Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue I, 2013 | Page 36

MEGA
By HELEN BOND

Serving Up Good Value

W

Tom McDonald engineers a life in franchising

hen Burger King set out to
revamp its menu, it made
sense that Tom McDonald
would have some input.
McDonald, a Burger King franchisee
since 1986, had long expressed concern—largely to no avail—about the
fast food giant’s need to keep up with
the times. When global investment firm
3G Capital acquired the home of the
Whopper in 2010, new management
was ready to listen.
McDonald was among a select group
of executives, franchisees, and suppliers assembled to evaluate every facet
of Burger King’s fare, which ultimately
led to the rollout of a slew of new products in 2012 as part of a multi-faceted
strategy to reimage the chain.
“I have always been an advocate of
giving good value,” says McDonald,
who operates 35 restaurants, and recently completed a six-year stint on the
national Burger King Marketing Advisory Council. “The problem was that
Burger King didn’t have a high value
perception. The new management has
done a good job and is working hard
to improve the value.”
So what is a refinery process design
engineer who spent 20 years globetrotting the world with Exxon Research and Engineering, doing in Las
Vegas touting the merits of adding
crispy chicken strips, snack wraps,
smoothies, and specialty coffee to his
fast food menu?
As it’s turned out, the qualities that
made the highly organized Midwesterner successful at Exxon, such as his
ability to think logically and prioritize
(among others), would serve him well
when oil industry changes prompted
him to seek a career path that would
allow him to be his own boss.

34

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue I, 2013

Name: Thomas (Tom) M. McDonald
Title: Franchisee/Owner
Company: Glencoe

Management, Inc.
No. of units by brand:

35 Burger Kings, 18 T-Mobile
Premium Retail outlets, 8 Panera
Breads, and 3 Fazoli’s
Age: 66
Family: Married with three

children and six grandchildren
Years in franchising: 26
Years in current position: 26

In July 1986, McDonald piled his
family into an Audi station wagon for
a cross-country adventure to Las Vegas—just as the building boom there
was beginning. A high school buddy
needed an operating partner to expand
Burger King into Sin City, and the
timing was perfect. Smart enough to
know he was more suited to be a developer than an operator, McDonald’s
first hire was restaurant manager Tom
Pike, who remains with the company
today as director of operations.
“Never in my wildest dreams did
I ever think that I would live in Las
Vegas or be a Burger King franchisee,”
says McDonald, who holds a master’s