伊利诺伊州奥克布鲁克市，麦当劳CEO吉姆•斯金纳正在视察当地一家连锁店的厨房。他事无巨细，要求严苛，或许他的同行们只有对待财务报告时才会如此。他一边检查食物准备区，一边向我详细解释“如何检查脆薯饼”这款麦当劳几年前就已经推出的产品；并且告诫我不要碰任何东西。“除非你想在这里工作，”他补充道。毕竟，在当前的经济形势下，麦当劳是为数不多仍在招聘的公司之一。

    但是，如果你认为斯金纳是一名微观管理者，那你就错了——他只是特别重视麦当劳在全球的33,000家连锁店的效率和表现，以及大量复杂的配套基础设施。正是在麦当劳的鼎盛时期，他形成了这种管理风格。现年66岁的斯金纳2004年成为麦当劳CEO。此后，麦当劳每年都以5%的速度增长，去年公司收入超过240亿美元。而在其七年任期内，受到密切关注的行业标准，即同店销售额，每年都在增长。与此同时，公司股票累计收益率超过250%（即便八月初股市暴跌后依然涨势强劲），而同一阶段标准普尔500（S&P 500）股票的平均收益率仅为16%。（点击阅读本刊2005年文章，了解麦当劳如何选定合适的CEO继任者。）

    如果你最近没有光顾麦当劳，你肯定会认为，公司只是占了美国和其他地区经济不景气的便宜，因为在这种情况下，节衣缩食的消费者们纷纷放弃了正式的餐厅，转而到快餐店就餐。但为了维持麦当劳目前所取得的成绩，以及平安渡过当前的经济动荡，斯金纳一方面要留住巨无霸和炸薯条的铁杆粉丝，同时又必须想方设法吸引更多食客。所以，现在除了汉堡和奶昔，消费者还可以到麦当劳挑选一款快餐卷或水果冰沙，或者来一杯正宗的拿铁咖啡【这令星巴克（Starbucks）怒火中烧】，而这些都能增加每家连锁店的销售额。去年，每家连锁店的平均销售额从2004年的160万美元增长到240万美元。

    下面，我们来细数一下要成功实现这种总体转变必须正确执行的所有步骤：测试厨房是否有能力不断推出能够广受欢迎的食谱（顾客们对McPizzas这样的食品已经厌烦了）；公司必须建立一支能处理大额订单的供应商队伍；员工需要接受针对新品的制作进行培训；而营销人员必须找出有效的方式推销产品——与此同时，还要时刻提防“食物警察”，他们紧盯着公司食品的营养价值，这让麦当劳困扰不已。好在斯金纳是一位运营奇才，他将这家餐饮业巨头成功变成一台运行良好的机器，并坚持在整个公司推行规划与责任制——即便脆薯饼也要接受检查。瑞士联合银行（UBS）分析师大卫•帕尔默表示：“麦当劳是管理界的奇迹。”正是出于这个原因，在《财富》杂志（Fortune）评选出的首支商界高管“梦之队”（由最优秀的高管组成的全明星阵容）中，斯金纳入选首发名单。

    斯金纳为人低调，也未能完成大学学业。所以当时在麦当劳内部，极少有人会料到会由这个生于美国中西部的人出任公司CEO。身高5.6英尺的斯金纳极少在采访中谈论自己，他说：“我从来都是‘龙套’。‘让爱荷华达文波特的小个子来试试。’当时没有人会这么想：”2004年11月，斯金纳终于从“龙套”一跃成为公司的“男一号”，当时公司被悲伤的气氛所笼罩：前CEO吉姆•坎塔卢普在那一年因心脏病去世，而他的继任者查理•贝尔在上任七个月后，因癌症需接受治疗而不得不提出辞职。2005年1月，查理•贝尔去世。

    Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald's, is inspecting the kitchen of one of his restaurants in Oak Brook, Ill., with the rigor many of his peers might reserve for financial reports. He examines the food-preparation area as he explains, in great detail, the "review of the hash browns" that McDonald's initiated a few years ago -- and admonishes me to not touch anything. "Unless you feel like you want to have a job," he adds. McDonald's, after all, is one of the few places hiring these days.

