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McDonald's restructures leadership team to focus on digitizing operations

Photo: iStock

January 8, 2020

McDonald's has added two leadership positions to strengthen interconnectivity and communication with both employees and customers by maximizing its digital channels and in-house expertise, according to an email to QSRWeb from McDonald's Global Communications Manager Lauren Altmin. She said that as a first step in this digital-first direction, Global CIO Daniel Henry will now report to CEO Chris Kempczinski, along with Chief Digital Customer Engagement Officer Lucy Brady, who will lead the brand's newly born and dedicated digital customer engagement team.

The  engagement team will use the brand's technological muscle to ensure that global tech is in the DNA of its product roadmaps and tech solutions. It will also work with market teams to generate greater value from digital investments, it said, and scale work underway to grow traffic, sales and cash flow through digital channels.

The brand  also shared a letter that Kempczinski sent to employees today to announce the initiatives, which he said were prompted by the company-wide "excitement" around digital's potential to be a brand game-

"Digital is transforming global retail, and it will transform McDonald's. At the same time, I've heard your feedback that we still have more work to do to fulfill our digital potential. … Technology is growing exponentially in our business and will be a strong catalyst for our growth," he wrote.

Kempczinski told employees that Henry had already taken a "product-centric approach" to the brand's tech implementation to make it more agile.

Making sure all this digital emphasis stays aligned with brand goals, cost boundaries and customer needs will fall under Brady's team's responsibility, he said. 

"This cross-functional team will lead our global digital efforts including ordering, personalization, payments, loyalty and delivery," Kempczinski wrote. 

Structurally, the team will work hand-in-hand with a brand digital advisory council that includes the company's US and international presidents, its CFO, CIO, senior vice president of Global Marketing and Brady, who will meet quarterly to review progress and "ensure market plans are aligned with our burgeoning digital capabilities."

Brady previously served as McDonald's senior vice president for Corporate Strategy and Business Development, helping drive McDelivery expansion for the past three years to a $4 billion initiative. Brady's team was also key in the acquisition of Dynamic Yield, which Kempczinski said was "tangibly driving check growth."

To align all the digital action with McDonald's operating model, Kempczinski said the teams will also work with its marketing technology team — led by Bob Rupczynski, while the corporate strategy and business development team will report to CFO Kevin Ozan. 

"Customer-facing digital technologies are changing how customers engage with brands and are raising expectations for the McDonald's experience," Brady said. "We have significant competitive advantages in this area thanks to our global scale and customer frequency – with more than 65 million customers visiting us every day around the world.

She said the brand is uniquely positioned to create better experiences for customers, drive more visits and greater loyalty while increasing sales and cash flow.

There are many great examples around the world where our customer-facing digital programs are making a difference and driving impressive results, but we have only scratched the surface of our full potential, especially in our largest markets," she said. "We'll also use the next 90 days to seek input from market teams, key functional groups, franchisees and supplier partners. We will work to digest those learnings and share more detail on the path forward in early April."