The thing that stands out here is the number of people who have to be on board before a product makes it to market, and how they focus group everything. Very Microsoft-like. Is there a fast-food equivalent to Apple?
This is going to sound ridiculously clichéd, but could probably make a case for Starbucks. A lot their success came from having and marketing a consistent, stylized aesthetic, they got a lot of flack for being expensive, they unified and created a "standard" of sorts in a market that was fragmented and not seen as interesting (i.e., coffee shops vs. MP3 players and online music stores), their aesthetic choices tend to get adopted by competitors...
The essential ingredient to Apple isn't the consistent, stylized aesthetic, or the expense, or any of that. The essential ingredient is a charismatic dictator who says "this is what we're doing" and makes the company focus on it. It's usually a very bad business model, because dictatorship almost never works, but it does depend on the dictator.
And there's also no good way of choosing a dictator--someone with Jobs' force of will either makes himself the dictator, or you have to use some sort of collaborative process. No one at Apple sat down and said "let's put Steve in charge again", Steve heard that they were shopping for an operating system, called them up, and spent the next year or two taking over the company.
And if someone makes himself your dictator, he's not always very good at it. Jobs himself almost ran two companies into the ground before his business sense was properly calibrated. You don't just have to have a dictator, you have to have a dictator who knows what to do.
Most of us agree that enlightened absolutism is the best form of government. However, so far nobody solved the problem of ensuring a steady supply of good kings.
By the way - its not just apple. Any company is essentially a dictatorship. But most of dictators are scared or clueless so they rely on layers of committees upon layers of committees to do their work.
What I took from the article is that getting a product to market at McDonalds is hard - because of logistics behind getting all the ingredients to the restaurants in time AND getting through all the layers of people who don't want to take (or cant) responsibility.
"By the way - its not just apple. Any company is essentially a dictatorship. But most of dictators are scared or clueless so they rely on layers of committees upon layers of committees to do their work."
That's something else--I don't know the best word for it, but something like aristocracy or something. In fact, a lot of "corporate politics" boil down to, essentially, squabbling lords and nobles playing for power.
In-N-Out Burger might be a good fast-food equivalent to Apple. I have no idea if they focus test any of their food but they've had the same menu for ages. They do a few things very well, and there's also a mystique about the company.
I doubt In-N-Out focus-tests, as they never really change anything, but there are a number of other parallels to Apple. They have a near-religious focus on the customer experience, to the point where they pass up significant growth opportunities (like franchising) rather than put that experience at risk. Not to mention that the frenzy around the opening of a new In-N-Out makes an Apple Store opening look positively sleepy.
Their focus on the customer experience may actually be religious. They discreetly print bible verses on food wrappers and cups. Maybe they couldn't trust normal people to uphold their Christian affiliation.
The bible verses were introduced in the mid-1980s when the then-president of the company went "born again" (as it was still a family-owned/family-run business at the time, this was easy to implement by fiat). I suspect their continuing presence has more to do with inertia than any evangelical bent at the corporate level; removing them would stir up negative PR with no real purpose.
The creepy thing about In-N-Out is that nearly every In-N-out store is exactly the same. Overall I've been in probably 20-30 that all use the same layout with very small differences (placement of the ketchup station, sometimes fake plants in dividers and a couple variations of placement of a few seats). As well as a few kitchen variations but I haven't noticed those anymore.
I would say Chipotle is a fair equivalent. Still fast food but a more refined aesthetic inside, hipster music, more expensive food, though quite tasty for fast food, and only a few options on what you can order.
Edit: They also have a "green" angle that they are selling.
In a way though it was a smart move for McDonald's because of the brand segmentation. It's like honda is more economy versus Acura is a more expensive brand though they are owned by the same company. Another example of this is toyota versus lexus.
I believe they (McDonalds) are also the owner of Donatos pizza. At one point in the past they tried to start up a chain of restaurants modeled after Boston Chicken but it didn't last long.
What about the alarmist content? Really, the fillet-o-fish is bad because it's made of ugly fish? Milkshakes used to be milk and icecream - and icecream has no ingredients, eh?Coffee syrup has coffee too low in the ingredients for your liking? You wouldn't expect to find water in chicken breast?
Aren't there enough genuine weird things to pick on in fast food?
I'd love to read some detailed reports on how operations research impacts food selection and the workflow of the cooks at mcdonalds. Does anyone know if anything about this has been released?
The Mac Wrap is the worst thing I have ever tasted at any McDonalds, by a huge margin. Just...weird.
That said, I am glad they are innovating -- other things introduced in the past decade or so are quite good (and the Big & Tasty is now just $1.79 where I live -- perhaps half the price of what it used to be.)
I'm a burger king fan and always will be. I went to Burger King in Barcelona on New Years Eve, and I scarified my facebook friends for a whopper, but not realizing that the promotion was only for the States. Great memories
It also reminds me of this article I saw the other day (horribly alarmist title aside): http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/45380/4-shocking-sec...