Speaker 1: McDonald's has been at the top of the food chain
Speaker 1: for over sixty years. It's CEO, Chris Kemchinsky, says it
Speaker 1: stayed there because of McDonald's guaranteed quality, experience, and connection
Speaker 1: to its communities. In this episode, appear to appear I
Speaker 1: visited McDonald's headquarters in Chicago to find out what makes
Speaker 1: their fries so addicting, what makes their Coca Cola perfect,
Speaker 1: and how the restaurant plans to stay on top for
Speaker 1: another sixty years. Companies more than sixty years old now,
Speaker 1: and many companies over the last sixty years have gotten
Speaker 1: in the fast food business. Some have done okay, so
Speaker 1: I'm going out of business. But McDonald's is by far
Speaker 1: the biggest. You have a market capitalization about a hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy five billion dollars. What is it that made
Speaker 1: McDonald's by far the biggest of the fast food companies.
Speaker 1: I think it starts with the brand. I mean, we
Speaker 1: have a brand that is one of the most valuable
Speaker 1: brands in the world. And how did you get to
Speaker 1: that brand? It was a combination of things. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's started with Gray Croc recognized the importance of ubiquity
Speaker 1: and so That was part of the genius or genesis
Speaker 1: of of doing a franchise model, because with a franchise model,
Speaker 1: he could get capital deployed, get restaurants built more quickly
Speaker 1: than he could if he was trying to do this
Speaker 1: all on his own. So that was one idea. I
Speaker 1: think the second was the production system, the speedy production system.
Speaker 1: It guaranteed equality of the experience that people knew no
Speaker 1: matter where you went, you could get a consistent experience
Speaker 1: at McDonald's. And then it certainly came from, you know,
Speaker 1: our attachment in the local community. One of the things
Speaker 1: that also Ray Kroc was very focused on was building
Speaker 1: the brand at the local level. That's why he wanted
Speaker 1: the franchise ease engaged in the restaurants, and so you
Speaker 1: saw getting involved in schools, getting involved with you know,
Speaker 1: birthday parties, all those things. Those were all part of
Speaker 1: building the brand that ultimately now I get the benefit of,
Speaker 1: you know, protecting and hopefully further shining the arches. So
Speaker 1: you are the CEO of this company for the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and has you been doing this? Uh?
Speaker 1: Have you had to deal with the COVID problems in
Speaker 1: particular COVID has been an issue that's impacted us in
Speaker 1: every country that we operated in a hundred and twenty countries,
Speaker 1: and it's been kind of a unique experience because what
Speaker 1: we've dealt with regional issues before. We've dealt with stars
Speaker 1: and mirrors and swine flew and things like that, but
Speaker 1: we've never had an issue where it impacted literally every
Speaker 1: country all at about the same time, So huge issue
Speaker 1: for us. It varied around the world. Some places went
Speaker 1: into complete shutdown. In the US we were able to
Speaker 1: keep the restaurants open, but drive through only UH, and
Speaker 1: that was I think part of where are the genius
Speaker 1: of our system came to light, which is you were
Speaker 1: trying to manage this situation everything from Chicago. It never
Speaker 1: would have worked. The fact that we're a locally owned
Speaker 1: company with franchise ease, they're able to act much more
Speaker 1: nimbly than than we could from the center. And somehow
Speaker 1: another knock on wood a year later, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we are in a very strong spot, and it's it's
Speaker 1: hard to believe really, So when COVID hit, UH, many
Speaker 1: people didn't go out anymore. They weren't buying McDonald's products,
Speaker 1: other people's products as well. Did you have to lay
Speaker 1: off people for low people? How did you deal with
Speaker 1: your employees or the franchisees had to do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't lay anybody off, certainly from the company's standpoint,
Speaker 1: And our franchisees went through quite a bit of effort
Speaker 1: to make sure that either through government programs or through
Speaker 1: things that they could do on their own, that they
Speaker 1: kept attached to their staff, that they kept the staff
Speaker 1: uh working and available to the restaurants. And so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, well, we have forty thou restaurants. I don't
Speaker 1: know every particular situation. By and large, we were able
Speaker 1: to retain our workforce through all of that. What did
Speaker 1: you learn through COVID about how to manage a company differently, better,
Speaker 1: or some other ways that you would have not probably
Speaker 1: learned if you had not going through COVID. I certainly
Speaker 1: think one of the things that we saw was our
Speaker 1: ability to stay connected through technology bes Zoom, Yeah, Amazon Chime.
