McDonald's CEO on the "McChallenges" ahead

he was a day like any other at this McDonald's near Oak Brook Illinois recently until that is hello hello Ronald McDonald's boss got hungry how you all doing that's McDonald's CEO Don Thompson the man in charge of the biggest restaurant chain in the world do you think having the big cheese on-site might make employees a little nervous right except that Thompson is disarmingly bounder today man it'll be you and I rested a shift me and you so can you still do every one of those positions can you still go surprised you can still cook a burger I can still cook fries I can still cook burgers I offer quite a bit most of the time to tell me get out of kitchen time go back out there and do what you do the preparation table as we see it in the kitchens Thompson as happy as a happy meal and he seems just as blissful back at headquarters he actually whistles while he works no miss Pam his meetings mr. Easterbrook often begin with man houses we even found him humming to himself at his desk it's tempting to think he doesn't have a care in the world but you'd be wrong we have 35,000 restaurants we're a big target if you attack McDonald's you'll get press and so you know just about any and everyone will attack McDonald's for something this is the worldwide headquarters so Thompson took the reins of McDonald's two years ago as its first african-american CEO he's charged to make the golden arches golden again a recent Consumer Reports survey fast-food restaurants ranked McDonald's as the worst tasting burger in the industry sales have been in a downward spiral with competitors like Chipotle Wendy's and Taco Bell eating McDonald's profit share for lunch and breakfast I'm Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald Taco Bell's new do you think expectations were any higher for you when you took this job the fact that I'm african-american probably calls it out more if that the bar is a little bit higher in some regards it's always been a little bit higher it's not a new thing for me to be an african-american it's new to be an african-american CEO Thompson grew up in the shadow of Chicago's Cabrini Green a nation's most notorious public housing project so what was your experience with with McDonald's growing up I think there was one McDonald's in our neighborhood and I do remember my grandmother and I who raised me I remember welcomed by the McDonald's I like to have a McDonald's and I remember her distinct words we're going home I'll make you a McDonald's eating out was a luxury wheel is his wife of 26 years grew up nearby just across the street from the Cabrini Green high-rises everyone called the projects I don't like using the word project nobody wants to feel like they're part of a project they both made it out of the neighborhood as they call it they met studying engineering at Purdue University I do remember he had on a blue polyester jacket with tan polyester pants who's only jagged eye it was only and he doesn't have that suit anymore but we did find Liz's old row house yeah this is where I lived right down this path right here it's long since been abandoned I would not trade it for anything in the world you really wouldn't trade it I wouldn't trade the way I grew up for anything that was pure that was life and that was love all on that street right there this was a beautiful childhood you know wonderful money doesn't solve all the problems but hard work he says can solve a lot he started at McDonald's 24 years ago as an engineer robotics and the like helping keep the kitchen equipment like the French fryers all high-tech although he never went to business school something about management struck him so one day he decided to put his engineers pocket protector aside and picked up a spatula instead great day and that McDonald's back then it didn't matter what degree you had if you didn't understand much to catch up onion and pickles you didn't understand business you didn't understand McDonald's you had to know how to make a hamburger you hadn't know how to clean out a fry vet you're under clean a restroom wipe a table take an order what are you thinking doing all that and you've got this degree in engineering in your weight in the bathroom I never look back it's interesting that you asked it Natalie I never looked back at the time no wonder he now makes upwards of nine million dollars a year as the McDonald's CEO but that kind of executive pay has become one of the focal points in the nation's minimum wage debate recently thousands of hourly employees staged sittings to claim their shape of the fast-food profits they're demanding McDonald's among other fast-food chains supersize their wages from around eight or nine dollars an hour up to 15 I think there are probably a lot of folks who would think that you could be more sympathetic I guess with the plight of folks who say they want to get paid more yeah are you I can't below for saying I want to make more money so I can take care of my family I admire it I don't want any of our employees at McDonald's to be of a mindset that what I am is a minimum wage anything in a recent meeting at the White House Thompson told the president he would support the federal minimum wage hike as long as it was phased in slowly in the meantime he says McDonald's will continue to invest in its people if they invest back in the company today in McDonald's 60% of our franchisees started as hourly employees 60% of those in own restaurants in the u.s. started as hourly employees but his biggest battle is the oldest battle the perception that fast food is junk food it's not all healthy to be sure but the menu isn't what it used to be I don't believe that there is junk food I don't believe that there is a forbidden food let's McDonald's executive chef Dan Kudrow yes McDonald's has an executive chef he came from get this the fine dining world of the Four Seasons Hotels where else you get to play with your food he's the brains behind McDonald's healthy breakfast offer its fresh brewed McCafe coffee and the freshly grilled egg white delight McMuffin greatness egg white delights along with oatmeal yours are just two of nearly 2,000 menu ideas he and his team come up with in this Test Kitchen every year it has to hit a very rigorous process to get from this kitchen to the restaurant no one has done more to make changes relative to adding milk fruits we've tried vegetables no one has done more in that arena than McDonald's no one has done more to prove it Thompson is now turning to social media at what point in the process do we inject the pink slime we don't use that in our burgers there's new PR campaign has professional skeptic and former Mythbusters host Grant Imahara no answering some of the grossest online questions sent in by consumers are their lips and eyeballs in there Jimmy no it's 100% beef trimmings what's it like for you when there's slings and arrows that come his way this is tough they don't know him right they don't know the man that I know with 35,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries there's no denying McDonald's influence affects everything from agriculture to animal welfare to food safety Tuesday afternoon but when it comes to the man responsible for it all Don Thompson doesn't think of himself as the head of some iconic brand he sees himself as his wife does the same guy who started on the grills pooping all those years ago doesn't matter what job you do you're the greatest maintenance person that McDonald's for 30 years but you are that person that makes everybody happy you enjoy what you do how you do it everybody loves you and you love them you're a blessed person you know and so that's the way we've lived our life and it's a little too late to change

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 701,471

Keywords: mcdonalds, golden, arches, don, thompson, video, cbs, news

Id: npk2lEvwf1Q

Length: 8min 44sec (524 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 26 2014