McDonald’s: A Movie-Like Tale

McDonald's: A Movie-Like Tale

Maureen Smith

Vice President of Operations


Bearwood Management McDonald’s


Here’s a new twist on the McDonald’s rise to fame story.  Student goes to work at McDonald’s (nothing unusual there), but student’s plans to become an engineer are derailed by a medical condition that limits the use of her hands, so she turns adversity into opportunity and parlays the entire ordeal into a lengthy and lucrative run with the world’s most famous fast-food chain. Whew! It sounds more like a Lifetime movie than a the true story of Maureen Smith, Vice President of Operations for Bearwood Management McDonald’s in Detroit, and a 30 year veteran in the industry. 

“I started as a fry person and just worked my way up the ladder. The only people in leadership — with the exception of one — were male. So all of the managers I reported to and the owner-operators were men. Instantly I thought ‘if [one woman] could make it, I could do the same thing … and somebody else needed to, because there weren’t enough females in the management capacity,’ ” explains Smith.


Forward ahead to Smith’s management career following her graduation from McDonald’s Hamburger University. She became a problem solver of sorts moving from location to location to resolve issues and circumvent potential store and management problems. “My first eastside location was a challenge for me because I had never worked on the east side. And when I went there the culture and the environment were a little different. We had more competition with a Wendy’s right next door and a Taco Bell right up the street. …  which resulted in me competing for employes as well as customers. I had to make sure that my store was operating better than anyone else’s. I turned that store around from a negative 18 per cent to a positive three per cent … which is a 21 percent turn around,” beams Smith.

But as is the case with most true-to-life stories, tragedy struck in Smith’s life yet again. She took a hiatus from pursuing her career for a period of time after her 12-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. The younger Smith eventually passed away at age 20. 

Today, Smith is director of operations at Bearwood Management McDonald’s and is responsible for the management of six Detroit area McDonald’s stores. “Some of the things I like best about [McDonald’s] is the diversity or people I come in contact wit — internally and externally. Internally I like helping people grow within the company. Externally, I deal with customers everyday and we have regulars … who may come twice a day just to have a cup of coffee, make conversation or meet their friends here. We’ve even had people get married in McDonald’s,” Smith recalls with fondness.


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