Case Study
McDonald's Europe
As part of the world’s largest fast food company, McDonald’s Europe faces a range of formidable communication challenges which have the potential to significantly undermine its reputation and impact its operational performance. These range from public concerns over health and nutrition, to food safety and quality, and the supposed ‘McJobs’ phenomenon; to a plethora of EU regulatory and policy issues.
It is the responsibility of the McDonald’s European Corporate Affairs team to manage these communications challenges at the pan-European level and to support the activities of its national organisations as they wrestle with similar issues. Even for a company as large as McDonald’s, resources are limited. So to manage its communications effectively, it is therefore essential that the Corporate Affairs Function’s organisation is optimized and its activities governed by clear strategic thinking and objectives.
With these objectives in mind, Aspect was asked by the new Head of European Corporate Affairs to conduct a “fit for purpose” review of the Function’s current activities and processes, its over-arching focus and objectives, and its communications strategy. Our analysis revealed a Function that, despite significant successes, was operating below its optimum level, primarily through a lack of strategic focus.
Through a consultative process driven by Aspect, the Function was able to address this situation by clearly defining and rationalising its objectives; and revising its strategy, organisational structure and systems to deliver against these objectives. A new template was also established for how the Function should interact with both internal and external stakeholders.
