Produced by
At rallies a president might envy, Sarah’s speeches reinvigorated the morale of McDonald’s Japan’s 200,000 people. Following an emotional final speech in July Sarah was flanked by incoming CEO Thomas Ko and new Chairman Tamotsu Hiiro.
These days you find Canadians in all sorts of jobs in Japan. But only one of us has been CEO and chair of a major publicly traded Japanese corporation. That would be Sarah Casanova of McDonald’s Japan. On the eve of her return to Canada after 10 eventful years in Japan, from the shores of Lake Huron through Moscow to Tokyo, this is her story.
I grew up in Port Elgin, Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron, 180 kilometers northwest of Toronto. When I was little, our town was too small to have a McDonald’s, so a stop at the Golden Arches was an eagerly anticipated treat on car rides to the city. Later on, as a competitive swimmer in high school, stops at McDonald’s on swim-meet trips meant happy team memories. So the Golden Arches won my heart young.
Alas, since my town still didn’t have one, I couldn’t get a summer job at McDonald’s. Instead, I worked as a lifeguard, taught swimming, waited tables and was even a tour guide at the nearby Bruce Nuclear Power Plant.
After high school I chose the University of Guelph, the only university at the time that offered a Hotel and Food Administration B.Comm program. Because McDonald’s was the industry leader, it was a big topic of discussion in many classes.
I followed up with an MBA program at McMaster University in Hamilton, with a focus on marketing. Since I was determined to learn from and work for the best, my short list was either McDonald’s or Coca-Cola.
In September of my second year, opportunity came knocking when I was tasked with writing a paper about any company I wanted, so long as it was based on an interview with someone from that company.
Well, there was no question in my mind who I was going to interview: George Cohon, the legendary founder of McDonald’s Canada. He had just signed the deal to open the first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union. So I sent him a letter that went something like this:
“Dear George,
You don’t know me, but I’m an MBA student at McMaster and I’d like to interview you about opening the first McDonald’s in the USSR. I will call you to set up a time to come and meet with you.”
Weeks ticked by with no response and as the deadline approached, I called Cohon’s secretary several times, only to be told: “I’m sorry, he’s still in Moscow.”
A week before my paper was due, I was starting to freak out and give up hope. Then one night I came home from swim practice and my roommate said, “Some guy named George Cohon called and said to call him tomorrow at nine.”
When I reached him, George said, “Put on your best pair of jeans and come see me on October 31st.”
So I did. On the big day, I drove in to McDonald’s Toronto head office. And not knowing what to expect, I was pretty nervous as I got on the elevator. But when the elevator door opened, my jaw dropped. I was facing the receptionist who was… this creature with two heads.
Then I remembered it was Halloween, so everyone in the office was wearing crazy costumes. That was my first taste of work life at McDonald’s. It’s like a big family; people work hard but they have fun. That’s when I knew that I really, really wanted to work for this company.
When we sat down, George spent nearly three hours with me, telling all sorts of stories. Last thing he said was, “I only give interviews to students that get A’s.”
“Don’t worry George,” I responded. “I’ll get an A.” And I did.
A few weeks later, I sent him a copy of my paper along with my resumé, and asked for a summer job in Marketing. The Marketing VP wrote back: “Sorry, we don’t hire students because of this and this and this.” So I wrote George again and said, “Those reasons aren’t good enough because of this and this and this – I really would like a job.”
Long story short: I got one.
So I learned the most important lesson about McDonald’s (and life) before I even started: persistence is key.
After graduation, I found myself working for McDonald’s at Toronto’s SkyDome. But after one year I was promoted to Assistant Marketing Manager for Ontario. Not long after though, something completely different came out of the blue. They needed someone to lead marketing in Moscow, and George suggested me.
Jeez! I wasn’t sure. All I could think of was spy movies that made Moscow look like a dark and scary place where no one spoke English. I’d have to leave my friends and parents behind.
But my Dad would have none of that: “You have to take it. You have to try. You have to say yes. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You don’t like it and you come home.” So I said “Yes.”
Second important lesson: Always say Yes. You never know what will come of it.
In 1991, not long after the Cold War ended and the USSR fell apart, Moscow was like the Wild East, beyond anything I had ever known. I lived in a shipping container (a nice one!) on the parking lot of our food processing plant. Grocery shopping was an adventure: instead of making a list and then buying everything on it, I visited several stores and bought what I could find, then went home and asked myself, “what can I make with this?”
Marketing? The Soviets didn’t have it, they only had propaganda. And it worked like this: if there was a glut of orange juice an article would appear in newspapers announcing that there was a shortage. So everyone would run out and buy orange juice. The result? No more glut.
