Cover Story
Refreshing ideas
How Jerry Wilson balances the art and science of leadership to strengthen Coca-Cola’s global McDonald’s division
By Kristy J. O’Hara
Smart Business Atlanta | March 2009
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Jerry S. Wilson gets paid to eat and drink his way around the
world. Right now, he may be in Atlanta, but tonight, he could be in
Miami. Then he’s flying off to Hong Kong tomorrow and up to
Japan just a few days after that. And this is typical for the president
of The Coca Cola Co.’s global McDonald’s division, which serves
56 million customers a day throughout 118 countries.
“I spend 70 percent of my time in the market with the customer and with my people,” Wilson says. “In fact, my office is
my BlackBerry, if you think about it. The beauty of such a
device is you’re always connected, and the sun never sets on
my job.”
The problem with being on the road — or in the air — so
often is that he has to figure out what’s the most important way
to spend his time.
“I think the biggest leadership challenge that certainly I’ve
had, and I think a lot of other executives have in this day and
time, is you have finite time with infinite ways to spend or
invest that time,” Wilson says.
He prefers to focus on the things that will move his division
of the $28.9 billion beverage giant forward, such as balancing
the art and science of business, developing his people, and setting attainable stretch goals for his employees.
“Your goal is to spend your time in the highest impact zone as
often as you can, and generally speaking, that’s going to
include other people.”
Here’s how he does it.
