To Russia With Fries: My Journey from Chicago's South Side to Moscow's Red Square - Having Fun Along the Way

About this book

You might think that an autobiography by the senior chairman of McDonalds in Canada and Russia would be a modestly boastful ho-hum business story of expansion and board-room debates wrapped in some nice reminiscences about his family. You would be very wrong. Because this is George Cohons autobiography and George Cohon (Call me George please!) is not an ordinary mannot in his approach to business and not in his approach to telling his life story. Its true that George Cohon is one of the most successful businessmen of his generation and that hes also one of the most colourful. But the man youll meet in the pages of To Russia With Fries is considerably more complex than that description suggests. Here youll encounter a man who not only dreamed the impossible dream of opening a McDonalds restaurant in the heart of the Soviet Union (of all places) but had the patience the persistence and above all the good humour to navigate the maze of obstacles set in his course by a scornful communist bureaucracy. Youll meet a man whose heart is bigger than his assets (hes donating all the royalties from this book to charity); a man with a serious sense of fun who loves (and is frequently on the receiving end of) practical jokes; a man whose life so far has been extraordinary by any standard. Youll discover a man who is a natural and creative entrepreneur and an acknowledged expert on starting a business in Russia. Hes been there and done that long before the crash of the Iron Curtain. From a man who can think and do six things at once (hes been told he has a mind like a butterfly) comes a very lively and hugely entertaining story that has universal appeal.