Speaker 1: I've learned all the different teleconferencing tools and they've all
Speaker 1: worked reasonably well for us. So I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we learned things there that we have the ability to
Speaker 1: to stay connected. I think the other thing though, that
Speaker 1: it highlighted for US is um we ultimately are an
Speaker 1: in person business. We're in person in the restaurants, were
Speaker 1: in person in the office, and so well, you lose
Speaker 1: something from culture, you lose something from a connectedness by
Speaker 1: by being so remote and so, you know, while it
Speaker 1: worked well for the time, we're committed to getting back
Speaker 1: into our offices, getting back into the restaurants. And one
Speaker 1: of the problems I think some of the franchises are having,
Speaker 1: not just McDonald's, getting people to come back to work.
Speaker 1: Either they don't want to come back to work, or
Speaker 1: they for health or other reasons, or they want to
Speaker 1: hire a compensation, and they often get at the kind
Speaker 1: of starting jobs you might have. How hard has it
Speaker 1: been to get people to come back to work. It
Speaker 1: has been very challenging in the US. We have not
Speaker 1: seen that issue as pronounced in Europe barrel swear on
Speaker 1: the world, but in the US it certainly has been
Speaker 1: a challenge. I think it's a lot of different factors
Speaker 1: in it. Certainly the stimulus UH support had some element.
Speaker 1: But you know, if I asked the franchise ease, okay,
Speaker 1: so September, is everything gonna be good? Once the stimulus
Speaker 1: rolls off the like will know there are other things
Speaker 1: going on, so I think, you know, there's a variety
Speaker 1: of things that play. But it has certainly been a
Speaker 1: challenge for us on staffing at the restaurants, and it's
Speaker 1: putting pressure on wages, which is what you see in
Speaker 1: you know, any kind of capitalist system. UM, So employers
Speaker 1: like McDonald's are now having to pay more on wages.
Speaker 1: We announced in our company owned restaurants, UH sort of
Speaker 1: a across the board minimum ten percent wage increase. UH
Speaker 1: that has been carried forward by many of our franchise
Speaker 1: ease and I think we're just having to get creative
Speaker 1: about how do we get people uh to come and
Speaker 1: interview for a job at McDonald's. And you're seeing our
Speaker 1: franchise ease do things like, hey, you know, fifty dollars
Speaker 1: for an interview or free iPhone after ninety day is
Speaker 1: I mean, that's sort of all the things that we're
Speaker 1: having to come up with right now to make sure
Speaker 1: we can staff the restaurants. But most of the people
Speaker 1: who are young who do work at McDonald's, are they
Speaker 1: minimum wage people and they go up from minimum wage
Speaker 1: or are you above the minimum wage? The legal minimum wage. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're above the legal minimum wage, so it's seven and
Speaker 1: a quarter. Uh. And there are very few places these
Speaker 1: days that you can be competitive in the marketplace paying
Speaker 1: the federal minimum wage. I think from our vantage point,
Speaker 1: what we announced in our company owned restaurants is eleven
Speaker 1: dollars is the starting wage, and then you know, as
Speaker 1: you move up, you would you quickly progress through that.
Speaker 1: If you are a restaurant manager, someone who's maybe been
Speaker 1: there for a couple of years, you're earning anywhere from
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty dollars an hour, and I think that's
Speaker 1: been largely Um. You're seeing a similar type of thing
Speaker 1: with our franchise. So while we don't collect information around
Speaker 1: what is you know, the average wage paid by our franchisees,
Speaker 1: I would expect it's probably about ten dollars that we're
Speaker 1: paying right now, just because again, the marketplace is driving it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think that's always been one of the questions,
Speaker 1: is you know, is this something that you want to
Speaker 1: be legislated or wanted to be in the marketplace. Our
Speaker 1: view is, um, we're gonna do whatever we need to
Speaker 1: be successful as a business, but we also don't oppose
Speaker 1: if the federal minimum wage is addressed either. So during
Speaker 1: COVID there were some problems. You had some franchise I
Speaker 1: guess where there were some strikes or something. Employees weren't happy.
Speaker 1: What was that all about? We always have something going
Speaker 1: on at McDonald's around the world there, certainly, I think
Speaker 1: what you're referencing. There were um some protests about either
Speaker 1: were were doing enough to protect essential workers? Um, which
Speaker 1: is you know how we were deemed as a business.
