Great Ideas: How McDonald's built a "never be satisfied" culture

McDonald’s remains as hungry as the customers who flock to its restaurants. But the fast-food behemoth’s appetite isn’t for burgers and fries, but to outdo itself — again and again.

In Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s, Paul Facella contends that what keeps the company at the top of its industry is a “never be satisfied” culture. Facella is a management consultant who, as vice president of McDonald’s New York region, quadrupled the region’s profit in 11 years. In his book, he identifies key learnings about how McDonald’s fosters a perennial drive for high standards:

1. Focus on and develop your organization’s own strengths. Don’t allow your competitors to dominate your focus.
2. “Good enough” won’t cut it in today’s competitive world. Never accept any standard but the very best. Continually challenge your team to improve the product, and keep your expectations high.
3. If you see something wrong, fix it. Your actions as a manager set the standards. Problems don’t resolve themselves.
4. Create a career track that reinforces the “never be satisfied” culture. This will ensure that ultimately your organization will be led by those who have only the highest standards, coupled with the execution and achievement of those goals.