Beth Hart, Vice President for Supply Chain and Brand Trust at McDonald's UK & Ireland talks to Daisy about how it felt to shut down McDonald's - and the important work that went on behind the scenes so that food did not go to waste. This discussion has it all: how to be a responsible member of a supply chain, the difficulties involved in quantifying trust, and even a cameo by Brexit.
Beth shared some powerful reminders that are useful no matter which sector you work in:
- That doing the right thing makes business sense
- That your organization needs to evolve over time in order to not only meet stakeholder demand but pre-empt changes in society and consumer desires
- That the most important way of keeping your teams and your stakeholder groups in the loop is to communicate in a manner that is clear, consistent and frequent – even if there isn’t anything new to tell people.
- Being a responsible business also means showing up at the level of responsibility that your organization represents. McDonald’s have re-evaluated their importance to British and Irish farmers in the wake of Covid and decided to deepen their engagement with that industry so that their commitment is at the same level as their potential impact.
- Finally, Beth echoed what we have heard from every interviewee so far this season – that if they had their time again they would have done more to shield their team from the impact of such a long-lasting crisis. We all hope that covid will remain an outlier in our careers, nonetheless it is sensible to avoid crisis comms plans that rely heavily on a small group of people and don’t make allowances for rest and information sharing.
Find all of our episodes - and full transcripts for each one - at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1121639
