McDonald’s Decides Not to Innovate After All
By George Anderson
McDonald’s has ended its development of a system-wide network upgrade known internally as the Innovate project.
Work on Innovate began in 1999 and it was to link McDonald’s headquarters, stores and vendors. An initial rollout in Canada was to begin this year with US implementation in two years.
A Dow Jones Newswire report says McDonald’s management decided to end the project when it concluded that it could save the company millions by doing so.
An unidentified spokesman told Dow Jones, McDonald’s chief executive, Jim Cantalupo, and his management team “won’t shrink from making tough choices in the best interests of the business.”
Moderator’s Comment: Is McDonald’s making the right
decision in abandoning its networking project?
Without the particulars of what the program was intended
to do, with a cost/benefit analysis, it is not possible to judge the merits
of this action. We have to admit, being concerned when a long-range program
is abandoned for a short-term accounting benefit. That does appear to be the
case in this instance. [George
Anderson – Moderator]