McDonald's Board of Directors fires Steve Easterbrook from the position of CEO for violating the company policies. The board released a statement saying that "he demonstrated poor judgment involving a recent consensual relationship with an employee."
This is now a major part of the corporate culture and responsibility in which a CEO is being held liable for the violation of workplace relationships policy. Due to this more than a dozen CEO's of major corporations were removed from their positions.
Changed Corporate Environment
In earlier days, being a CEO was like being the king of the castle. They had the power to influence and change any approach of the company, therefore, they used to earn substantial fortunes in compensation, controlled their board of directors and some were also considered as youth icons. But, the time has changed now.
Well, McDonald's has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to its rules regarding workplace relationships especially between a manager and a subordinate. This was not a problem before as former CEO and founder of Microsoft Bill Gates married one of the product managers working in the company Melinda French in the year 1994. But the situation has changed a lot and the board of directors are taking it into consideration.
Firing Old CEO and Hiring New CEO
After board members fires Steve Easterbrook as he violated the company's policy, Chris Kempczinksi who was serving as a president of McDonald's USA was named as the new CEO of McDonald's.
Steve Easterbrook who was already divorced stated that "As for my departure, I engaged in a recent consensual relationship with an employee, which violates McDonald's policy." After accepting his mistake he further added that "it's time for me to move on and I hope people can respect my desire to maintain privacy."
As McDonald's is known for its family-oriented ad campaigns, it promotes an image of a place where the whole family can come and have quick and inexpensive meals. Therefore, a relationship between a CEO and an employee might harm the reputation and share prices of the company.
Success of Steve Easterbrook
Nevertheless, Steve Easterbrook was a super successful CEO for McDonald's so relationship can't be an excuse to fire him for his poor performance. He was working in the company from the year 1993 and held the position of CEO in the year 2015.
He was the reason why McDonald's expanded and remodelled their stores by including digital menu boards, AI and machine learning to give customer more personalize experiences. This resulted in an increase in sales and even the stock prices doubled under the leadership of Easterbrook.
This is a great example of not tolerating the violation of rules even for a CEO like Easterbrook who is viewed as a super successful CEO.
New CEO of McDonald's and things you should know about him
The news of removing Steve Easterbrook as the CEO McDonald's shocked the whole fast-food industry and the only thing which the industry wanted to know was who is going to be the next CEO of McDonald's
Well, with an immediate effect McDonald's announced that the president of McDonald's USA Chris Kempczinski will be the new CEO of the company. Not many people know about him so here we bring you 5 facts that will help you to know who Chris Kempczinski is.
When Chris Kempczinski was announced as the CEO he said-
It is a great opportunity to lead this incredible company. Working alongside our talented team, our Board, our franchisees and suppliers, I am committed to upholding our rich heritage of serving our customers and driving value for our shareholders. McDonald's is not just a company as we are not serving food, we are serving happiness. I am very honoured and I will continue to lead McDonald's toward success.
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