Acorn Winner 2006: Ian Stephenson

Ian Stephenson
Age: 27
Position: Operations consultant, McDonald's Restaurants

Career to date…
Stephenson began his career with McDonald's in 1997 as an hourly-paid crew member at the company's Clapham Junction restaurant in London. In just six months, he had been promoted to a salaried manager and by 1999 was restaurant manager at the Wandsworth drive-through, one of the busiest outlets of its kind in the organisation.

He soon moved on to become operations supervisor, with responsibility for five restaurants in the south-east London market. In 2005, the number of restaurants under his remit increased to seven and Stephenson is now responsible for an annual turnover of £9m and a staff of more than 400 hourly-paid employees and more than 20 salaried managers.

He has twice been recognised as the company's Manager of the Year.

Why is he a winner?
He has always delivered results for the company, in both financial and personnel spheres, being particularly good at implementing channels of communication with his workforce and motivating individuals to achieve their potential. He holds training classes for each level of employee, as well as monthly meetings with his managers to convey new ideas, procedures and targets, which are used for recognition purposes and to strengthen the teamwork.

In his current leadership role, Stephenson has developed a restaurant manager to operations consultant level, four assistant managers to restaurant manager level, and progressed several shift workers through the ranks on to salaried jobs.

In addition, he has committed his restaurants to various community-based schemes in their areas, worked with Croydon Council to rehabilitate the long-term unemployed back into jobs within McDonald's, and been responsible for raising £10,000 for children's charities supported by the company.