About the Ray Kroc Award
Winners of the Ray Kroc Award run high performing,profitable restaurants that meet McDonald’s critical customer standards of quality, service and cleanliness. They have strong business knowledge and achieve superior results in restaurant operations, people management and building the business. As recognized leaders in the restaurant, they develop a team focused on ensuring customers get a fast, accurate and friendly experience every visit. McDonald’s owner/operators and regional staff nominate restaurant managers for the Ray Kroc Award to recognize their hard work, dedication and commitment to McDonald’s. From there, a selection committee of representatives from McDonald’s Operations, Training and Human Resources select the top one percent of General Managers for the Ray Kroc Award. Winners receive an awards package that includes a $2,500 cash award and an awards banquet hosted by Jeff Stratton, president of McDonald’s, along with a three nights, all expenses paid trip to Chicago, where they will have the opportunity to share their best practices and discuss their ideas to improve the business with members of McDonald’s top management.
Founded by Ray Kroc in 1955, McDonald’sUSA is a leading food service provider in the United States and serves 26 million customers every day.
This is something that India native Prashant Anand knew when he left his country to come to the United States in 2003 in order to get married.
Anand knew that McDonald’s was the largest fast food restaurant in the world and he saw the huge corporation as an opportunity for a career and potential business. “I researched and learned that more than 50 percent of McDonald’s franchise owners started behind the counter,” he said.
After Anand, who lives in Miamisburg, became a citizen in 2004, he immediately applied for a job with the McDonald’s on Yankee Street in Centerville and was hired “on the spot” as a crew member. “I worked as a crew member for four months and then was promoted to a swing manager,” he said. “My supervisor thought I had potential to be a strong store manager and could run a restaurant and take it to a different level so I continued to be promoted.”
Debbie Wright, the owner/operator of several McDonald’s franchises in the Miami Valley since 2013, was immediately impressed with Anand and decided to transfer him first to the store on Far Hills in Washington Twp. and then to the store on Main Street in downtown Dayton, where he remains manager today.
Anand’s successes with the downtown restaurant have earned him recognition as one of the nation’s top restaurant managers, with the Ray Kroc Award, an annual performance-based award reserved for the top one percent of McDonald’s managers.
“Prashant is a gold standard employee,” said Wright. “His commitment to quality and customer service not only creates a great environment for our guests, but sets the standard for the rest of our employees.”
This includes management team member Kevin Duff, the supervisor of three McDonald’s stores, including the store downtown that Anand has effectively transformed.
“I’ve known Prashant for the six years that I’ve been with the company,” Duff said. “I saw a lot of potential in him when he was an assistant manager and saw him take an underperforming store in Centerville and turn it around. He entirely changed the ambiance of that restaurant and the culture. He received the Ray Kroc Award because of his ability to transform this into a positive atmosphere. He’s a strong leader and sets high expectations for his people and he’s a great ambassador for McDonald’s.”
Anand said that he has always set goals for himself and wants to learn as much as he can to continue to advance in the field. “McDonald’s has an excellent training program for management,” he said. “You have to go to school to learn how to serve the customers and how to run your shift and deal with people”
He attended McDonald’s famed “Hamburger University” in Chicago in 2008, where he became certified as a restaurant manager. It was there he said he learned how to get the “best” out of his staff.
“I have faced some challenges over the years including learning … how to drive people to work harder to reach the goals and targets,” Anand said.
And as always, the McDonald’s driving force has always been the customer. “We are here because of the customer,” Anand said. “We put them first and take care of them always. Anything that helps us serve them better and keep them happy we do because we want them to keep coming back. The customer is first priority in our business.”
Anand admitted he was surprised by the Ray Kroc Award, though he has worked hard since being transferred to the downtown Dayton store.
The plan was to hire good people and ensure excellent training. “We kept encouraging our crew to do better and reach the target,” Anand said. “And we emphasize how important it is for customers to get fast service. I work on teaching my crew how important it is to make people smile every day and to treat them nice and make them feel welcome. As a result we started seeing increases while other area McDonald’s were underperforming.”
As part of the Ray Kroc Award, Anand will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Chicago for an awards gala, a cash prize, a trophy a ring and a pin. He is one of only 142 managers chosen nationwide and the only one from the Dayton area.
“This award means a lot to me,” Anand said. “I’m very excited for my family and my entire team at McDonald’s. I feel we have succeeded in making a name for this restaurant and it’s very gratifying to have a team work so hard for themselves and for me. I thank them all for helping me to win this award. I’m so thankful to be with this company.”
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