SUMMARY: We’ve worked with McDonald’s on and off for about 10 years, most recently in 2012 to help plan their Worldwide Conference held bi-annually for thousands of Owner Operators.  We’ve also helped McDonald’s explore new ways to advance strategic objectives through it’s decentralized organization, articulate and communicate its vision, improve coordination among communication groups across the globe, and develop engagement and training programs for line employees.

HIGHLIGHTS: In our work to align leadership around McDonald’s strategic plan, and increase organizational focus on brand delivery, we identified best practices among some of the company’s top performing Country Managers.  Their insights revealed that McDonald’s was at its best when talented people were given broad direction and then empowered to adapt it to local needs.  This leadership approach enabled some European operations to create leading edge restaurant formats – more relaxed; more hip; more European – well before many of the ideas were considered by Corporate.  This information helped executive leadership calibrate their direction to the larger organization, and pointed to the benefits of best practice sharing across geographic lines.