    Skinner isn't a micromanager. He's simply intensely focused on the efficiency and performance of McDonald's (MCD) 33,000 restaurants worldwide and the enormous, complex infrastructure that supports them, a managerial trait that has resulted in nothing short of a Golden Age for the Golden Arches. Since Skinner, 66, became CEO in 2004, the company has delivered an annual growth rate of 5%, with revenue topping $24 billion last year. Same-store sales, a closely watched industry metric, have climbed each of the seven years of his tenure, and in that time the stock has returned more than 250% -- even after the early-August equities selloff -- vs. 16% for the S&P 500 (SPX). [Click here to read our 2005 story about how McDonald's got CEO succession right.]

    If you haven't been in a McDonald's lately, you might assume that the company simply has been the beneficiary of the struggling economy in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, and that cost-conscious consumers are flocking to fast-food eateries instead of sit-down restaurants. But to post the kind of impressive numbers McDonald's has -- and to weather the current turmoil -- Skinner has had to find ways to attract new diners while retaining the hard-core Big Mac-and-fries crowd. And so today, along with burgers and shakes, you can stroll into a McDonald's and pick up a snack wrap or a fruit smoothie or a decent latte (much to Starbucks' chagrin), all of which translates into higher sales per location. Last year average per-store sales jumped to $2.4 million, from $1.6 million in 2004.

    Now think of all the things that have to go right to pull off that kind of global transformation: Test kitchens need to churn out winning recipes (no more McPizzas!), the company must line up suppliers who can handle big orders, the crews have to be trained to prepare new items, and marketers must figure out a way to sell them -- all while fending off the food police who, not without merit, dog the company about the nutritional value of its fare. Luckily for McDonald's, Skinner is an operations whiz who has turned the restaurant giant into a well-oiled machine, insisting on planning and accountability throughout the company -- even hash browns are subject to review. "McDonald's has been an execution wonder," says UBS analyst David Palmer. That's why Fortune has named Skinner to the starting lineup of our first Executive Dream Team, an all-star roster of top-performing executives.

    Yet few at McDonald's ever expected the publicity-shy Midwesterner, who never graduated from college, to become CEO. "I've been a walk-on in everything; nobody was thinking, 'Get the little guy from Davenport, Iowa,'" says the 5-foot-6 Skinner, who rarely talks about himself in interviews. His transition from supporting player to team captain in November 2004 came under tragic circumstances: Former CEO Jim Cantalupo died of a heart attack that year, and Cantalupo's successor, Charlie Bell, resigned as he underwent treatment for cancer after just seven months on the job. He died in January 2005.

    但斯金纳对自己的领导能力却充满了信心——好像这位“龙套”一直在默默磨练演技，时刻在为大制作做准备。公司员工和分析师们认为，他热衷于满足消费者的需求，即便要为此放弃自己的理念和偏好也在所不惜。比如，几年前，公司对新款咖啡杯盖进行了大量测试，最终推出的那一款备受消费者喜爱。而实际上，经常喝咖啡的斯金纳对此却并不满意。但斯金纳并没有否决大多数人的意见，而是想出了自己的解决方案：他存了一批旧盖子留着自己用。

    从厨房做起

    看起来，斯金纳对麦当劳的厨房轻车熟路，这是因为他有过在这里工作的经历，公司40%的管理人员都有类似的经历。【亚马逊公司（Amazon）CEO杰夫•贝佐斯与顶级大厨理查德•布雷斯都曾在麦当劳厨房打过工。】斯金纳16岁时，在达文波特的麦当劳得到了一份工作。斯金纳的父亲是一位砖瓦匠，他回忆说：“在我们家，如果想有钱花，就必须工作。”当时是1962年，制作炸薯条的土豆还需要由员工剥皮、漂白和切片。

    在餐厅工作六个月后，斯金纳离开爱荷华州，加入美国海军，在中途岛号（Midway）与奥里斯坎尼号（Oriskany）航母上服役。（在奥里斯坎尼号航母上服役期间，他曾与约翰•麦凯恩有过短暂共事的经历。）十年纪律严明、令行禁止的军人生涯锤炼出斯金纳优秀的品格。服役的最后一年，他遇到了后来的妻子凯思琳，于是决心安定下来（目前，他们已经共同生活了42年。在一位战友的鼓励下，他申请并成为一家麦当劳餐厅的见习经理。

