an associate’s degree in business administration
from Miami Dade College.
Armario met recently with DC VELOCITY Group
Editorial Director Mitch Mac Donald to discuss
the challenges of keeping billions and billions of
customers satisfied.
Armario may be steward of one of the most far-flung and
complex supply chains imaginable, but he is quick to credit others for his group’s successes. These include what he
calls the “very smart, capable, experienced people” who
serve on the supply chain front lines as well as the corporation’s famed founder, Ray Kroc, whose unwavering focus on
customer satisfaction has provided the foundation for the
company’s decades-long success.
In addition to his day job, Armario is a member of the
board of directors for USG Corp., where he serves on the
audit and compensation committees; a director of the
international advisory board and president’s council of the
University of Miami; and a director for the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs. He earned a master’s degree in
professional management at the University of Miami and
QAs one of the world’s largest fast-food companies, McDonald’s operates a supply
chain of almost jaw-dropping size and scope.
How do you cut through all the complexity to
get to the point where you can make actionable
decisions?
AWe are very fortunate to have a system in place that has survived the test of time. We
call it the three-legged stool. It is the philosophy
that was instilled in the company by McDonald’s
founder Ray Kroc. The whole principle centers
on a great balance, a great will to win. In other
words, when the company does well, when our
owner/operators do well, and when our suppliers
do well, we all win. Of course, the corollary to
that is that if any leg is shorter or longer than the
others, you don’t have good balance.
We try to remind ourselves about the three-legged stool at all times. That is the philosophy
going forward, but we also have very smart, capable, experienced people in all areas of the world
we serve. Our staff works with very tenured suppliers to make the day-to-day decisions. Our role
at corporate is to supply strategic direction and
to ensure that the brand is protected along the
way so that we are always delivering gold standard products
at the highest levels of quality and safety. We want our customers to be confident that their Big Mac will taste the same
whether they’re in Germany, Argentina, the U.S., Canada,
or any other part of the world. Everyone involved—from
the supplier all the way to the restaurant—will meet the
same standards.
QAs important as adhering to those standards might be, I would guess that it’s still important to have the
flexibility to adapt to local market conditions?
AYou’re right. There does have to be some level of lexibility in the framework because no two markets
are exactly the same. You can’t import all the products or
even produce all the materials in one country, so when
