The current CEO is black. An Affirmative Action hire to make McDonalds feel superior. It backfired on them big time, but they can’t admit that they screwed up by putting an unquafied black guy in the top spot...sort of like America!
“The current CEO is black. An Affirmative Action hire to make McDonalds feel superior. It backfired on them big time, but they can’t admit that they screwed up by putting an unquafied black guy in the top spot...sort of like America!”
The fired CEO was a long time McDonald’s executive. Whether or not he was an unprepared affirmative action promotion or just the wrong person for the job is impossible to tell. I’m sure many capable white or Asian managers would fail under the circumstances.
The marketplace in which McDonalds competes has been changing rapidly in ways which would challenge any CEO:
1) The rapid expansion of super gasoline stations (WaWa, Sheetz, Quick Trip) which serve quick prepared food and are taking market share from traditional fast food chains.
2) Michelle Obama and the national media’s attack on fast food as unhealthy.
3) The appearance of new, aggressive premium fast food competitors - Panara Bread, Five Guys who are capturing the fast food dollar.
4) More aggressive competition from traditional fast food competitors including Wendy’s, Burger King, and Chick fil a
5) Food price inflation, particularly beef prices, which has made the $1.00 menu, which propelled growth from 2000 to 2010 impossible to sustain.
6) McDonalds is not perceived as “cool” by young people.
7) Sluggish worldwide economic growth.
All of the above issues are long term and require long term strategic moves, not short term knee jerk reactions. Long term strategic moves do not typically realize immediate results. Whether or not the fired CEO was addressing, or not addressing, these issue is not known to the public.
Regardless, the CEO’s failure is also a Board of Directors failure. The average tenure on the Board is 13 years. Eight of 12 Board members have over 10 years service. Most of the Board members are Chicago business community cronies. McDonalds would be well serviced to replace some of the board with new members from across the country, perhaps including some people who actually visit the restaurants frequently.
Boards are often quick to hire and fire CEO’s. Rarely do boards fire themselves for poor performance even though they should.