In The Battle to Do Good, former McDonald's executive Bob Langert takes readers on a behind-the-scenes eye witness account of the mega brand's battle to address numerous societal hot-button issues, such as packaging, waste, recycling, obesity, deforestation, and animal welfare. From the late 80s, McDonald's landed smack in the middle of one contentious issue after another, often locking horns with powerful NGOs such as Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Corporate Accountability. This sudden shift from being the beloved Golden Arches since opening its doors in 1955, to the demon of many societal ills, caught McDonald's off guard. Langert chronicles the highs and lows that McDonald's experienced in turbulent times and how its sustainability journey evolved from playing defense to strategically solving issues with unlikely partners, including a whirling dervish, autistic animal scientist, and avid environmentalists from the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International. Packed with first-hand anecdotes, interviews with key McDonald's executives and NGO leaders, and scores of lessons learned, The Battle to Do Good is a sustainability page turner that provides unique insights and guidance on how to successfully navigate and manage today's societal issues to make the business stronger, more relevant, and more profitable.
Author(s): Bob Langert
Edition: 1
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Year: 2019
Language: English
City: Bingley, UK
Cover
THE BATTLE TO DO GOOD
THE BATTLE TO DO GOOD: Inside McDonald’s Sustainability Journey
Copyright
Contents
List of Figures
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction: From Defense to Offense
Taking on the Fuzziness of Sustainability
The Origins of Societal Clashes
Leading Change
Hard Knock Nuggets
1. The Battle Against Waste: McDonald’s First Societal Clash
Trash and a Clamshell
Saving the Polystyrene Foam Clamshell
The Wolf in the Hen House
The Tree Huggers Arrive
What Is the Right Thing to Do?
No Beige Solutions
Postscript: Shedding 300 Million Pounds
How to Establish Partnerships
How to Choose a Partner
2. The Battle for Farm Animals: How Animal Welfare Is Transformed
The Dying Pig in the Aisle
The World’s Biggest PR Disaster Spurs Change
A Rumpled Activist, a Big-Time Lawyer, and an Autistic Animal Scientist Change Animal Agriculture History
Temple Grandin Woos McDonald’s Suppliers
The Three Ps: Passion, Patience, and Persistence
3. The Battle of Extremism: McCruelty: Meat Is Murder
How to Develop a Counterstrategy?
Develop a Set of Principles
Establish a Blue-Ribbon Panel
Public Relations Piñata
Does PETA Deserve Some Credit?
Ideas to Neutralize the Extremist
4. The Battle to Be Proactive: Happy Meal Toys and the Ups and
Downs of Anticipatory Issues
Management
The AIM Evangelist Meets the Global Safety Officer
The Limits of AIM
Getting Ahead of Issues
5. The Battle of the Waistline and Brand Health: The Obesity Dilemma and a
Healthier Happy Meal
There’s a Hole in the Roof
An Avalanche Hits the Happy Meal
The Unhappy Meal: From the Edge of a Cliff to Society Friendly
The Death and Resurrection of Brand Trust
Brand and Business Inextricably Linked
6. The Battle for a Sustainable Supply Chain: From Silence to Sustainable Fish,
Less Polluting Hogs, and Better
Lives for Tomato Pickers
Getting Beyond Ragtag Corporate Responsibility
The Next Step: The Natural Step
Karl-Henrik Robért and the Four System Conditions
The Fourth Element of Supply Chain Introduced to Chilling Silence
Can We Make the Filet-O-Fish Sustainable?
Converting a Hog Supplier From Bad to Good
The Houdini of Sustainability
Hearing From the Voice of God
The Power of the Slippery Slope
The Tough CIW Leader
Another Truth Tour
Mixed Progress With the Fourth Element of Sustainability
Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain
7. The Battle for Values: Can You Etch Them in Stone?
Squabbling Over the Importance of Values
Revealing McDonald’s Values
Integrating Our Values
Keeping Values Alive
8. The Battle Goes to the Board Room: A Shareholder Proposal Makes a
Difference
Shareholders Focus on Pesticides
Shareholders Make Demands
Seeking Compromise Is Good
Lessons for Engaging With Investors—and for Investors to Engage With Companies
9. The Battle for the Amazon Rainforest: How Greenpeace Chickens
Changed McDonald’s
Eating Up the Amazon
Don’t Get Mad
Not Doing It the Greenpeace Way
Shaking Hands With Greenpeace
A Wake-up Call for McDonald’s and Our Suppliers
Sustainability Gets a Permanent Seat at the Table
How to Mainstream Sustainability
10. The Battle to Make a Pig’s Life Better: How Much Room Does a Sow Need?
A Blue-Chip Meeting About a Blue-Chip Issue
The Search for Alternatives Begins
The Decades-Long Conundrum Faces a Deadline
The Plan for Ending Gestation Stall Use
The Secret Sauce of Sustainable Influencing
11. The Battle for Better Beef: The Quest for Sustainable Beef
The Ecologist, the Corporatist, and the Beef Lobbyist
Changing the Sentiment of Us Versus Them
A Sustainable Beef Powwow
Putting Meat Behind the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
Convincing the C-Suite
Kick-Starting a Movement
What It Takes to Lead Sustainability
12. The Battle to Lead Both Business and Society: The Profits of Sustainability
Battling Risk Averseness
Developing Shared Value Goals
The Sourcing Pillar
The Planet Pillar
Climate Change
Recycling: Harder Than It Looks
The Food Pillar
The People Pillar
The Community Pillar
Sustainability Introduced at Worldwide Convention
The Future of Good Business Means Embedding Sustainability
A Sustainability Framework Template
Endnotes
Index
