA dues on your way there. Best insurance you'll ever buy.

Anonymous said...

Now that there is pressure on the stock rice management will be doubling down on trying to destroy NOA. Stand tall.

Anonymous said...

I know one thing for sure- Blake and the NOA board will never give up fighting for Operators! The only way corp prevails is if we operators fail to join, pay our dues, or support the NOA.


Become a dues paying member of the NOA! (or pay your dues)

$200 a store is cheap insurance to protect your equity!

MMGA

Anonymous said...

From what I'm hearing in Chicago, sounds like the NOA is being blamed for the earnings. HA! What crap

Richard Adams said...

The beauty of working for a franchise company - just blame all of your blunders on the franchisees.
.

Anonymous said...

As the above poster states: "
From what I'm hearing in Chicago, sounds like the NOA is being blamed for the earnings. HA! What crap"

This is yet another chapter in the franchisor "equity extraction from franchise owners" playbook: blame the protectors.

Sure, it sounds stupid, and it is, until your field corporate puke shows up in your restaurant mentioning it, unrelated to anything. The pressure starts in a very subtle way, combined with outright threats to suppliers who fund NOA.

Other franchisee associations know this well. Some were wiped off the face of the Earth by franchisors much smaller than McDonolads. Other wiped out the franchisor management team

Anonymous said...

Three operators that I know of have been asked in their operator reviews if they were members of the NOA

Subtle? Hardly

Protect our Equity-JOIN THE NOA

Anonymous said...

Thunder, hear the Thunder..

Lighting soon to strike... is the NOA solid enough to bite back when it does? The test is soon upon them!

What process exist to address these threats at Business Reviews?

Anonymous said...

NOA could choose to follow what other independent f Anchises associations did when faced with the same equity extraction schemes by suits who don't know how to operate restaurants.

Or not.