{"id":2335,"date":"2015-09-06T18:14:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T10:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=2335"},"modified":"2015-09-06T18:14:50","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T10:14:50","slug":"mcdonalds-digital-innovation-strategy-building-the-restaurant-of-the-future-as-a-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/mcdonalds-digital-innovation-strategy-building-the-restaurant-of-the-future-as-a-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald's digital innovation strategy: building the restaurant of the future as a startup"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 35,000 restaurants in 121 countries, McDonald\u2019s is not a so much a F&B outlet, it\u2019s a machine, an army of operational excellence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a network of franchisees, which makes innovation a bit harder<\/strong>, as you can\u2019t really design a new service or product and just push it to the network.<\/p>\n

\"mcdonalds<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the Break conference<\/a> in Bali, Zaki Fasihuddin<\/a> shared the story of McDonald\u2019s digital innovation team<\/strong> which tries to reinvent the experience and, who knows, take the lead on the restaurant of the future, <\/strong>a necessity when revenues are rather on the downward path for the fast-food giant.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s digital innovation team: from 3 to 130 employees in 18 months<\/h2>\n

Zaki joined the McDonald\u2019s digital team in early 2014, with previous experiences at PayPal, American Express,<\/strong> and mentoring roles in the startup scene of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"mcdonalds<\/p>\n

On the left, Zaki Fasihuddin<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe brand was global, the scale as well, but there was no holistic approach of the digital\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, he says, adding they acknowledged lacking talent in house on this topic.<\/p>\n

Zaki was recruited to open McDonald\u2019s office in the Silicon Valley<\/strong>, to bring folks who \u201cget it\u201d in the company, with experience in coding, shipping and product typically. The idea was to create an internet company inside this company,<\/strong> to bridge both offline and online worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the McDonald\u2019s of the future, from a customer experience first. We take the customer journey<\/strong>, in the restaurant, at the airport, in the car, the physical engagement level\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

And the assets of the burger brand don\u2019t stop here: \u201cwe\u2019re also a brand of fun<\/strong>, with key partnership with sports<\/strong> events such as the Olympics, so we can create engaging experiences. I went from being focused on payments to content creation, music<\/strong> and games, connected car, virtual reality, because the brand is so broad\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The McDonald’s digital innovation team has two hubs in Chicago and SF,<\/strong> and then all over the world, with the team now counting 130 people globally<\/strong>. The CEO gave them a mandate to re-imagine the restaurant experience of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"mcdonalds<\/p>\n

From a consistent brand to mass personalization through context<\/h2>\n

Rather than \u201cmaking fast food faster\u201d<\/em> as suggested Mike Chen from Swell<\/a>, the organiser of the conference, the objective was to integrate each customer\u2019s context into the overall experience.<\/p>\n

Digital at McDonald\u2019s is not just marketing, and Zaki\u2019s teams innovate on the customer journey in two main areas:<\/strong><\/p>\n