Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 20
1 That is really the kind of Manager that I wanted to see in
2 place in the restaurant, you know, not necessarily getting
3 full flushes of As on full fields, but that is really the
4 kind of managers that I was hoping to get into the
5 restaurant and develop in the restaurant as I was going up
6 to five stores, and my concern -----
7
8 Q. That would help you get promotion throughout the Company,
9 would it not?
10 A. It would certainly help the Company succeed from many,
11 many points of view and, yes, ultimately it would help me
12 get promoted, but it is very important to make sure the
13 store is run well.
14
15 Q. Would you say you are an ambitious person in terms of
16 McDonald's?
17 A. Yes, I have always been ambitious. I have -- yes, I am
18 ambitious. I want to get on. I am ambitious in many ways,
19 though, not just to progress my position, but also to take
20 on board new skills and to address deficiencies in my
21 performance so that I perform better purely for the
22 satisfaction of that itself.
23
24 Q. Is your ambition related to having a reputation as a bit of
25 a tyrant in the region when you were Supervisor?
26 A. My ambition has never been to have a reputation as a
27 tyrant.
28
29 Q. Was it related to that reputation for being a bit of a
30 tyrant?
31 A. I cannot really say. I mean, I have always -- I am
32 aware of the comment John made, but I think because it is
33 such a personal comment about me and I reacted defensively
34 about it, I cannot really say whether I was a tyrant or
35 not. I was certainly ambitious. I wanted to get on.
36 I wanted to get the restaurants that I had working for me
37 running well. I make no bones about that. I think that a
38 lot of people who join McDonald's join McDonald's at the
39 time because, you know, you could become a Store Manager
40 within two years and it was a great career opportunity.
41 That is the way we market their position.
42
43 Q. Can we go back to what was the opinion you had of Mark
44 Davis as a Supervisor which you later, looking back with
45 hindsight, realise now? You said that -----
46 A. I thought Mark Davis was wonderful. I think he was --
47 he did me a tremendous amount of service. I was a very
48 successful Store Manager. I think I had a difficult patch
49 when I first became a Store Manager, and Mark really did
50 train me very well and helped me very well, really
51 motivated me as a Store Manager, and I went on to achieve
52 some very significant results within the Company. My
53 opinion of Mark Davis in that respect has not changed.
54
55 The only point that I would make is that in my statement
56 I said I felt Mark had to work too hard to keep Colchester
57 going. That was my opinion. That was an opinion I formed
58 at the time, because I was finding Colchester very, very
59 hard to keep going, or to work with, and I simply concluded
60 that if I was going to run five restaurants as a Supervisor
