(MCD) McDonald's Open Letter to CEO Steve Easterbrook.
As a business consultant I see many things that can quickly help your business and improve not only the customer experience but the bottom line net profits. McDonald's MCD is faltering in the market because Oak Brook, Ill upper management changed many things and lost sight of many others and don't forget, Barack Obama won't step foot in any McDonald's because of Michelle Obama and a Chicago Union connection.
McDonald's doesn't have five years to change the customer experience and at some point the management must engage the business at every level. Sitting over there writing five year plans does nothing for the street business of selling good food fast. McDonald's has lost it way and is no longer a simple hamburger joint, they're almost nothing now.
As is now very common upper management spends too much time with excel spread sheets, advertising and graphics and the financial folks squeezing cash to fund bonuses and prop up stock prices. It takes many good lawyers to destroy such a giant as McDonalds but you're well on your way. The problem remains that customers with cash in their pockets don't eat at McDonalds. Today, my table was dirty. A few days ago, my table was dirty so I would guess that McDonalds is now just a dirty place to eat so a customer must wonder about the kitchen area?
Wall Street doesn't like your plan and the customers realize that you don't have a plan at all which means that you worked on the wrong things again, just like before. You're trying to please Wall Street when you should be trying to please your customer base and wipe up your dirty tables.
Install a formal learning, performance and development program for those youngsters to teach them retail food, customer services and give them that absolute sense of purpose.
Install a formal learning, performance and development program for those youngsters to teach them retail food, customer services and give them that absolute sense of purpose.
The Strategy should be about good food and good people and the rest will follow. You can tell you spend 5 cents on training. Look at your turnover rate, the union minimum wage trouble, falling sales dollars and dirty tables.
The Strategy should be about respecting the customer. The Strategy should be about making money, making food right. Go back to your roots and forget about all the PC crap and start doing your job.
The Strategy should be about respecting the customer. The Strategy should be about making money, making food right. Go back to your roots and forget about all the PC crap and start doing your job.
The Strategy should be about McDonald's vs. worrying about Chipotle (CMG), Shake Shack (SHAK), Panera Bread (PNRA) or Chick-fil-A because if you don't engage your customers they will overtake your market position and take all your customers.
Stop thinking about your competition and bonus for a year and start thinking about your customers that you force to eat sloppy food in dirty restaurants brought to the counter by rude children with poor work ethics.
What I've just described gets your regional people terminated so they will most likely keep their heads down while your work on forcing stores into private hands (franchise operators) to let them take the labor heat and take on the minimum wage war on the horizon.
You might find it interesting that I've studied and supported McDonald's my entire life as I lived in San Bernardino California just down the street from the original McDonald's. Your organization is a process miracle that became world famous and has been studied across the globe but, over the many years life-long fans, supporters and customers have seen you lose your way.
As a business consultant I remain a student of McDonald's but it seems that the teacher needs a great deal of help to energize the historical greatness of the McDonald's brand.
When a customer pulls up to a local McDonald's and notices three teenagers in McDonald's uniform standing outside smoking believe me you have lost your edge. These things have nothing to do with CMG, SHAK, PNRA, YUM with brands like KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut or the Chicken House.
The McDonald's customers are leaving because you have left them so therefore you're left with the lowest class of customer that can accept slow service, slightly warm food, dirty tables, rude servers, loud shift managers, every tattoo known to mankind on display and a dirty parking lot.
You are giving the customer nothing to appreciate and enjoy any longer. In fact you're quickly easing prices higher and higher and giving nothing in return. The pressure you feel on your business was brought about by the management of the business and very poor field management which is running off your customers.
Many years ago I was recognized as the manager with the lowest operating ratio out of 350 national facilities and I'm not even sure if excel was invented yet.
You must return to basics.
You're in the people business.
You're in the business of food for people.
You need to travel a lot more and start wandering around without notice.
Return to your strict standards.
Start inspecting outside of regional management.
Start trusting your customers.
The customers pay for everything.
Thank you
strategic money
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