Speaker 1: We went to a lot of effort there to make
Speaker 1: sure that we provided ppe into other things like social
Speaker 1: distancing the restaurant, but we had protests on that. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll get protests around wage rates. Um, that will crop up.
Speaker 1: So the thing about McDonald's is, no matter what has
Speaker 1: happened in society, you can be certain it has some
Speaker 1: permutation that affects McDonald's. And it's both the challenge of
Speaker 1: the job but also what's interesting about it. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about the major things on your menu, which I've sampled
Speaker 1: over the years. Of course, Um, so the most popular
Speaker 1: thing that you have on your menu, is it a
Speaker 1: big mac or a quarter pounder or the French fries? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean from a volume standpoint, the fries are by
Speaker 1: far the biggest within sandwiches, probably the Big Mac. It
Speaker 1: does vary a little bit around the world, but but
Speaker 1: the Big Mac is probably up there well. The fries
Speaker 1: are intoxicating, lee difficult to avoid eating one. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us what's the secret? What do you put in
Speaker 1: the in the batter or the cooking oil or whatever
Speaker 1: you do that is the secret? Is it the potatoes?
Speaker 1: What is it? We have a room here that I
Speaker 1: haven't taken you too that has all the secrets on that.
Speaker 1: But I would just say there's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things that go into it. It's starting with, um, you
Speaker 1: know where we get the potatoes from, and we have
Speaker 1: proprietary relationships with that, how those potatoes are then processed, Uh,
Speaker 1: what we will put on those potatoes, and then ultimately
Speaker 1: how they're cooked in the restaurant, the cooking oil that
Speaker 1: we use, the amount of salt that we use. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that go into the secret recipe.
Speaker 1: Some people might say the French fries might not be
Speaker 1: that healthy. Some people might say that, I don't know.
Speaker 1: If you would say that, um, what would you say
Speaker 1: about that? I'd say, you know what we try to
Speaker 1: do on our menu is to have choice. So we
Speaker 1: have a variety of things on our menu, from more
Speaker 1: indulge in items to healthier items. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: no different than if you go to the grocery store.
Speaker 1: You can go to the salad bar, or you can
Speaker 1: go to the ice cream section. And that's how we
Speaker 1: approach our restaurant, which is about choice. The other thing, though,
Speaker 1: you know, I get asked a lot of times, why
Speaker 1: don't you have more of this? Why don't you have
Speaker 1: more of that? Or why did you get rid of this? Um,
Speaker 1: it all comes down to did itsell. So our restaurant
Speaker 1: and what goes on the menu is all based on
Speaker 1: what moves gets on the menu, what doesn't move comes
Speaker 1: off the menu, and so ultimately we're letting the customer
Speaker 1: decide what we do or don't carry on the menu.
Speaker 1: Since McDonald's was started some sixty plus years ago or so,
Speaker 1: there's been a greater interest in the United States and
Speaker 1: maybe around the world healthier eating. Have you tried to
Speaker 1: reflect that in your menu? We've tried, um, And I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, it gets back to again, what
Speaker 1: what sells gets on the menu and stays on the menu.
Speaker 1: What we have seen consistently is, as we've tried to
Speaker 1: broaden UH more of what you know, people might say
Speaker 1: are better for you items, uh, there's just not as
Speaker 1: strong a demand for them as there are for some
Speaker 1: of our iconic classics. And so you know, we're not
Speaker 1: in the business of telling people what they should or
Speaker 1: shouldn't eat. Our view as our obligation is to provide
Speaker 1: them with total transparency and nutritional information to make sure
Speaker 1: that we afford them choice. But ultimately what the consumer
Speaker 1: buys is up to them. Suppose I'm a vegetarian or
Speaker 1: a vegan and i want to go to McDonald's, is
Speaker 1: there anything there for me there? So you could certainly
Speaker 1: have UM right now a salad UH in a restaurant.
Speaker 1: Depending on if you're vegetarian or vegan vegetarian, they're going
Speaker 1: to be other offerings that you have. If you're in India,
Speaker 1: for example, we have quite a broad sample of vegetarian
Speaker 1: menu items, less so if you're in Lubbock, Texas, for example.
Speaker 1: Uh So, again it depends on the customer and what
Speaker 1: the customer wants. But we've also talked about launching mcplant
Speaker 1: UH and mcplant for us as a plant based burger.
