We are approaching our annual membership renewal. For those of you that have renewed, we thank you. We thank you for continuing to support the work that your NOA Board, Co-Op liaisons, and staff are doing on the system’s behalf. Our goal remains to effectively lead again. To lead in collaboration with the company and our suppliers. We have made an incredible amount of progress in a short amount of time. We aren’t finished. We are still green and growing. We still have work to do. Over 1,200 of your fellow owners voted by joining and financially supporting the NOA in its first year of existence. You are not alone. It’s up to all of us to institutionalize the NOA.
The National Owners Association is unique in its charter. We are independent from the company and we represent all owners. We support our leadership operators, those elected and those appointed to work with the company. We work in conjunction and with the full support of the NFLA. We are not an alternative to the NFLA. Sometimes there is confusion as to why we need both the NFLA and the NOA. Our best answer is through a homeowners analogy. We maintain our homes and we insure them. We don’t do one or the other. The NFLA maintains the House, the NOA insures it. We hope we never need our homeowners insurance, but we sleep better at night for having it.
The NOA goes beyond just insuring our homes though. It provides our NFLA, NSLC, and OPNAD and Diversity Groups with leverage they would not otherwise have. Unfortunately one of the company’s strategies for a long time has been dividing and dismissing us. They have used this tactic mostly when they were confronted with a differing view point from their own. We have all been told that we are alone in our dissenting view point. The NOA surveys demonstrate when this is not true. The Company still has the power to overrule us, but they no longer have the power to dismiss us. This has been the gift of the NOA. But we only keep this gift if we support the NOA. If the NOA is no longer supported, our truth will no longer be heard. We will once again lose our voice.
BBV2020 will not be the last grand plan for McDonald’s. There will be more National plans in the future. If you are pleased with the progress of the last year, we urge you to renew your membership. If you like a more balanced relationship with the Corporation, we urge you to renew. If you want our hometown in good hands, we urge you to renew. It takes all of us to make a difference at McDonald’s. We need your feedback. Your renewal will be the strongest feedback you can give. It’s our hometown and we need your help insuring it stays that way.
I plan on Renewing this year. However, I am greatly concerned the NOA made a lot of Noise the first few months and have become quite and dossal. Blake and Mark had GREAT courage getting us up and running. But with out the “Dynamic Duo” together, is the NOA less assertive? Have we split the Power?
I would Love for the NOA & NFLA to work on the Following; + Improve Bottom Line Profit. Cash Flow is misleading due to Debt. + Eliminating Products that do not add to my Profits (Chicken Strips, Hazelnut Syrup, Peanuts, Bagels in some areas & Ham in others). + Pushing to get a true Marketing Program. (I’m Loving it is dead now). + Bring Back Local Ronald’s - I am getting Killed with Cows, the King and Sonic’s 2 dudes in a car.
I have completed all 15 of my EOTF projects, NOW I am looking for my return. My Kiosks usage is 19% not 35%. UberEats per store is only 2 per week. MOP is 2.3 per day. I liked it better before I spent 3 million dollars. Certainly had more in my pocket.
It is taught to truly understand the true intentions of someone, focus not on the words they present – but focus on the actions they perform.
When it comes to McDonald’s Corporation, you can’t focus solely on the words from the Chicago hierarchy; though many of those words give rise to great alarm to the brand ambassadors. “Not Ray Kroc’s McDonald’s any longer” was a prime example; along with the abolishing of the brand icon RONALD.
Franchise Owners must also measure how those “mending” words from the top are transitioned into actions in the individual field offices. Clearly, there is either a tremendous disconnect from one level to the next in the Corporate system – or what’s being spoke in public isn’t the true intention in private.
Franchise Operators should have learnt its lesson, when the arrogance was unmasked. Individual operators “Eligible for Growth and Rewrite”, were subjected to contractual violations when placed into a third and purely subjective category – Eligible for Growth, but McDonald’s has no intention of Growing with you.
Field Offices are permitted to subject Franchisees to further subjugation using OPERATOR INVOLVEMENT, as a HAMMER to beat organizations into submission. Ombudsman processes created by McDonald’s, for McDonald’s and to the benefit of McDonald’s. Only aids in masking the generational gaps of true entrepreneurship for what has been a masked tyrannical monster in need of a revolt – and the creation of the NOA.
There is a calming belief that the NOA is gaining a respectable position within the McDonald’s system. When in fact, they been placated by masterful puppeteers. Leaving the honest angst and fear of the franchise operators unaddressed.
Hoping to persuade, when in fact what this system was in need of WAS AN ENEMA!