    斯金纳对麦当劳的忠诚为他赢得了良好的声誉。他总是默默完成自己份内的工作，从不炫耀。丹尼斯•埃内坎在2010年之前一直担任麦当劳的欧洲业务总裁，他说，将来，麦当劳的首席执行官肯定会得到“Jim Skipsdinner”的绰号，因为他总是喜欢工作结束后，一个人在酒店安静就餐，而不是为了抛头露面去参加正式的宴会。埃内坎现任法国雅高集团（Accor）CEO，他表示：“即便没有必要，有些人也会自以为是，认为自己必须露面。但吉姆却截然不同。”曾在公司任职的几位高管描述，斯金纳对于故弄玄虚的官僚主义作风痛恨不已，还有人称他就像有一台“精确的废话检测仪”。（但这并不意味着他缺乏幽默感。实际上，他非常风趣。他说自己最喜欢的电视剧之一就是《好汉两个半》（Two and a Half Men），而且打算联系剧组，就如何在这部情景喜剧中加入艾什顿•库奇的戏份谈谈自己的想法。）

    But Skinner's leadership has been utterly self-assured -- it is as though the walk-on had been quietly practicing for his big shot all along. Employees and analysts say he's guided by a zeal for satisfying customers, even if it comes at the expense of his own ideas and preferences. A few years ago the company did extensive testing on new coffee-cup lids and rolled out a version that consumers liked -- and that Skinner, who happens to drink a lot of coffee, really didn't. Rather than overrule the masses, Skinner came up with his own solution: He keeps a stash of the old lids on hand.

    From the kitchen up

    If Skinner seems as though he knows his way around a McDonald's kitchen, it is because he once worked in one, as did 40% of the company's executives. (Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos and Top Chef Richard Blais did too.) At age 16 he got a job at McDonald's in Davenport. "I was in a family where, if I wanted to have any spending money, I had to work," says Skinner, whose father was a bricklayer. It was 1962 and employees still peeled, blanched, and sliced potatoes for French fries.

    After six months behind the counter, he left Iowa behind for the Navy, serving on the aircraft carriers Midway and Oriskany. (He briefly overlapped with Oriskany veteran John McCain.) The hallmarks that came with spending nearly a decade in a highly disciplined, execution-driven environment became classic Skinner. He met his future wife, Kathleen, during his last year in the service -- they're still married 42 years later -- and decided it was time to settle down. He landed at McDonald's as a restaurant manager trainee after a Navy buddy encouraged him to apply.

    Skinner earned a reputation as a loyal McDonald's man, one who always did his homework but never felt the need to show it off. Denis Hennequin, who until 2010 served as the company's head of Europe, says the future McDonald's chief would eventually earn the nickname "Jim Skipsdinner" for his preference for having a quiet bite in the hotel once business was finished rather than attend an official meal for the sake of appearances. "Some people have an ego that makes them need to be seen even if it's not necessary," says Hennequin, now CEO of hotel operator Accor. "Jim is not like that." Several former executives described Skinner as having no tolerance for bureaucratic double talk, one noting that he has a "good crap detector." (None of this is to say he's humorless. In fact, he's rather funny. Ask him about one of his favorite shows, Two and a Half Men, and he'll offer his thoughts on how he would write Ashton Kutcher into the sitcom.)

    同时，实践证明，他也极富洞察力，即便他不同意下属的策略，但在公共场合，他总是会力挺公司的高管。克莱尔•巴布罗斯基在麦当劳工作了大约30年，据她回忆，当时自己担任北加利福尼亚地区总经理，结果遇到了一位非常难对付的特许经营人，他根本不按照公司倡导的方式运营连锁店。（截至目前，80%的麦当劳餐厅均由独立所有者经营）。最重要的是，他从来不戴领带——当时这是特许经营人必须遵守的惯例。在一次视察过程中，她当时的上司斯金纳把各方召集起来以便化解矛盾。巴布罗斯基表示：“不知道为什么，我没法不在意领带这事。在这一点上我绝不让步。”斯金纳并未阻止她，而是质问特许经营人，戴领带到底有多难。“晚上，吉姆邀请我共进晚餐，他问我，‘难道真的是因为领带吗？’”

    1992年，斯金纳被提升到国际事务部，负责在60个新市场推广巨无霸汉堡和炸薯条，其中包括欧洲部分地区、非洲和中东地区。等他回国负责国内业务的时候，他的足迹已经遍布全世界。

    2002年，斯金纳重新接过美国国内业务的重任时，麦当劳正在苦苦挣扎。公司沉迷于盲目扩张，2001年，每天新开店铺的数量超过3家。结果导致食品和服务的质量下降，公司股票和利润也随之大幅下跌。长期掌管麦当劳的吉姆•坎塔卢普退休之后重新出山，并任命斯金纳为副主席。新管理层实施了一项回归基本原则的变革策略——制胜计划（Plan to Win），该策略的核心是增加现有店铺的销售额来带动增长，而不是通过增开新店来促进增长。

