????同時，實踐證明，他也極富洞察力，即便他不同意下屬的策略，但在公共場合，他總是會力挺公司的高管。克萊爾?巴布羅斯基在麥當勞工作了大約30年，據她回憶，當時自己擔任北加利福尼亞地區總經理，結果遇到了一位非常難對付的特許經營人，他根本不按照公司倡導的方式運營連鎖店。（截至目前，80%的麥當勞餐廳均由獨立所有者經營）。最重要的是，他從來不戴領帶——當時這是特許經營人必須遵守的慣例。在一次視察過程中，她當時的上司斯金納把各方召集起來以便化解矛盾。巴布羅斯基表示：“不知道為什么，我沒法不在意領帶這事。在這一點上我絕不讓步。”斯金納并未阻止她，而是質問特許經營人，戴領帶到底有多難。“晚上，吉姆邀請我共進晚餐，他問我，‘難道真的是因為領帶嗎？’”

????1992年，斯金納被提升到國際事務部，負責在60個新市場推廣巨無霸漢堡和炸薯條，其中包括歐洲部分地區、非洲和中東地區。等他回國負責國內業務的時候，他的足跡已經遍布全世界。

????2002年，斯金納重新接過美國國內業務的重任時，麥當勞正在苦苦掙扎。公司沉迷于盲目擴張，2001年，每天新開店鋪的數量超過3家。結果導致食品和服務的質量下降，公司股票和利潤也隨之大幅下跌。長期掌管麥當勞的吉姆?坎塔盧普退休之后重新出山，并任命斯金納為副主席。新管理層實施了一項回歸基本原則的變革策略——制勝計劃（Plan to Win），該策略的核心是增加現有店鋪的銷售額來帶動增長，而不是通過增開新店來促進增長。

????2004年4月，坎塔盧普和他的管理團隊奔赴奧蘭多出席公司舉辦的所有人-運營商大會。當天上午，坎塔盧普本應在會上發表一個類似于勝利演講的講話，但他突發心臟病，在斯金納隔壁的房間去世。當天，董事會任命年富力強、魅力十足的查理?貝爾為公司新掌門人。但僅僅過了一個月，貝爾便被診斷出患有結直腸癌。公司和貝爾本人剛剛看到復興的曙光，但他卻不得不在11月份辭職。麥當勞前高管馬特?利德豪森稱：“詭異的是，先是吉姆（坎塔盧普）去世，然后是查理生病，可在這期間，公司竟然出現了前所未有的增長。”

????在公司有史以來最危急的關頭，董事會決定任命60歲的斯金納為公司CEO。巴布羅斯基表示：“至少在我看來，當時董事會選擇吉姆是一個緩兵之計。”相對而言，在外人眼中，斯金納始終默默無聞，他自稱這是因為他一直在努力做個稱職的二號人物。他說：“稱職的二號人物從來不會篡奪老板的權力，更不會整天試圖爭名奪利。”

????冷靜、沉穩的斯金納上臺之后，并未推出新政來重組搖搖欲墜的公司，而是保持了公司策略的連貫性。他強調，領導者的變化并不意味著公司策略也一定要變化。耶魯大學管理學院（Yale School of Management）的杰弗里?索南菲爾德說：“他明白，沒有必要按自己的想法重塑公司形象，也沒必要將公司打上自己的烙印。”

????He proved to be insightful too, backing his executives publicly even if he didn't always agree with their tactics. Claire Babrowski, who worked for McDonald's for almost 30 years, remembers, as a manager in the North Carolina region, running into a difficult franchisee who wasn't operating his store the way the company liked. (To this day, 80% of McDonald's restaurants are operated by independent owners.) To top it off, he would never wear a tie -- standard practice at the time for franchisees. Skinner was her boss, and during a visit all parties met to hash out their issues. "For some reason I got off on the tie thing, which was so the least of it," Babrowski says. Skinner didn't stop her, instead turning to the franchisee to ask him how hard it would be to put on a tie. "Later at night Jim took me out to dinner, and he's like, 'Really? The tie?'"

????In 1992, McDonald's promoted Skinner to work in its international business, bringing Big Macs and fries to 60 new markets, including parts of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. By the time he came back to domestic operations he had worked in every region of the world.

????Skinner returned to the U.S. business in 2002 to a McDonald's that was floundering. The company was hooked on expansion; in 2001 it was opening more than three restaurants a day. The quality of the food and service had deteriorated as a result, along with the stock price and profits. Long-time McDonald's man Jim Cantalupo came out of retirement to run the company and elevated Skinner to vice chairman. The new executive team implemented a back-to-basics turnaround strategy -- the Plan to Win -- with a focus on growth through increasing sales at existing stores rather than by opening new locations.

????In April 2004, Cantalupo and his management crew traveled down to Orlando for the company's owner-operator convention. In the early morning hours the day Cantalupo was to give his remarks, a victory speech of sorts, he had a heart attack and died in the room next to Skinner's. That same day the board named the young, charismatic Charlie Bell as the company's new leader. But less than a month later Bell was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. While he and the company were at first optimistic about a recovery, he stepped aside in November. "The bizarre paradoxical thing was that in the midst of first losing Jim [Cantalupo] and then Charlie being ill, we were performing better than ever," says former McDonald's executive Mats Lederhausen. "It was surreal."

????The board looked to the 60-year-old Skinner to become the company's new CEO at one of the most delicate moments in its history. "The fact that it was Jim, at least from my point of view, was a comfort," Babrowski says. To the outside world, Skinner was relatively unknown, which he attributes to always being a good No. 2. "Good No. 2s don't usurp their boss's authority," he says. "They don't go around trying to take credit."

????Rather than shake up the already unsettled company by implementing a new approach, the no-drama Skinner came in on a platform of continuity, stressing that leadership change doesn't mean strategy change. "He understood that he didn't need to rebrand the company in his own image," says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management. "He didn't need to imprint his persona."