Hamburger Business Review Podcast

To Whom It May Concern: Season 2 of Hamburger Business Review kicked off with an episode about Mike finding employment at a quick service restaurant similar to the one’s we discuss on our show. We’ve talked about the work. We’ve interviewed his partner about the work’s effect on their relationship. We’ve learned about his crew, the difficulties of opening the folded child size fry boxes during rus...

Welcome Hamburger Scholars! We’re thrilled to be in the company of Dr. Marcia Chatelain for this episode. Dr. Chatelain is the author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America , an engrossing history of fast food franchising’s path through the civil rights movement and Richard Nixon’s big idea for what should come next. (Hint: it was not favorable credit terms for independent Black-owned bu...

Today’s episode is a talk with Cabel Sasser , the co-founder of the software company and video game publisher Panic , and full disclosure, also Mike’s former boss. But we’re not here to talk about software or video games. We’re here because Cabel discovered Wes Cook , a McDonald’s artist (and so much more). The Blind Push of Vision 2020 McDonald’s transformed out of the Mascot Era of using Ronald...

We’re excited to have Marcus Estes back on the podcast to talk about finance because of his ability to make this stuff compelling! This week we’re skipping the case study in order to talk about the 10-K. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe

Welcome Hamburger Enthusiasts! Our guest today is writer, reporter, and author Brian Merchant . He writes the Blood In the Machine newsletter about AI, Silicon Valley, labor and power. He joined us for a discussion based on the very recent case study McDonald’s: Moving Toward a Fully Automated Future? and to teach us some lessons from the luddites. The case study, and much of our conversation, is...

Hello HBR Friends, Today at Hamburger Business Review we are focused on Zach’s annual great challenge to eat at every McDonald’s on the island of Manhattan in less than 24 hours while traveling only on foot. Also, he has to make a purchase at every store. This year there was a single overriding focus to the challenge: By eliminating the four hour break in the middle and doing McTrot without stoppi...

Our guest is Kathryn Borel, a television writer and the romantic partner of co-Host Mike Merrill. Chris and Zach go deep with Kathryn about what led Mike to start working at a hamburger restaurant and the impact of that on their relationship. McTrot Is Just About To Happen! Mike comes back to join Chris in the final interrogation of Zach who is in the final hours of preparation before his annual t...

Today at Hamburger Business Review we keep talking about politics and burgers, the McTrot, more from inside the hamburger restaurant, and a new case study about what McDonald’s had to do in order to make it work in India. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe

Hello Hamburger Friends, Today we’re talking about the tactical use of prices and deals and looking at how much value you can squeeze out of a value meal (or how much value they can squeeze out of you). Our case study is about a flawed 55 cent promotion that over promised and underdelivered, upsetting both customers and franchise operators. The Price of the Hamburger is Too Damn High The cost of g...

Welcome Hamburger Enthusiasts! Chick-fil-A has launched “Chick-fil-A Play” and it's... popular? The cow mascots are here, and the app lets you “watch, play, create, listen, and read” and will occupy your kids so you can enjoy your Honey Pepper Pimento Sandwich . This is a free app. The only monetization strategy is hoping you to buy a chicken sandwich. The End of the McBroken Era? Thanks to the wo...

Season 2! Here we go... We tricked producer Chris Higgins into helping us! We have some News, we have Mike's stories of Working at a Hamburger Restaurant, and of course we have our Case Study Review. 🧅As we readied this episode the news broke of E. coli cases related to the Quarter Pounder! We dive in and will continue to explore what this means. 🍔 Probably the biggest change to this season of H...

Politics and McDonald’s There is a delightful amount of “Elect Mayor McCheese” fan created imagery, which is a wonderful escape from the brutal reality of the US Presidential Election. But never before has McDonald’s played such a role in politics, and so today we explore some context about what the heck is happening. Why Are We Covering Politics?! Donald Trump is purportedly scheduled to work the...

Does McDonalds even celebrate the holidays? They did come out with a “holiday pie” but it doesn’t seem very festive. Back in 2000 they seemed to love Santa… Retail sales are expected to be up this holiday season, with bars and restaurants leading the way , so you’d think McDonalds would be leaning into the holiday cheer. But maybe when you are so dominant in the IEO space you don't need to flaunt...

Grinding It Out is the title of Ray Kroc’s 1977 autobiography and also an aspect of the personality that is needed to run the vast and massively powerful McDonald’s Corporation. Throughout the ten episodes of Hamburger Business Review we’ve taken to referring to the CEO as sitting on the Golden Throne. "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." -Cersei Lann...

We’re discussing a strangely topical case study from 2013 called McDonald's Twitter Campaign: Hype Versus Reality , which is about how mean social media is. It starts with a promoted "#MeetTheFarmers" hashtag designed to introduce the wholesome sourcing of McDonald’s. Something like this: To boost “engagement” they switched from from #MeetTheFarmers to #McDStories halfway through the first day of...

I’ve been waiting for this case study all season, and it’s such a weird business attempt that there are two case studies about the Golden Arch Hotel, an attempted McDonald’s hotel franchise. In 2001 the CEO of McDonald’s in Switzerland got the green light to apply the franchise DNA of McDonald’s to a hotel. As a frequent business traveller Urs Hammer thought of everything, and used his deep unders...

What does artificial intelligence have to do with burgers? As we’re learning at Hamburger Business Review, there is nothing that McDonald’s doesn’t touch, including AI. Following their ambitious Velocity Growth Plan McDonald’s acquired Dynamic Yield in 2019 as part of a strategy to use big data for more personalization. The digitization of McDonald’s has been in the works for years, and is incorpo...

Beware the beautiful eyes of Bill Ackman, the CEO and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management. When he gets a crush on a business it usually means he has some bold new plan to make drastic changes in order to achieve drastic profits. In 2015 the gaze of Ackman was on Wendy’s, which he pressured into selling off the profitable Tim Horton’s chain. Ackman sold his shares at a substantial profit...

The Arch Deluxe was a massive undertaking for McDonald’s. This 1996 case study gives us a history of the company, a look at some attempts at premium burgers, and then drops us into the launch of the Arch Deluxe, what was supposed to be the launch of a new burger platform within McDonald’s targeting a more sophisticated customer. It may no longer be on the menu, but it was an important moment in th...

Today we’re looking at the career of Jan Fields. She almost quit after her first day, but sticking it out paid off in a series of promotions that eventually led her to the executive level. This case study is a battle between the idea of the “McJob” and the culture of McDonald’s that loves the executive storyline as a recruiting tool. We also look at the current CEO of McDonald’s is a factory clone...

If the Egg McMuffin isn’t enough, then how can McDonald’s win breakfast? In this 2004 case study we look at the launch of the McCafé in Canada as a way to compete against the Canadian’s national loyalty to their maple leafed coffee purveyor Tim Horton’s. In the end we are stymied by what we consider a bit of an underwhelming case study. Does anyone associate strongly with McCafé? Like they do with...

In August of 1998 the Russian financial crisis threatened to destroy George Cohon's 14 year quest to bring McDonald's to Russia. The country was in a state of emergency with massive inflation and widespread economic disarray. Join us as we talk about the dramatic story and come up with our own unique solution to the problem presented in this case study. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review...

This is the pilot episode of Hamburger Business Review that proved the concept of how interesting it can be to talk about Harvard Business Review’s case studies about McDonald’s. We made the following announcement on March 15th. Pilot Order: Hamburger Business Review Experimental Garden Group co-host Mike Merrill and burger innovator Zach Rose are set to co-host and produce a Hamburger Business Re...