When I set out to hire a marketing leader, I couldn’t find anyone with marketing experience so I hired for personality. The background of the successful candidate, Sergey, was designing instrument panels for MIG jet fighters. But he ended up being VP of Marketing for McDonald’s Russia for over a decade.
Russia was my first experience where few people spoke English, and my Russian was limited to words like “vodka” and “dosvedania” (sayonara). This made for some interesting conversations. My Russian teacher taught me to use words I knew to get across what I meant. For instance, if I wanted to say something was round, but I didn’t know the Russian word for it, I would say “it’s not square.”
This taught me to listen to what someone is trying to say, not the actual words that they are using. This was for me a third key lesson: Listen, and never assume anything.
Along the way, there were many hilarious moments, like when we were trying to register Ronald McDonald House Charities in Russia. One day the company lawyer came to ask: “Please give me everything you have on Ronald McDonald: videos, pictures… anything.” Why? “Because the babushka at the registry office insists that he come and register it himself. She doesn’t believe he’s not a real person.”
McDonald’s Russia was a great success for many years. Its first restaurant, Pushkin Square, was the busiest restaurant in the world from the day it opened.
For me, two tours of duty in Moscow were a deeply formative experience, not least because that is where I met Ernest Casanova, my Texan life partner. Ernie was there working on the new U.S. Embassy, which had to be rebuilt after they discovered that the Russian crew had filled the concrete with listening devices and they had to start over.
Russia was a great experience, and I loved it. It opened doors to challenging jobs in fascinating cultures like Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore and, last but not least, Japan.
I moved to Tokyo in October 2004, becoming Chief Marketing Officer for McDonald’s Japan – and immediately fell in love with this country: the culture, the people and the work challenge of running the second-largest national network in the McDonald’s world.
After five exciting years running marketing in Tokyo, I decided it was time to take on a new challenge, moving out of marketing to become a managing director. So I pitched my idea to McDonald’s Regional President when he visited Japan. He said “yes, but you will need training.”
However, I was only six months into a two-year training program when a managing director was needed in Malaysia. Remembering my father’s words I said, “Yes, but I will need specialized support in a few areas.” And so in 2009 I became MD of McDonald’s Malaysia. And three years later, Regional Manager, Malaysia & Singapore.
Then, in late 2013, I got The Call: We’d like you to return to Japan as CEO.
Wow! A dream job! Yes! Yes! Woo-hoo!
That feeling didn’t last long, though, as “dream job” quickly became “careful what you wish for,” as the company experienced two very public food quality issues that cratered customer loyalty, employee morale and financial results.
This is where I learned first-hand that whoever said “leadership has its ups and downs” wasn’t kidding. Leadership is not all rainbows and bunny rabbits.
I had about thirty seconds to wrap my head around what was happening. There was no time to feel sorry for myself. Then it was time to get down to business and lead us out of it.
I remember thinking “the only way to go is up,” and reminding myself that “hope is not a strategy.” We needed a plan. Easy. This is the stuff they teach you in business school:
What they don’t teach you in biz school is that any plan is just words on paper until people get behind it and execute it. That… is a bit more difficult to achieve.
Among the most important things to identify are elements in your culture that you can leverage. In our case, there were two things. First, omotenashi, which is crucial in our business.
Traveling around the country, I always asked crew, “Why do you work for McDonalds?” Around the world the usual answer is, “because I need money.” But in Japan, 95% of the time it was “Because I like taking care of customers,” or “I want to see customers smile” or “I like it when customers thank me.” These answers are a gift! Imagine the power you can generate, the experience you can deliver, when you start with an attitude like that.
Second, it’s the “we before me” culture. Once you get everyone on the same page, no one can execute better than the Japanese. We brought this to life with a rallying cry we used for five years: “The Power of One.” The “One” stands for two things: each of us, and what we can do individually to deliver customer satisfaction, and all of us as One Team working together to achieve common goals.
So we put everybody in one room, shared the plan and got all hands pointed in the same direction, aiming at the same goals and repeating over and over, “The Power of One.”
Bottom line: The outcome was nothing short of amazing.
When I was growing up in Port Elgin, if some fortune teller had predicted that I would live, work, have friends around the world and be part of the biggest V-shaped turnaround in McDonald’s global history, I would have said, “No way!”
But now, as I graduate from McDonald’s, I’m just glad I said “yes.”
Big thanks to my husband Ernie, who has been my biggest supporter through this journey. Being a guy who is happiest on his ranch in Texas, Ernie has spent most of his time over the past 10 years on a beautiful spread in the mountains of Nagano. When I’ve joined him on weekends we’ve spent much of our time cruising the backroads on twin Harley Davidsons.
From now, we plan to explore the open roads in North America. But no doubt you will often see us back here in Tokyo.
