BEYOND being known as the McDonald's guy, there has always been more to George T. Yang than meets the eye. For one, there was his uncommon business acumen. For another, he was a visionary for when restaurants were serving short-order dishes to diners' tables, Yang was relentlessly pursuing the nod of decision makers in the US for the Philippine franchise of McDonald's. Visibly, persistence was of key importance. This was the reason why he trained in one of the McDonald's stores in Hong Kong. The reason why he trained as a McDonald's staff member preparing and serving food, bussing tables and cleaning restrooms was to gain insights in managing the restaurant franchise.

Every McDonald's branch operates on a model ultimately based on the Speedee Service System, developed in the 1940s by Richard and Maurice McDonald, the brothers who revolutionized the way people eat by applying an assembly line-like discipline to food preparation and standardization. In a biographical movie about McDonald's, the backstory on its system was described as a 'crazy burger ballet' and a 'symphony of efficiency' where there was 'not a wasted motion.'