Meet Blanton Canady. He’s a McDonald’s owner and member of the Chicagoland Black McDonald’s Operators Association (BMOA). Canady has a superior background in finance and marketing, an MBA in finance marketing and a wealth of managerial experience. Canady has a deep concern for the community, which includes serving on several boards, including: Midwest Association of Sickle Cell Anemia, Northern Trust Advisory board and Near South Planning Board. As a member of the Mayor’s Committee for a Clean Chicago and the City of Chicago Solid Waste Management Review Committee, Canady is also doing his part to save the environment.
“My venture into McDonald’s ownership was totally by accident … but I went into training and never looked back,” he offers. “I always had an entrepreneurial bug but had no direction or idea what I wanted to do. I was on a plane trip to the West Coast with a childhood friend who worked as an auditor for McDonald’s. We started talking during the flight and he suggested that I look into McDonald’s.” Canady’s only hesitation was that he didn’t have any food experience, but McDonald’s comprehensive training program resolved that concern.
Having opened his first McDonald’s in 1981, he’s been in business nearly 30 years and has a good grasp on the what to look for in an ideal employee. “It starts with character and integrity. You can teach people a lot of things, but you can’t teach character and you can’t teach integrity. When I hire managers, that’s what I look for. People who have worked for me for a long time [meet] that criteria. I think that is No. 1 on my list. In this business, running a close second is really having some strong people skills. You must have the ability to manage different situations that involves people, whether it’s your customer, your crew or your managers. In my case, there are other layers that come into play … and you really have to know how to navigate the politics of [certain] administrations, and build relationships,” he explains.
Canady operates three restaurants: one at Navy Pier, a second at McCormick Place and the third at 2 Illinois Center; the latter offers free Wi-Fi. In his free time, he enjoys golf and reading. “I only get a chance to read and play golf when I am on vacation. I just returned from Turks and Caicos with my wife and we had a terrific time,” he says.
–yvette caslin
