Ordering food has not changed for 30 or 40 years.
— Steve Easterbrook
We're guided by consumer data, and it helps give us the confidence to invest where the consumer is going.
We need to execute fewer things better.
Long-term sustaining growth is a minimum expectation for us.
Chicago is a wonderful, vibrant city with wonderful food cultures to it, wonderful talent downtown.
I think the greatest demand actually comes from within, not from outside.
Whether that's in communications or marketing or strategy, you need people to come in with a fresh perspective.
No one likes uncertainty.
Everyone likes a burger now and then, and that's absolutely fine.
Ordering should be the most enjoyable experience, but at McDonald's, it can be one of the most stressful points in time.
The McJob tag is misleading, and demeaning to our staff and franchisees.
When you're in a turnaround situation, you cannot incrementalize your way out of it.
If the pace of change outside is moving more quickly than the pace of change inside, you get a bit left behind.
Moving our headquarters to Chicago is another significant step in our journey to build a better McDonald's. This world-class environment will continue to drive business momentum by getting us even closer to customers, encouraging innovation and ensuring great talent is excited about where they work.
China and Hong Kong represent an enormous growth opportunity for McDonald's.
When you expand a business as fast as McDonald's did, part of the strength you have is the process and the efficiency.
The business cannot ignore what customers are saying when the message is clear: We're not on our game.
We can see what works in one part of the world and one market, and we can share that knowledge and expertise with markets that are facing challenges.
Part of how we decide how we allocate our media is we have fairly sophisticated ways of measuring our return on marketing spend, which helps us best analyze the most effective way and medium in which to spend our marketing dollars.
Fear of decision-making is one thing I personally resist, and I'm trying to encourage others to resist as well.
As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to encourage your kids to eat well.
The consumer is going through a period around the world of uncertainty - whether geopolitical uncertainty, economic uncertainty - and that makes them a little nervous as well.
There's absolutely no doubt consumers have more choice than ever, and the standards of all that provide food have improved over time.
As you get little pockets of success, then suddenly the light bulbs go on in everyone's head, and more leaders get more confident and make more, bigger decisions, and customers respond well, and it becomes a bit of a flywheel.
Customers have access to information that gives them much more control over their lives.
The average customer comes into McDonald's three to four times a month, and I'm absolutely convinced that can fit in very comfortably into a balanced diet.
We're allowing technology to take out the non-value-added manual elements of the McDonald's experience.
My motivation at the moment is around knowing how it feels to turn a business around, and I can't wait to have that feeling again.
It is customers that decide if we succeed.
I've never met him, but I love the simplicity with which Warren Buffett describes good and bad businesses and how he makes his investment decisions.
Our customers, system, and shareholders are best served when we direct our focus and energy towards executing against these critical customer expectations.
The parents that we speak to, and the parents that are our customers, are very comfortable with the way that McDonald's fits into their lives.
Consumers, when they've only got a couple of quid left in their pockets, are choosy about how they want to spend it.
We have to hire, retain, and develop the best staff.
When we look at some of the greatest creative ideas we've come up with, they have originated literally from all corners of the world and have crossed all different types of media as well. So while there's still traditional TV, which is clearly a very compelling media, it's also cyber, mobile, outdoor.
I take it personally when people belittle our employees and misrepresent our record as an employer.
When you get things right, good things happen.
There's a lot of businesses that are working hard, who are at the top of their games. Therefore, it's always going to be a market share fight.
Ultimately, the bread and butter of McDonald's is delivering great service, great quality food, at affordable prices day in and day out.
What I've looked to do is try and become a change agent for good, to create the behavioral changes, the cultural changes to really embrace urgency, adopt a higher tolerance to risk, and just encourage people to make decisions.
The counter is a barrier.
If you don't want fries with your Happy Meal, you can switch it for a fruit bag or a portion of carrot sticks. I think that is the sign of a progressive business.
Bringing out service staff on to the dining floor does change the atmosphere.
Many people have strong views on McDonald's.
When you get an invitation to come back and be part of the team that will be the architect of the next generation of growth, when you get an opportunity in a business of the size and scope of McDonald's, that's incredibly attractive.
Ultimately, we're in the service business. We will always have an important human element.
The progress we have made in a short amount of time gives me confidence we're making the right moves to turn around our business and reposition McDonald's as a modern, progressive burger company.
We are putting the customer at the center of everything we do and are directing our resources towards those innovations and investments that will strengthen our ability to deliver a better McDonald's experience over time.
Whenever you want a radical shift, it rarely happens.
Me and my mate used to go across the park, jump on the Met line to get the Tube into Harrow. There was a sports shop we always used to go into, and there was a McDonald's. We used to go off with three or four quid in our pocket. That would cover our train fare, mooching around Harrow, and going to McDonald's.