Speaker 1: Uh that is available in some countries already. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: something that we're gonna be testing later in the U s. So, uh,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll get you a mcplant Another product I don't
Speaker 1: want to overlook as your famous Coca cola. Now, you
Speaker 1: used to work at Pepsi. I know, so to Pepsi
Speaker 1: people ever call you to remind you that you have
Speaker 1: coke and maybe you should be had a few dialogue
Speaker 1: over the over the years, and you know, my my
Speaker 1: short answer is the way to get pepsi into McDonald's
Speaker 1: is get people to prefer pepsi over coke. Back to
Speaker 1: the point of we're gonna sell whatever the customer wants. UM.
Speaker 1: So yes, my my pepsi friends periodically check in. But
Speaker 1: some people say that your coca cola is made in
Speaker 1: a certain way that's better than the coca cola could
Speaker 1: buy in the bottle. So what is it that you
Speaker 1: do that's different with your coca cola? So I would agree,
Speaker 1: I think it's better. Um. One of the things that
Speaker 1: we have as an advantage is because of the volumes
Speaker 1: that we do in our restaurant, um our volumes tend
Speaker 1: to be higher than than anybody else out there. It
Speaker 1: allows us to buy equipment that is able to be
Speaker 1: tight traded or calibrated more precisely than maybe some of
Speaker 1: our competitors. And so what we're able to do because
Speaker 1: of the equipment that we're able to buy, which is
Speaker 1: more expensive equipment, is we're able to deliver what Coke
Speaker 1: would describe as their gold standard product on a more
Speaker 1: consistent basis than somebody who maybe has inferior equipment in
Speaker 1: their restaurant. So I should disclose that I am an
Speaker 1: investor in McDonald's in effect because my firm bought a
Speaker 1: piece of the China business with a Chinese partner and
Speaker 1: with McDonald's UM and in China, as I understand that, uh,
Speaker 1: chicken is very popular, maybe more so than beef. Is
Speaker 1: that unusual where chicken is more popular than beef and
Speaker 1: in a given market, Uh, you know, China is largely
Speaker 1: a chicken market. I think this is one of those things.
Speaker 1: It does vary depending on which part of the world
Speaker 1: you're in. Brazil tends to be more of a beef market.
Speaker 1: US is about fifty fifty between chicken and beef. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we do see that the trends evolving, but
Speaker 1: chicken globally is growing faster than beef, and certainly our
Speaker 1: expectation over the next five years is that chicken, more
Speaker 1: so than beef, will be the dominant protein in our restaurants.
Speaker 1: So there are four ways you can buy things at McDonald's,
Speaker 1: as I understand, each begin with a D. So let's
Speaker 1: go go through. That one is a drive through? Is
Speaker 1: that a big business these days? Drive through drive to you,
Speaker 1: it's a huge business for us, particularly in the US.
Speaker 1: It's about seventy of the business in the US. In
Speaker 1: Europe you would see at the inverse you would see
Speaker 1: dining and being a much bigger part of the business
Speaker 1: in Europe, but through the pandemic we did see drive
Speaker 1: through also become a pretty significant part of the business.
Speaker 1: Another D is delivery. You have ability to deliver? Do
Speaker 1: you deliver yourself? Do you use one of the services
Speaker 1: deliver people's home? We do both. It started for us
Speaker 1: in Asia where we were doing our own delivery, particularly
Speaker 1: in China. In the Middle East, we also have a
Speaker 1: pretty sizeable delivery business where we do the delivery ourselves.
Speaker 1: And then in other parts of the world, like in
Speaker 1: the US, we have partnered with third party operators like
Speaker 1: an Uber eats or a door dash. So right now
Speaker 1: we do about six billion dollars of sales a year
Speaker 1: through delivery, which is growing, you know, high teens globally.
Speaker 1: It's it's been pretty remarkable. Another day is digital. You
Speaker 1: can buy things digitally? How do you do that? So
Speaker 1: the app? For us, everything is moving to the app.
