Young Houstonian Receives McDonald’s Outstanding GM Award

Meet Joshua Bogany. He became a McDonald’s manager at age 18, and a general manager by age 23.

Joshua grew up poor in the south park area of Houston, and was raised by a single mother with 5 siblings. He often recounts those days when his brother and he had to panhandle just to get something to eat.

“Oftentimes what we ate at school would be the only meal we had for the day,” recalls Bogany.

When he was 16 years old, he went to a local McDonald’s to see his older brother who was working there at the time. During this particular day, Mrs. Mary Redmond, the owner, greeted him in the lobby area and asked him if he was waiting on an order. Joshua informed her that he was waiting on his brother. Mrs. Redmond then struck up a conversation with him, and eventually got around to asking Joshua if he had a job. Upon discovering that he did not, she offered him a job with McDonald’s which he gladly accepted.

Mrs. Redmond is who I credit a lot of my success to. She took me under her wings and taught me everything she knew about this business. She instilled in me that I can do anything as long as I put in the work and kept an excellent attitude; and, she helped me spiritually as well, notes Joshua.

Joshua also commented that he looks up to Mr. Ernest Redmond as well. He highlights the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Redmond, as very caring business owners in the community, share a core belief focused on helping our youth develop life skills, communication skills and a strong work ethic.

Looking inward, Joshua takes comfort in the fact that he is an independent and forward thinking person.

“I have a solutions focused mindset and love working with people; and, McDonalds is a people business. I am very flexible, and adjust well to change. I welcome new challenges. I believe in governing myself by an overriding principle. That principle is doing what is right versus what is wrong. I believe in treating everyone one right and training people on how I want to be treated. These attributes have made me uniquely suited for success as a McDonald’s general manager.”

When he reflects on the entire McDonald’s USA organization, Joshua finds that the most appealing quality to him is their training and development programs for success. “McDonalds training programs have taught me so much; not just about McDonald’s, but life skills as well. I attended Hamburger University in June, 2008 and was the recipient of my bachelor degree of hamburgerolgy.”

As a very young general manager, one of his obvious challenges was that all of his subordinate managers were much older than him. Yet, he believes that his success in leading his management team and others is attributable to his belief in and practice of treating everyone with respect, and dignity; leading by example; defining expectations; and, holding people accountable for their performance.

During his tenure with McDonald’s, Joshua has won numerous awards. He has been a recipient of the “outstanding restaurant manager award” for 8 consecutive years. This prestigious award is given only to the top 10% of General Managers in the country. In 2014, he was honored with the Ray Kroc Award which is given only to the top 1% of general managers from almost 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the nation. For a general manager to win this award they must continually maintain the criteria for the outstanding manager’s award.

However, in the midst of the prestigious awards and recognition, Joshua was faced with the loss (murder) of his youngest brother in 2009. That tragedy coupled with several other difficult circumstances at the time is what he refers to as his “red sea moment” when he found his faith in GOD. “I can say today that I know him for myself. Now, when I go through a disappointment, I can pick that disappointment up, look at it, say this is my disappointment and transform it from a liability into an asset. This is the power that the Savior has given me.”

With his faith in God on full display, Joshua has just celebrated his 5th year of marriage to his beautiful wife and soul mate, Tianna Farr-Bogany. They have 3 wonderful children. Their youngest is named Faith because as Joshua put it, “our faith in God has brought us to this point through all the trials and tribulations, and we have endured and prospered to this point. For that we will always give God all the praise and honor.”

In 5 years, he sees himself owning his own McDonald’s. But, in order to position himself to do so, he is continually sharpening his work skills as well as saving money.

The advice Joshua would like to share with young people on following their dreams is, “whatever your passion is, follow it. I believe that God gives us particular talents, and turning your back on something you are good at, is betraying yourself.”

Joshua Bogany can be reached at 713-539-0036, or you can email him at: jmc13607@yahoo.com.