    2004年4月，坎塔卢普和他的管理团队奔赴奥兰多出席公司举办的所有人-运营商大会。当天上午，坎塔卢普本应在会上发表一个类似于胜利演讲的讲话，但他突发心脏病，在斯金纳隔壁的房间去世。当天，董事会任命年富力强、魅力十足的查理•贝尔为公司新掌门人。但仅仅过了一个月，贝尔便被诊断出患有结直肠癌。公司和贝尔本人刚刚看到复兴的曙光，但他却不得不在11月份辞职。麦当劳前高管马特•利德豪森称：“诡异的是，先是吉姆（坎塔卢普）去世，然后是查理生病，可在这期间，公司竟然出现了前所未有的增长。”

    在公司有史以来最危急的关头，董事会决定任命60岁的斯金纳为公司CEO。巴布罗斯基表示：“至少在我看来，当时董事会选择吉姆是一个缓兵之计。”相对而言，在外人眼中，斯金纳始终默默无闻，他自称这是因为他一直在努力做个称职的二号人物。他说：“称职的二号人物从来不会篡夺老板的权力，更不会整天试图争名夺利。”

    冷静、沉稳的斯金纳上台之后，并未推出新政来重组摇摇欲坠的公司，而是保持了公司策略的连贯性。他强调，领导者的变化并不意味着公司策略也一定要变化。耶鲁大学管理学院（Yale School of Management）的杰弗里•索南菲尔德说：“他明白，没有必要按自己的想法重塑公司形象，也没必要将公司打上自己的烙印。”

    He proved to be insightful too, backing his executives publicly even if he didn't always agree with their tactics. Claire Babrowski, who worked for McDonald's for almost 30 years, remembers, as a manager in the North Carolina region, running into a difficult franchisee who wasn't operating his store the way the company liked. (To this day, 80% of McDonald's restaurants are operated by independent owners.) To top it off, he would never wear a tie -- standard practice at the time for franchisees. Skinner was her boss, and during a visit all parties met to hash out their issues. "For some reason I got off on the tie thing, which was so the least of it," Babrowski says. Skinner didn't stop her, instead turning to the franchisee to ask him how hard it would be to put on a tie. "Later at night Jim took me out to dinner, and he's like, 'Really? The tie?'"

    In 1992, McDonald's promoted Skinner to work in its international business, bringing Big Macs and fries to 60 new markets, including parts of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. By the time he came back to domestic operations he had worked in every region of the world.

    Skinner returned to the U.S. business in 2002 to a McDonald's that was floundering. The company was hooked on expansion; in 2001 it was opening more than three restaurants a day. The quality of the food and service had deteriorated as a result, along with the stock price and profits. Long-time McDonald's man Jim Cantalupo came out of retirement to run the company and elevated Skinner to vice chairman. The new executive team implemented a back-to-basics turnaround strategy -- the Plan to Win -- with a focus on growth through increasing sales at existing stores rather than by opening new locations.

    In April 2004, Cantalupo and his management crew traveled down to Orlando for the company's owner-operator convention. In the early morning hours the day Cantalupo was to give his remarks, a victory speech of sorts, he had a heart attack and died in the room next to Skinner's. That same day the board named the young, charismatic Charlie Bell as the company's new leader. But less than a month later Bell was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. While he and the company were at first optimistic about a recovery, he stepped aside in November. "The bizarre paradoxical thing was that in the midst of first losing Jim [Cantalupo] and then Charlie being ill, we were performing better than ever," says former McDonald's executive Mats Lederhausen. "It was surreal."

    The board looked to the 60-year-old Skinner to become the company's new CEO at one of the most delicate moments in its history. "The fact that it was Jim, at least from my point of view, was a comfort," Babrowski says. To the outside world, Skinner was relatively unknown, which he attributes to always being a good No. 2. "Good No. 2s don't usurp their boss's authority," he says. "They don't go around trying to take credit."

    Rather than shake up the already unsettled company by implementing a new approach, the no-drama Skinner came in on a platform of continuity, stressing that leadership change doesn't mean strategy change. "He understood that he didn't need to rebrand the company in his own image," says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management. "He didn't need to imprint his persona."