Barely two years in, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook has brought big changes to the iconic fast-food chain, revamping its menu and advancing its technology.
Easterbrook is the company’s first British CEO, and only the second non-American to take the top job. In a sense Easterbrook is both an outsider and an insider. He was formerly the company’s Senior Executive Brand President and Chief Brand Officer; thus as Neil Saunders of CPG & retail research firm GlobalData observed, “he knows the business extremely well but cut his teeth outside McDonald’s”, which has proved an advantage.
Apart from various executive roles at McDonald’s, Easterbrook has experience with other fast-food brands, specifically those offering something different, more upmarket or healthier. He briefly left the company to serve as CEO of both PizzaExpress and Wagamama, and quickly grew both brands.
Since becoming CEO of McDonald’s in March 2015, Easterbrook has taken decisive actions: He streamlined the chain’s overstuffed menu, and made some food healthier, for example by taking high-fructose corn syrup out of buns and removing artificial preservatives from Chicken McNuggets. Of course by now, meeting demands for healthier, more sustainable and ethical menu options is de rigueur. For example Taco Bell, another top-10 fast food chain in the US, launched a certified vegetarian menu in 2015, which includes vegan selections.
There have also been strategic shifts at McDonald’s under Easterbrook. As The Economist reports, “Most analysts approve of his plan to lift the share of restaurants that are franchised even higher, from 83% to 95%.” This has included selling 1,750 company-owned restaurants in China and Hong Kong to a consortium, though retaining a 20% stake, and putting its Japanese restaurants up for sale. McDonald’s is certainly not the first chain opting to become more of a brand manager than a restaurant owner, but it has been notably successful at it.
Culturally, Easterbrook is credited with making McDonald’s more accountable and nimble, says R.J. Hottovy of investment-research firm Morningstar, even within its dense bureaucracy. Further, the company has become more open to experimentation and technological innovation. It recently launched touch-screen self-service kiosks, for example, and enhanced its social media engagement.
In the near future McDonald’s plans to introduce mobile ordering and payment with an upgraded its app. Again, it is late to the table in digital and mobile, but swiftly moving in the right direction. Apart from the most recent quarter, the global fast-food chain reported growth for six consecutive quarters in the US, which remains its more important market.