Speaker 1: I think for us it's been it's been an interesting
Speaker 1: evolution to see where you know, for years and years
Speaker 1: the center of the relationship that we had with the
Speaker 1: customer in the physical restaurant, and what we're seeing, particularly
Speaker 1: with gen Z and millennials, is it's moving to much
Speaker 1: more of a digital relationship through the app. So yes,
Speaker 1: today UH in almost every single one of our countries,
Speaker 1: the US being a prime example of that. You can
Speaker 1: download the McDonald's app, you can order your products through
Speaker 1: the app and UH. An exciting thing we're doing right
Speaker 1: now this month is we're rolling out loyalty, So when
Speaker 1: you buy with the app, you also get loyalty points
Speaker 1: you can redeem later for food and other benefits. It's
Speaker 1: your frequent flyer version. You got it. So and the
Speaker 1: last d is dying in which used to be the
Speaker 1: thing that people did. But now is that a smaller
Speaker 1: and smaller part of your business and you need all
Speaker 1: those spaces anymore in your restaurants. It's I think still
Speaker 1: a really important part of our business because a lot
Speaker 1: of the interaction and the memories that people form about
Speaker 1: McDonald's comes from the dying in experience. But I think
Speaker 1: you're right in recognizing that it is certainly, through the pandemic,
Speaker 1: a less prov part of the business. I mean, our
Speaker 1: view is that it is going to come back. Um.
Speaker 1: I think dining and eating is such a social experience.
Speaker 1: There's always going to be an element of it that
Speaker 1: is in person. Now, how much of it comes back,
Speaker 1: time will tell. And if at some point, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe we need to reduce the space for dining seating
Speaker 1: that we have in our restaurants, we can always calibrate
Speaker 1: and do that, But for now we're kind of on
Speaker 1: a watch and c mode. I assume you have a
Speaker 1: lot of people saying the food isn't as healthy as
Speaker 1: they might want it to be. Is that the biggest
Speaker 1: challenge or just growing the company? Ray Kroc had a
Speaker 1: famous line that gets quoted around here fairly off and
Speaker 1: even today, which is if you're not green and growing
Speaker 1: your red and rotten. Let's talk about your background. Where
Speaker 1: did you grow up? So? I was born in Boston,
Speaker 1: grew up on the East Coast until we started moving around.
Speaker 1: I went to high school in Cincinnati, uh, and then
Speaker 1: ultimately went to college down in North Carolina. Well, you
Speaker 1: can say the name, it's I went to do Yes,
Speaker 1: we shared that. And after you graduated, what did you do?
Speaker 1: I went to Procker and Gamble. I went into their
Speaker 1: band brand management program at the headquarters in Cincinnati. And
Speaker 1: after that, so after that, I went to Harvard Business
Speaker 1: School UM and got my m b a UM, and
Speaker 1: after that I went into consulting for a few years.
Speaker 1: But you spent a lot of time in the food
Speaker 1: world because you were before PEPSI, you were you were
Speaker 1: after after PEPSI were a craft as That's right. So
Speaker 1: just something about food that you really appeal to you,
Speaker 1: I'd say what I love is being in consumer industries. UH.
Speaker 1: For me, what I really find sort of energizing as
Speaker 1: having a tangible product that I can see, touch, feel, etcetera. UM,
Speaker 1: and also one that you know people can relate to
Speaker 1: when I say, you know, I work at PEPSI, or
Speaker 1: I work at craft or I work at McDonald's. Um,
Speaker 1: immediately you can always have a conversation with people and
Speaker 1: kind of the fun thing for me and my current job.
Speaker 1: You know, no matter where I am in the world, UM,
Speaker 1: people have an opinion about McDonald's and want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about McDonald's, and it just it makes the
Speaker 1: job fun. So you came here, and that here was
Speaker 1: here in Okay, and then you rose up pretty quickly
Speaker 1: to become the head of America's that's right. And then
Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen you became the CEO. That's right.
Speaker 1: And the stock is up and the market cap is
Speaker 1: up about since then. So I assume your board is happy.
Speaker 1: So far, so good. Yeah, but some of your predecessors
Speaker 1: had problems. They didn't last that long and for health
Speaker 1: or other reasons. So is there a bad karma you
Speaker 1: feel to being CEO or you think you can outlive
Speaker 1: the bad karma? Yeah? I hope not. I try not
Speaker 1: to think about it too much actually, UM. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think when you're in these jobs, you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're just very grateful for the time that you're in
Speaker 1: the role. And I don't spend a whole lot of
Speaker 1: time thinking about you know, sort of you know, the
Speaker 1: future and all that stuff. It's it's about you know,
Speaker 1: so long as I keep delivering for the company, us,
Speaker 1: long as we keep performing. Um. I certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: feel really fortunate to be in the role that I'm in.