More than 90% of restaurants are franchisee controlled - perhaps a signal of solidarity is needed? The preverbal shot across the bow? How many have risen company revenues with 24-hours, opening holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Maybe, this Christmas. We owe it to ourselves and to our people to close. Nationwide, if not around the world.
Open elections and VOTES! These OPNAD votes with no means to actually measure the polling is a antiquated method. I don't understand how in meetings EVERYONE is against a certain measure, but it ALWAYS passes a National vote. How?
NOA probably needs to get a bit more militant-there are examples from other franchisee associations in other brands out there on how this is done constructively without ruining your business over inside baseball. However, NOA must survive. As bad as things are on the unit level prpfitability, I imagine how much worse it would (not could) be without NOA existing?
Please stop any idea of becoming militant. This is not war against the company. This is an attempt to inform and communicate with top management. Operator representatives had become nothing more than company pawns to implement poorly conceived promotions and reinvestment's. They were intimidated. The result was that MCD was not being managed effectively. It was then made worse by appointing Chris K. as the USA President. A person with an aristocratic education but completely void of any knowledge of MCD. The company policies of intimidation were pushed to a higher level which lead to the creation of the NOA. The NOA leadership never intended to become militant but to work closely with the company for everyone's benefit. Using these methods a lot has been achieved. We don't want to run the company but the company has got to stop being reckless with our credit and banking relationships.
We have no local control over the very expensive(and often unprofitable) Mobil App offers. We are over discounting and giving away the store. Nobody wins here except for MCD.
SBOs (sales between Operators) has reached a boiling point.If you are a buyer, MCD can(and does) steer the seller away from you to the operator of their choice-even if you are eligible for growth and rewrite. If you are a seller, MCDs interference keeps you from getting a higher $$ offer from approved,expandable Operators. And Im not referencing their contractual "right of first refusal."
Dollar any size drinks. They got to go and this feeling is held by a vast majority of Operators. Wanna bet it PASSES on OPNAD?
BBV2023- BRE initiatives will cost Operators hundreds of dollars per store. Yet it will be pitched as a silver bullet at the convention.
For this and countless other reasons EVERY Operator who doesn't have his/her head up MCDs behind should join and support the NOA. We hang together, or we hang separately. Two hundred dollars a year (54 cents a day) is a small price to pay for the "Insurance" the NOA provides to communicate our side.
The NOA was founded with the mission "...To unify owners to lead together again and save our culture..." The tireless work of the Owner advocates continues through both your elected NFLA representatives and your passionate, now over twelve hundred strong, NOA. We will keep working with the company to overcome many of your concerns and advocate on your behalf.
The NOA's immediate actions were to address what brought us together, the original BBV2020 agreement and the problems it created and failed to cure in the market place. You will remember all the prep and communications before and after the Chicago BLS meeting, dedicated to repairing the relationship and then working to help extend the new agreement to help all Owners accordingly.
There was so much to do at BLS, with the BBV2020 rewrite and extension, that the Owner Leadership and Company agreed to "table" such key issues as the Franchising Relationship, including Field First, Business Reviews, Eligibility issues for Growth and Rewrite and the critical issue of Sales Between Owners.
In its follow-up meeting with the company, the NFLA prioritized the most fundamental issue of our systems relationship...that being Field First. As you saw in the NOA survey results, they prioritized the right issue. This timely data from you will be used as critical information to help solve the broken components of Field First. Mark also reported they believe the company is listening, has acknowledged the level of concerns as demonstrated and also announced that Owners will work diligently with the company and Field Business Partners. They are now in the process of creating a Field First Task Force, led by West Zone NFLA Rep Andy Reprecht, to clearly understand the vision to create solutions.
We thank all of you for joining and engaging in this important mission of NOA. We believe our continued progress is due to "Strength in Numbers" realized from your support. We have officially started our 2019-2020 membership drive and encourage all of you to renew
To the above comments, I am a NFLA rep. and frankly this should have been said on our Monday call.
Blake - We need to know where we are going.
Mark - We need more details, I am concerned we are going to try and do way to much. Then we will never get anything done the Owners (My Constituents)want. Store Econ, Operating System, and Technology that is not Gold Standard.
I want to MMGA, but I not sure we know how to get there.
It is true that MCD interferes with the owner to owner sales regardless of meeting all criteria for growth and that pattern is well established. Their comments about it when asked is simply embarrassing thinking operators are so dumb to believe them.
