Cordia Harrington was tired of standing up all day and
smelling like French fries at night. She also owned and operated three
McDonald’s franchises (特许经销商) in Illinois, but as a divorced mother of three
boys, she yearned for a business that would provide for her children and let her
spend more time with them. Her turning moment struck, strangely
enough, after she was nominated in 1992 to be on the McDonald’s bun committee.
"The other franchisees, all men, thought that was funny because of the word
bun," she re calls. "But the joke was on them: They didn’t know the company
would be picking me up in a corporate jet to see bakeries around the world.
Every time I went to a meeting, I loved it. This was global!" The experience
opened her eyes to business possibilities. When McDonald’s decided it wanted a
new bun supplier, Harrington became determined to win the contract, even though
she had no experience running a bakery. "You see a tiny crack in the door, and
you have to run through it," she says. "I really believed I could do
this." Harrington studied the bakery business and made sure she
was never off executives’ view. "If you have a dream, you can’t wait for people
to call you," she says. "So I’d visit a mill and send them photos of myself in a
baker’s hat and jacket, holding a sign that said I want to be your baker." After
four years and 32 inter views, her persistence paid off. Harrington sealed the
deal with a handshake, sold her franchises, invested everything she owned, and
borrowed $13.5 million. She was ready to build the fastest, most automated
bakery in the world. The Tennessee Bun Company opened ahead of
schedule in 1997, in time for a decline in US fast-food sales for McDonald’s.
Before Harrington knew it, she was down to her last $ 20 000, not enough to
cover payroll. And her agreement with McDonald’s required that she sell
exclusively to the company. "I cried my self to sleep many nights," she recalls.
"I really did think, I am going to go bankrupt." But Harrington worked out an
agreement to supply Pepperidge Farm as well. "McDonald’s could see a benefit if
our production went up and prices went down, and no benefit if we went out of
business," she says. "That deal saved us." Over the next eight
years, Harrington branched out even more: She started her own trucking business,
added a cold-storage company, and now has three bakeries all now known as
the Bun Companies. What was the big trouble that the newly opened Tennessee Bun Company met