The McDonald’s Brand Purpose

To get everyone on the same page, we first need to define the page on which we want everyone to be.

Even before he was named president and COO of McDonald’s in January 2003, Charlie Bell already had this one-page idea on his mind. He had generated a one-page plan while he was President of McDonald’s Europe during 2002. He called it EuroMission.

Charlie believed that a similar one-page global plan to guide the global McDonald’s revitalization should be immediately developed. Jack Greenberg endorsed Charlie’s idea of a global plan and, in my new role as global CMO, Charlie asked me to begin working on its development. This work began in September 2002 and was completed by the end of the year. Out of this challenge, the McDonald’s Plan to Win was born.