13 comments:
Dear NOA Members,
We are approaching our annual membership renewal. For those of you that have renewed, we thank you. We thank you for continuing to support the work that your NOA Board, Co-Op liaisons, and staff are doing on the system’s behalf. Our goal remains to effectively lead again. To lead in collaboration with the company and our suppliers. We have made an incredible amount of progress in a short amount of time. We aren’t finished. We are still green and growing. We still have work to do. Over 1,200 of your fellow owners voted by joining and financially supporting the NOA in its first year of existence. You are not alone. It’s up to all of us to institutionalize the NOA.
The National Owners Association is unique in its charter. We are independent from the company and we represent all owners. We support our leadership operators, those elected and those appointed to work with the company. We work in conjunction and with the full support of the NFLA. We are not an alternative to the NFLA. Sometimes there is confusion as to why we need both the NFLA and the NOA. Our best answer is through a homeowners analogy. We maintain our homes and we insure them. We don’t do one or the other. The NFLA maintains the House, the NOA insures it. We hope we never need our homeowners insurance, but we sleep better at night for having it.
The NOA goes beyond just insuring our homes though. It provides our NFLA, NSLC, and OPNAD and Diversity Groups with leverage they would not otherwise have. Unfortunately one of the company’s strategies for a long time has been dividing and dismissing us. They have used this tactic mostly when they were confronted with a differing view point from their own. We have all been told that we are alone in our dissenting view point. The NOA surveys demonstrate when this is not true. The Company still has the power to overrule us, but they no longer have the power to dismiss us. This has been the gift of the NOA. But we only keep this gift if we support the NOA. If the NOA is no longer supported, our truth will no longer be heard. We will once again lose our voice.
BBV2020 will not be the last grand plan for McDonald’s. There will be more National plans in the future. If you are pleased with the progress of the last year, we urge you to renew your membership. If you like a more balanced relationship with the Corporation, we urge you to renew. If you want our hometown in good hands, we urge you to renew. It takes all of us to make a difference at McDonald’s. We need your feedback. Your renewal will be the strongest feedback you can give. It’s our hometown and we need your help insuring it stays that way.
Your NOA Board
Well said. All franhisees in every franchise system should read this because its true of every franchise.
Unfortunately, it takes unique courage like Blake's to get an organization off the ground and even more to persevere to keep it alive.
I plan on Renewing this year.
However, I am greatly concerned the NOA made a lot of Noise the first few months and have become quite and dossal. Blake and Mark had GREAT courage getting us up and running. But with out the “Dynamic Duo” together, is the NOA less assertive? Have we split the Power?
I would Love for the NOA & NFLA to work on the Following;
+ Improve Bottom Line Profit. Cash Flow is misleading due to Debt.
+ Eliminating Products that do not add to my Profits (Chicken Strips, Hazelnut Syrup, Peanuts, Bagels in some areas & Ham in others).
+ Pushing to get a true Marketing Program. (I’m Loving it is dead now).
+ Bring Back Local Ronald’s - I am getting Killed with Cows, the King and Sonic’s 2 dudes in a car.
I have completed all 15 of my EOTF projects, NOW I am looking for my return.
My Kiosks usage is 19% not 35%. UberEats per store is only 2 per week. MOP is 2.3 per day. I liked it better before I spent 3 million dollars. Certainly had more in my pocket.
It is taught to truly understand the true intentions of someone, focus not on the words they present – but focus on the actions they perform.
When it comes to McDonald’s Corporation, you can’t focus solely on the words from the Chicago hierarchy; though many of those words give rise to great alarm to the brand ambassadors. “Not Ray Kroc’s McDonald’s any longer” was a prime example; along with the abolishing of the brand icon RONALD.
Franchise Owners must also measure how those “mending” words from the top are transitioned into actions in the individual field offices. Clearly, there is either a tremendous disconnect from one level to the next in the Corporate system – or what’s being spoke in public isn’t the true intention in private.
Franchise Operators should have learnt its lesson, when the arrogance was unmasked. Individual operators “Eligible for Growth and Rewrite”, were subjected to contractual violations when placed into a third and purely subjective category – Eligible for Growth, but McDonald’s has no intention of Growing with you.
Field Offices are permitted to subject Franchisees to further subjugation using OPERATOR INVOLVEMENT, as a HAMMER to beat organizations into submission. Ombudsman processes created by McDonald’s, for McDonald’s and to the benefit of McDonald’s. Only aids in masking the generational gaps of true entrepreneurship for what has been a masked tyrannical monster in need of a revolt – and the creation of the NOA.
There is a calming belief that the NOA is gaining a respectable position within the McDonald’s system. When in fact, they been placated by masterful puppeteers. Leaving the honest angst and fear of the franchise operators unaddressed.
Hoping to persuade, when in fact what this system was in need of WAS AN ENEMA!