Speaker 1: So it's a global company. UM now that COVID is
Speaker 1: not behind us, but certainly receiving a bit. Are you
Speaker 1: traveling the world? Are you expect to travel the world
Speaker 1: war I do expect to travel starting next month. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you know, between now and the end of the year,
Speaker 1: I've got five international trips lined up. Are when you
Speaker 1: travel internationally, you're trying to tell the local franchises to
Speaker 1: do work more, do better job? Or what are you
Speaker 1: trying to do when you travel you're recruiting it franchisees
Speaker 1: or are you telling them why your new food products
Speaker 1: are going to be good or why Yeah, there there's
Speaker 1: a variety of things I'm trying to get done. When
Speaker 1: when I'm out there, the biggest thing is listening, so
Speaker 1: you know, hearing what's on the mind of our franchisees,
Speaker 1: hearing what's on the mind of our people. That's one
Speaker 1: thing I'm looking at the second is making sure that
Speaker 1: the strategies that we're talking about at a corporate level
Speaker 1: are they cascading down and we're seeing those in the restaurants.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, what can happen is you think
Speaker 1: you've got clarity around what the strategy is and then
Speaker 1: it doesn't actually end up getting executed. So I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the connection between our strategy and is it showing
Speaker 1: up in the execution the restaurant. I also will just
Speaker 1: spend time being a little bit of a cheerleader. Um
Speaker 1: when I go into the restaurant. As you would imagine
Speaker 1: the role, Uh, it's it's about creating excitement and appreciation
Speaker 1: for the crew working in that restaurant. So I try
Speaker 1: to do some of that. And then I also make
Speaker 1: time when I'm traveling to meet our young up and
Speaker 1: coming employees kind of our high potential. So there's a
Speaker 1: variety of things I'm doing. So when you meet with
Speaker 1: your local franchises anywhere in the world, do you have
Speaker 1: lunch at McDonald's or do you say let's go somewhere else.
Speaker 1: We we will always eat in the restaurant. Dinner, we
Speaker 1: typically will go somewhere other than McDonald's. But breakfast and
Speaker 1: lunch will always be in a McDonald's. And do you
Speaker 1: ever go to your competitors stores and kind of see
Speaker 1: what they're doing to get some new information? We do?
Speaker 1: We do, UM, usually don't stay there too long. Usually
Speaker 1: the service isn't as good and the food isn't as
Speaker 1: good either, but we will go in there to just check.
Speaker 1: So McDonald's is always coming up with new products. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody's coming up with new products in every line of business,
Speaker 1: but you're always coming up with new food products that
Speaker 1: people will presumably like. But do you taste them all yourself?
Speaker 1: And do you have to approve a new product? Or
Speaker 1: you just say I've got to the people that do
Speaker 1: the food tasting. Yeah, we have a great menu team. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's their job to work typically with franchise ease and
Speaker 1: ulultimately customers to develop the new food items. Occasionally I
Speaker 1: might just say, hey, I'd be interested in trying that.
Speaker 1: The team will usually humor me on those types of things. UM.
Speaker 1: But if you don't like it, what happens nothing ordinarily
Speaker 1: other than just it's interesting that you didn't like it.
Speaker 1: Where I will where I do exercise as CEO authorities
Speaker 1: around our core menu, So you can't touch the big Mac,
Speaker 1: you can't touch the quarter pound, or you can't touch
Speaker 1: the fries, um, you can't touch hamburger cheeseburger and make
Speaker 1: any changes to those without my approval. But outside of
Speaker 1: the core menu you have a lot of latitude and
Speaker 1: certainly on new items. So what do you think is
Speaker 1: the biggest challenge of being the CEO of McDonald's just
Speaker 1: just keep growing the company? Or I assume you have
Speaker 1: a lot of people saying the food isn't as healthy
Speaker 1: as they might want it to be. Is that the
Speaker 1: biggest challenge or just growing the company? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's about UM As a business, we have to
Speaker 1: be growing. And Ray Kroc had a famous line that
Speaker 1: gets quoted around here fairly often even today, which is,
Speaker 1: if you're not green and growing, you're red and rotten UM.
Speaker 1: And I think that philosophy is part of our business,
Speaker 1: which is we are a growth business. So how do
Speaker 1: we grow is a big part of it. But where
Speaker 1: it will come up is and things that you were
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, for example, you know the menu items, UM,
Speaker 1: if we're perceived as not meeting the needs of customers,
Speaker 1: were not going to grow. So if customers are seeking
Speaker 1: healthier food options and we're slow on delivering those, it's
Speaker 1: going to impact our growth. So that that's what I
Speaker 1: viewed my job is all about. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: hear more of my interviews. You can subscribe and download
Speaker 1: my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen