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Strengthening the foundation behind every McDonald's feel-good moment

Behind the scenes, McDonald's is rebuilding how the business operates, while staying true to what customers love most about the brand

For generations, McDonald's has delivered feel-good food experiences people know and trust, from an Egg McMuffin on the morning commute to fries shared among friends. About 70 million customers visit daily — whether in restaurants, at the drive-thru, or delivered to their door — expecting their order to be right, arrive quickly, and taste just as it should.

Today, the ways customers discover, order, and interact with McDonald’s continues to expand, bringing higher expectations for speed, accuracy, personalization, and convenience. Delivering on those expectations at McDonald’s scale has become increasingly complex.

To keep pace with evolving customer expectations, McDonald's is simplifying how the business behind the experience operates. The company is transforming the foundation and ways of working that power it, helping teams move faster, make better decisions and better support restaurants, crews and franchisees.

Julie Sweet sits down with Chris Kempczinski, Chairman and CEO of McDonald's, to discuss how one of the world's most iconic brands is preserving the experience customers love while adapting to a rapidly changing world. Behind the scenes, McDonald's is reinventing the systems, data and operations that power the business—creating a stronger foundation for what's next.

Watch full interview

Serving up something new behind the scenes

Central to the transformation was the creation of a new Global Business Services (GBS) organization to help the company run more consistently, move faster, and better leverage the advantage of its global scale. Through GBS, the team is consolidating core enterprise functions—including finance, procurement, legal, enterprise data and analytics, and HR—while standardizing processes and modernizing platforms across more than 60 markets.

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A network for improvement

To support the model, McDonald’s established a network of Global Capability Centers that help operate systems, accelerate continuous improvement, and scale expertise across the business.

Built for speed and scale

At the same time, McDonald's has invested in new digital capabilities, enterprise data and analytics, and category-focused ways of working that help the organization better understand customer demand and move successful ideas across markets more quickly.

Hamburger University

Accelerating actionable information

The company is also enabling faster, more consistent decision-making through a unified technology and process architecture that brings together information across functions and markets to create a single, trusted view of the business.

Insights on demand

This work will help teams more quickly identify trends, respond to changing customer needs, and bring solutions to restaurants. Insights that once took months to surface will be available within days—and increasingly in near real time.

Fresh technology for smart operations

The retirement of thousands of legacy applications will further reduce complexity and make it easier for teams to focus on driving growth, supporting restaurants, and improving performance across the system.

Together, these changes are creating a connected foundation that supports more advanced analytics, new technologies and capabilities, including AI.

"McDonald's has always been about consistency. Global Business Services brings the discipline from our restaurants to the enterprise, helping markets move with speed and confidence and leverage our global scale."

Mattijs Backx / Chief Transformation and Services Officer, McDonald's

The feeling stays, no matter what changes

Today, McDonald’s continues to deliver the feel‑good moments people know and trust.

What’s changed is how the company behind those moments operates. Teams are more aligned and insight driven with a clear, shared view of performance and demand, so they can spot shifts earlier and bring innovations and experiences to customers, crews, and franchisees faster.

With integrated operations, modernized platforms, and a unified view of the business, McDonald’s will be ready for whatever comes next.

If you're not green and growing, you're ripe and rotting.

Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's

MEET THE TEAM

Nicholas Whittall

Senior Managing Director – Accenture, Midwest Retail Lead

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Christopher McManus

Senior Managing Director – Strategy Cost & Productivity Reinvention Lead, North America

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Ethan Bischoff

Managing Director

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