Grinding It Out is the title of Ray Kroc’s 1977 autobiography and also an aspect of the personality that is needed to run the vast and massively powerful McDonald’s Corporation. Throughout the ten episodes of Hamburger Business Review we’ve taken to referring to the CEO as sitting on the Golden Throne.
"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." -Cersei Lannister
There have only been 10 CEOs of McDonald’s:
Ray Kroc: 1961 to 1973
Fred Turner 1973: to 1989
Michael Quinlan: 1989 to 1998
Jack Greenberg: 1998 to 2002
Jim Cantalupo: 2002 to 2004
Charles Bell: 2004 to 2005
Jim Skinner: 2005 to 2012
Don Thompson: 2012 to 2015
Steve Easterbrook: 2015 to 2019
Chris Kempczinski: 2019 to Present
Chris Kempczinski took the “Golden Throne” and became CEO of McDonald’s after the sudden departure of his mentor and boss due to an inappropriate workplace romance, and he’s the first CEO of the modern social media era with his Instagram account @chrisk_mcd.
We’re looking at the 2019 case study titled simply “McDonald’s Corporation” that looks at the situation when Chris took over. He has taken the “Easterbrook Inititives” and developed that into a wonderful “Accelerating The Arches” strategic plan.
We also use this as an opportunity to look back over our first season of Hamburger Business Review and take some educated guesses about what we might see happen next.
Thanks for listening! We hope you learned about more than just the burger business during season one. There really is very little in our modern day culture that doesn’t touch McDonald’s and it’s been an absolute joy to share these case studies and discussions with you.
In Grimace We Trust,
-Mike & Zach
Grinding It Out with Chris K.