Cooper Farms: - Urner Barry Publications, Inc.

Consistency begins with education...
McDegree for McDonald’s top talent
In 1961, Fred Turner, McDonald’s
former senior chairman and founder
Ray Kroc’s first grillman, founded
Hamburger University in the basement
of a McDonald’s restaurant in Elk Grove
Village, Illinois. Since its inception, more
than 80,000 restaurant managers, midmanagers
and owner/operators have
graduated from this facility. Training
at Hamburger University has always
emphasized consistent restaurant
operations procedures, service,
quality and cleanliness. It
has become the company’s
global center of excellence for
McDonald’s operations training
and leadership development.
Since the initial class,
attendance has grown from
an average of 10 students to
more than 200 students each week, and
more than 5,000 students a year participate
in Hamburger University courses and
learning activities.
team rooms,
and 3 kitchen
labs. Hamburger
University
translators
can provide
simultaneous
translation, and
the faculty has the ability to teach in 28
different languages. Restaurant employees
receive about 32 hours of training in
their first month with McDonald’s.
Today in the U.S., there are
22 regional training teams.
Additional Hamburger University
campuses exist in Sydney,
Munich, London, Tokyo,
Hong Kong and Brazil.
Most recently, in March of
2010, McDonald’s opened
a Hamburger University location in
Shanghai, China in order to train owners
and operators in the fast growing market.
McDonald’s
strives to give
customers a
similar dining
experience
anywhere in the
world, and to
maintain high
standards of service and quality. There
may be regional differences in menus or
manners, but ultimately a McDonald’s
should be consistently the same for
the customers regardless what country
they are in. It’s the job of Hamburger
University to ensure that those results get
replicated each day in every country where
McDonald’s operates.
“As the world continues to evolve, we
need to focus on those things that made
us successful,” says Diana Thomas, U.S.
vice president of training and the dean
of Hamburger University. “We need to
continue to invest in our people.”UB
Hamburger University’s students complete
varied required courses such as chemistry,
marketing, and cooking so that when they
graduate, they are able to create formulas
to increase the profit of the company.
Many of those with a “McDegree” are
able to get jobs in a lab where they can
invent new ways to enhance the food in an
economical way.
Founder Ray Kroc once said, “If we are
going to go anywhere, we’ve got to have
talent. And, I’m going to put my money in
talent.” Hamburger University continues
to promote that philosophy, everyday and
it is evident in much of the top talent at
McDonald’s today. Executives including
CEO Jim Skinner and Tim Fenton, the
company’s president of Asia Pacific, Middle
East and Africa operations have trained at
Hamburger University.
The Oak Brook, IL location is a 130,000
square foot training facility on an 80 acre
campus with 19 full-time international
resident instructors to teach students from
more than 119 countries. The state-of-theart
site includes 13 teaching rooms, a 300
seat auditorium, 12 interactive education
Dutt & Wagner
of Va., inc.
Serving the Southeast
for all your egg needs since 1926
1142 West Main Street
P.O. Box 518
Abingdon, VA. 24319
Toll Free: 1-800-688-2116
Fax: 276-628-4619
VOL. 6, NO. 1 / WINTER 2011 / URNER BARRY’S REPORTER • 61