Coalition of Franchisee Associations

May 18, 2018

"Leaks" in the McDonald's System

Apparently the nasty-graham McDonald's Operators received from McDonald's USA legal several weeks ago claimed that communicating with others gave some possible advantage 
to "our competition".

In other words, McDonald's Operators leak proprietary information. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If there are leaks in the McDonald's system - Many of the leaks come from McDonald's upper management during discussions with Wall Street analysts.

Case in point, is it any wonder that McDonald's major competitors were ready to launch new value platforms at the same time McDonald's USA launched the $123 menu? McDonald's management had been publicly blabbing about the new menu during much of the fall of 2017.

Prior to launch the analysts knew more about the $123 menu than McDonald's Operators.

The rest of the leaks in the McDonald's system come from employees of McDonald's outside advertising agencies and PR firms.

These people are loyal to no one and are always networking for their next job. It's important they establish connections with reporters who cover the advertising business. They sing like birds.

So Operator leaking is not the problem. Trying to impress shareholders and disloyalty among agency people is the problem.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No one has more to lose due to leaks to competitors than the operators. Operators are just used as scapegoats to protect the real culprits.

Richard Adams said...

About a decade ago I was contacted by a lady reporter who was working for one of the big advertising industry publications. She ended up being the most tenacious reporter I've ever worked with.

She often had internal McDonald's information and it seemed she had some great sources in New York and Chicago. She would never reveal her sources but after a few bombshells, it was obvious she was connected to ad agency people who worked on the McDonald's accounts.

She would call with a something she was working on - I'd say, "No, that would never happen" - a few months later OPNAD approves the idea and she calls back to boast about getting the story first. Again, she had it before any McDonald's Operator had ever heard about the idea.

Fortunately few reporters work that hard but it was all coming from agency people who would/will spill proprietary info for industry gossip about possible job openings or for a few cocktails.