Last year, McDonald’s announced sudden removal of the then CEO Steve Easterbrook from his position due to violating the guidelines of the company. This news was directed by McDonald’s higher management in a press release, and in the same press release, they set forth Chris Kempczinski’s name as the new CEO of McDonald’s.
Christopher John Kempczinski or commonly Chris Kempczinski is an American national born in 1968. He was born and raised in America and kick-started his career with consumer goods giant Proctor and Gamble as a brand manager. Chris, later on, moved to attend Harvard Business School after serving four years in P&G. After completion of his higher studies, and obtaining an MBA degree, he became a management consultant in Boston Consulting Group focusing on Pharmaceuticals and consumer products.
In the year 2000 Chris joined PepsiCo as an employee in the corporate and development strategy group. Working with PepsiCo he was later promoted to vice president of marketing in the non- carbonated beverage sector. Chris left PepsiCo in 2008 and joined Kraft Food. Working with Kraft he was in charge of overseeing brands and Kraft food categories such as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Chris Kempczinski’s dedication and experience led him to become the vice president of growth initiative and also the president of the international business of Kraft.
Spending more than two decades in marketing and consultation, these 52 years old joined McDonald’s in 2015 as a global strategist and later promoted to president of McDonald’s America in 2016. During his tenure as president of the USA zone, Chris was responsible for business operations of nearly 14,000 McDonald’s Restaurants. Kempczinski’s initial days in McDonald’s were to strategize business units and franchisees by inculcating fresh ideas to boost the growth of the company.
Chris plans for McDonald’s future
The day after Chris Kempczinski became the CEO of McDonald’s he interacted with his team leaving a message to his employees that he and his leadership team is ready to expand the business more profoundly. He was quoted “we have to sharpen our strategic plans for 2020″ and also believed that the company is on the right track.
Chris has already made an official meeting with the senior leadership team and managing directors to influx more global strategies that will help to improve in the upcoming years. It is said that during his tenure as the president of McDonald’s USA, the company’s relationship with the US franchise weighted a lot of profitability that led to the creation of a more independent franchise group. He led the survey for McDonald’s as McDVoice Survey at www.mcdvoice.com website.
The company’s expectations lie completely with Chris and after the day Chris held his office it was seen that the stock market is valued less than 1% from normal. McDonald’s stock market value of up to $150 billion has seen a steep sharp rise with more than 9% since the start of last year.
In a news report published by a reputed organization writes that McDonald’s was quoted saying that “Kempczinski is a very detailed oriented executive” the news publication goes on writing that “Chris tends to be more analytical driven executive and might cope a better relationship with the corporate.
Unknown facts about Chris Kempczinski
Chris has prospered a lot of appreciation and success in his life, there are certainly some interesting facts that are yet undiscovered which can represent a picture to his success in his career.
- He made a video for his franchise after becoming CEO of McDonald’s. The video was made to aim at his franchisees who he had worked with when he was the president of McDonald’s USA. Chris wanted to tell them that he is still closely related to them even though he has become the CEO. This video added a bonus point because the investors were reassured about the future of the company as Chris talked about immediate strategic plans that will enhance the business accordingly.
- Kempczinski is now responsible for 210,000 employees globally, being promoted as CEO of McDonald’s he will now be responsible for monitoring all his employees. This will be the very first time he will have to look after so many employees and also to check that they do not face any kind of problem.
- Kempczinski dreams to make McDonald’s better under his regime. Investing a lot of time in strategizing as a CEO Chris wants to ensure that he improves the company’s performance by updating its growth in the current market scenario. Kempczinski has targeted a stable growth of 4% in the upcoming years and is something he believes can be achieved
- Many would be surprised to know that Chris Kempczinski does not own any shares in McDonald’s. According to sources, it is reported that Chris did not hold any shares of the company when he became the CEO. Generally in the common rule of business, it is more seen that a person who is promoted to CEO post holds a prominent percentage of share. Since Chris does not hold such he will be given time to make himself financial backed up.