The dean of "fast-food's Harvard": Hamburger University's Shirley Rogers has built a career training the crew at McDonald's.

When Shirley Rogers drove cross-country last summer, she ate only at McDonald's restaurants. While it might seem that Rogers was traveling cheap, she was actually checking firsthand on the effectiveness of her hard work. She measures results not by the number of burgers sold, but by the number of consistently and profitably well-managed McDonald's restaurants. Rogers has built her career training people.

Rogers, the dean of McDonald Corp's Hamburger University (yes, there really is one) believes in "management by wandering around." Although she's toured McDonald's restaurants nationwide, Rogers mainly wanders the 100-acre campus of the university, located in Oak Brook, Ill., listening in on lectures, cramming in meetings and solving last-minute crises.

Tackling her second year as head of the "Harvard of the fast-food business," Rogers, 43, is responsible for laying the educational and training foundation for the management of Mickey D's franchises worldwide. A self-professed glutton for personnel development and training, Rogers describes the university as a "Mecca" for her.

At 33-year-old Hamburger U., the 130,000 square-foot McDonald's management training center, Rogers works with instructors who train franchisees, franchisee candidates, owner/operators and managers on the business management and restaurant operation skills that keep the Golden Arches towering above the fast-food industry. Rogers oversees an international staff of 30 instructors who hail from every place from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. These instructors are experienced educators and/or have extensive operational experience in the McDonald's system.

Before becoming a training manager at Hamburger U., where she prepares her students to satisfy McDonald's 22 million customers, Rogers spent eight years as a flight attendant and supervisor of flight crews for Trans World Airlines. The Carson, Calif. native joined McDonald's in 1981 as a manager trainee in Los Angeles. Over the next four years, Rogers mastered several positions, including restaurant manager, area supervisor and operations consultant.

By 1986 Rogers was teaching at Hamburger University. "Professor" Rogers was named training manager for the McDonald's Columbus, Ohio region in 1987, and then was promoted to operations manager for the region in 1988. Rogers became a field service manager in 1991, the position she held until she was appointed dean.

"I have touched every aspect of the business, so I truly understand it," says Rogers. "I also understand customer appreciation and how to deliver it."

Dean Rogers is particularly proud of Hamburger University's gem: the intensive, two-week Advanced Operations Course, which covers equipment operations, human relations skills and communications skills. Students attend the AOC from each of the 72 countries where McDonald's restaurants are located.

The state-accredited facility has teaching and translation capabilities in 14 languages. Before entering Rogers' "finishing school," each management student receives at least 1500 hours of restaurant and classroom training through their regional management development program.

Nonetheless, Rogers advises all her students to remember that "Training is just a journey, not a destination." With that in mind, Rogers' staff concentrates on teaching team building skills, sales growth strategies, staffing and crew retention. Courses focus primarily on writing and implementing effective business plans. The balance of the AOC curriculum involves restaurant operations--including learning to dismantle, clean and repair equipment used in the restaurants.

All restaurant managers and franchisees are required to receive additional training once every five years. Apparently, this keeps them on their toes, just in case Rogers stops in to spring a pop-quiz during her next vacation. Who's on fries, anyway?