Yang, who by then had his own cigarette and jewelry factory, had to arm himself with more than just the capital to woo his McDonald’s principals. He had to arm himself with a mop on one hand and a steel spatula on the other.
No kidding.
For as part of the requirements to win the franchise, Yang and his 14-year-old son Kenneth had to "train" as part of the crew in a McDonald’s outlet in Hong Kong!
"I was working in the counter," recalls Yang, smiling at the memory. We are at the boardroom of the Tower Club in Makati and the Filipino-Chinese hamburger magnate is wearing an Italian-made linen suit – a symbol of his taste and his success. Who would have thought he once donned the McDonald’s crew uniform?
"I cleaned the toilet. I cleaned the floor. I opened and closed the store," he continues. Once, he further recalls, a friend from Manila walked into the outlet, of all McDonald’s outlets in Hong Kong. The friend hid behind a post when she spotted George Yang mopping the floor behind the steel counter, embarrassed for him.
"My friend didn’t greet me kasi nahihiya siya. She would later tell me that she was thinking at that time, ‘Siguro down na down si George.’ She was a customer of my wife, Kristine, who ran our jewelry business. When my name later came out in the papers as the one who was awarded the McDonald’s franchise, she finally told me the story. ‘No wonder!’ she said."
Though he worked behind the McDonald’s counter by day, George Yang went home to a room (albeit the cheapest, with a single bed) at the Peninsula Hong Kong by night.
Still wearing his grease-stained McDonald’s crew uniform, he would proudly walk up to the Front Desk and ask for his key, trying hard to conceal his amusement at the expression on the face of the hotel staff.
"The people in the Front Desk were confused, wondering whether to greet me or what. When my wife came to visit every now and then, she would wash my crew uniform, and hang it in the bathroom. The people who came to clean the room were probably wondering... ‘How could this guy earning less than the cleaning lady afford a room here’?"
George stayed in Hong Kong for six months on faith. He had no contract with McDonald’s yet but he worked like he had a stake in its future. He bagged the franchise and victory was as crisp as McDonald’s French fries.
His willingness to get his hands dirty and learn the ropes of a business that was entirely new to him (he may have made millions manufacturing cigarettes and earrings, but hey, Big Macs were an entirely different ballgame) jumpstarted the success of his fast-food venture.
Yang was aware that he wasn’t just bringing in burgers when he brought in McDonald’s – he was bringing in a culture, a way of life and a work ethic that were previously as unfamiliar to Filipinos as Fillet of Fish (Di ba ulam ’yon)? He was bringing in a slice of America, for better or for worse. He was bringing in the prospect of happy times, moments that many parents were going to enshrine in their children’s baby albums. (I bet that if you have children 25 years and below, you have at least one page in your album dedicated to photos taken at McDonald’s, the way the children of the sixties had to have photos taken at Luneta or Manila Zoo.)
I tell George that he has imported more than just a franchise when he inked the deal with McDonald’s in 1981. I say that from deep within the arches of my heart, for some of the best times I had with my son Chino (who turned 19 yesterday) when he was a kid were spent in a McDonald’s playground. Before we could afford Ocean Park and Disneyland, McDonald’s was Chino’s mecca.
George Yang thanks me for my appreciation of McDonald’s. But he points out that McDonald’s brought in more than just happy times and Happy Meals. McDonald’s raised the bar for restaurant service and cleanliness, believes George.
"People don’t realize it that we raised the standard (for) operating restaurants and serving people. We introduced dignity in working in a restaurant. We started training young waiters. We hired part-time students so they could finish their schooling," he points out. "To this day, we are perhaps the only firm that hires students on a permanent status. We don’t believe in hiring them for just six months. To accommodate their studies, we adjust to their schedules."
"Everywhere, I meet people who would tell me, ‘Mr. Yang, I used to work for you.’ And I’m dealing with them now. Everywhere. Hotel, service industry, in the bank, airlines, TV, radio and even from the movies, like Richard Gomez. We started the concept of clean restaurant, good service and smiles. Everybody follows now. They have a new set of standards."
If there is anything Yang wants to be remembered in the fast-food business for, it’s for the fact that he "showed the way."
"Can I tell you something?" he smiles as he reaches for some dimsum during our lunch. "When they’re giving awards... they forget that somebody showed the way. They never awarded anyone who showed the way. That’s the truth."
Few know that this grandfather of seven is also a governor of the Red Cross and has been quietly doing charity work for the last 20 years.
Yang is building more than just a fortune with his burgers and fries.
His Ronald McDonald House Charities is going full steam ahead in the building of a McDonald’s Village in Taytay, Rizal. Yang’s goal is to give 100 new homes to 100 new families with 300 children. Thus far, McDonald’s has already built 43 homes.
More than a million Happy Meals after the first McDonald’s franchise, George Yang is a happy man. His two luxuries in life, he says, are golf and singing. This Andrea Bocelli fan sings classical songs to unwind and is, in fact, an occasional wedding singer (only for children of friends!). His other businesses also spread happiness, as George is the marketing licensee in the Asean region of the Walt Disney Company.
After all these years, Ronald McDonald hasn’t aged. And perhaps because he is in the business of putting smiles on the faces of children, neither has George.