More than 90% of restaurants are franchisee controlled - perhaps a signal of solidarity is needed? The preverbal shot across the bow? How many have risen company revenues with 24-hours, opening holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Maybe, this Christmas. We owe it to ourselves and to our people to close. Nationwide, if not around the world.
Open elections and VOTES! These OPNAD votes with no means to actually measure the polling is a antiquated method. I don't understand how in meetings EVERYONE is against a certain measure, but it ALWAYS passes a National vote. How?
Even elections have JUDGES... where's our judge?
NOA probably needs to get a bit more militant-there are examples from other franchisee associations in other brands out there on how this is done constructively without ruining your business over inside baseball. However, NOA must survive. As bad as things are on the unit level prpfitability, I imagine how much worse it would (not could) be without NOA existing?
MMGA !
Join the NOA!
The company is making record profits (and stock prices). WHY shouldn't the Operator share in this?????
Please stop any idea of becoming militant. This is not war against the company. This is an attempt to inform and communicate with top management. Operator representatives had become nothing more than company pawns to implement poorly conceived promotions and reinvestment's. They were intimidated. The result was that MCD was not being managed effectively. It was then made worse by appointing Chris K. as the USA President. A person with an aristocratic education but completely void of any knowledge of MCD. The company policies of intimidation were pushed to a higher level which lead to the creation of the NOA. The NOA leadership never intended to become militant but to work closely with the company for everyone's benefit. Using these methods a lot has been achieved. We don't want to run the company but the company has got to stop being reckless with our credit and banking relationships.
Want to know why EVERYONE should support the NOA?
We have no local control over the very expensive(and often unprofitable) Mobil App offers. We are over discounting and giving away the store. Nobody wins here except for MCD.
SBOs (sales between Operators) has reached a boiling point.If you are a buyer, MCD can(and does) steer the seller away from you to the operator of their choice-even if you are eligible for growth and rewrite. If you are a seller, MCDs interference keeps you from getting a higher $$ offer from approved,expandable Operators. And Im not referencing their contractual "right of first refusal."
Dollar any size drinks. They got to go and this feeling is held by a vast majority of Operators. Wanna bet it PASSES on OPNAD?
BBV2023- BRE initiatives will cost Operators hundreds of dollars per store. Yet it will be pitched as a silver bullet at the convention.
For this and countless other reasons EVERY Operator who doesn't have his/her head up MCDs behind should join and support the NOA. We hang together, or we hang separately. Two hundred dollars a year (54 cents a day) is a small price to pay for the "Insurance" the NOA provides to communicate our side.
The NOA was founded with the mission "...To unify owners to lead together again and save our culture..." The tireless work of the Owner advocates continues through both your elected NFLA representatives and your passionate, now over twelve hundred strong, NOA. We will keep working with the company to overcome many of your concerns and advocate on your behalf.
The NOA's immediate actions were to address what brought us together, the original BBV2020 agreement and the problems it created and failed to cure in the market place. You will remember all the prep and communications before and after the Chicago BLS meeting, dedicated to repairing the relationship and then working to help extend the new agreement to help all Owners accordingly.
There was so much to do at BLS, with the BBV2020 rewrite and extension, that the Owner Leadership and Company agreed to "table" such key issues as the Franchising Relationship, including Field First, Business Reviews, Eligibility issues for Growth and Rewrite and the critical issue of Sales Between Owners.
In its follow-up meeting with the company, the NFLA prioritized the most fundamental issue of our systems relationship...that being Field First. As you saw in the NOA survey results, they prioritized the right issue. This timely data from you will be used as critical information to help solve the broken components of Field First. Mark also reported they believe the company is listening, has acknowledged the level of concerns as demonstrated and also announced that Owners will work diligently with the company and Field Business Partners. They are now in the process of creating a Field First Task Force, led by West Zone NFLA Rep Andy Reprecht, to clearly understand the vision to create solutions.
We thank all of you for joining and engaging in this important mission of NOA. We believe our continued progress is due to "Strength in Numbers" realized from your support. We have officially started our 2019-2020 membership drive and encourage all of you to renew
Sincerely,
Your "Hard At Work" NOA Board
To the above comments, I am a NFLA rep. and frankly this should have been said on our Monday call.
Blake - We need to know where we are going.
Mark - We need more details, I am concerned we are going to try and do way to much. Then we will never get anything done the Owners (My Constituents)want. Store Econ, Operating System, and Technology that is not Gold Standard.
I want to MMGA, but I not sure we know how to get there.
It is true that MCD interferes with the owner to owner sales regardless of meeting all criteria for growth and that pattern is well established. Their comments about it when asked is simply embarrassing thinking operators are so dumb to believe them.
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