McDonald’s finds success with going back to basics

The Economist reports:

The seeds of the revival of McDonald’s started with a simple decision that is surprisingly easy to get wrong: go back to basics. From 2015 onwards, it pared back its array of menu offerings and focused on price and quality. It recommitted to Ray Kroc’s beloved business model, increasing the share of franchises last year to 93% (of almost 39,000 restaurants), up from 82% in 2015. That provided it with higher-margin and steadier royalty and rental income. It streamlined its sprawling international operations, selling control of its restaurants in China and Hong Kong. The results were impressive. Across McDonald’s sales exceeded $100bn last year; its operating margins, thinner than a frazzled patty in most of the restaurant industry, ballooned to 43%. And its share price sizzled. Since 2015 its market value has almost doubled to $160bn.

Full Story at Economist.com

US Big Business Lobby Group Updates Mission of the Public Corporation

Fortune Text accompanying this: The Business Roundtable Issues Updated Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.

The Economist takes a more critical stance.

Curious First in the World: KLM airline wants its customers to fly less.

KLM wants its customers to fly less. What does this mean for what are KLM’s fundamental goals?

WEBA (Weaving Company Appenzell), Switzerland

This is an information video how WEBA (Weaving Company Appenzell), Switzerland, is able to produce high cloth for shirt fashion designers.

Former Southwest Airlines CEO’s Personal Fundamental Objective

“Anybody who seeks wealth as an end in itself is always going to be disappointed,” he said in 1995. “What you really should be doing is seeking excellence in achievement.”

Source: Washington Post Obituary

History of St. Gallen’s Contribution to the Textile Industry

Historical Slide Show

Eastern Switzerland Region from which to draw firms for histories.

Relationship of Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile Methodologies

Source:Medium

“All the news that fit on smartphone”: NYT continues to face transformation challenge

The NYT Times has worked hard to cut costs and get people to pay for digital content. It has been more successful in this quest that many other newspapers around the world.  But as more and more people read their news on smartphones, it faces challenges from digital-only news sources. Politico has published an insightful piece on the big transformation that still lies ahead for the NYT if it wants defend its position as leading news organization.

Politico.com: New York Times braces for big change

African CEO of Credit Suisse faces revolt

As far as I can tell, Thian is trying to move Credit Suisse in the right direction to make the firm more sustainable. But a large fraction of employees is in open revolt again him. Will be successful. The NYT reports: “When Tidjane Thiam took over at Credit Suisse last July, he laid out a new direction for a financial giant with a storied investment banking history: Do less investment banking. [...] One year in, Credit Suisse stock is down 50 percent. And the investment bank, the second largest in Switzerland after UBS, is in open revolt.” Read full story.

The 10 Most Valuable Brands in Australia

Australia’s most valuable brands. I would have not guessed them correctly.

Beyond Profits: Tesla’s fundamental objective to hasten the transition to electric vehicles

Elon Musk gave an interview that makes it clear that the fundamental objective for Tesla is not profits.

Question: The German automakers just presented their responses to Tesla in Frankfurt at the international automobile show. What do you think of the Audi e-tron quattro and the Porsche Mission E?

Any action in the direction of electric mobility is good. Our goal at Tesla is for cars to transition to e-vehicles. That’s why we opened up all our patents for use by anybody.

And who has used them?

Maybe the companies you already mentioned. When I saw a diagram of Porsche’s Mission E, I thought: It looks exactly like our car. Which is fine. It’s more important to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport.

Source: Handelsblatt.com

How much uncertainty is there in different industries

Jeff Dyer, Nathan Furr, and Curtis Lefrandt have put together a useful graphic on the relative uncertainty in different industries.

Full Story on HBR.org

Game Theory:  Why it became so popular and why it often is hard

John Cassidy explains in the New Yorker:

Thanks to the sterling efforts of Sylvia Nasar, Ron Howard, and Russell Crowe, many people are aware that John Nash, the Princeton mathematician who was killed over the weekend in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike, lived a remarkable life. It included early academic stardom, decades of struggling with schizophrenia, and, in 1994, a shared Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. But outside the field of economics, Nash’s contribution to game theory, for which he was awarded the Nobel, remains rather less well understood.

Although it is often used in economics, game theory can be applied to any venue where people, or other decision makers, interact strategically and follow rules-based behavior. The setting could be nuclear negotiations, such as the ones currently taking place between Iran and the great powers. It could be a product market, in which a number of firms compete for business. Or it could be a political campaign, in which various candidates try to outdo each other. The word “strategically” is important, because the various players, in choosing from a variety of possible moves, take account of one another’s actions, or likely actions. And the phrase “rules-based” means that the players are acting purposefully and seeking to maximize their own advantages, rather than behaving passively, or randomly.

Full Story

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Kickstarter reincorporates itself as “public benefit company”

The founders of Kickstarter wanted to ensure that their company does not stray from their fundamental objective of ““help bring creative projects to life.” Now they have reincorporated themselves as “public benefit company”.  The NY Times reports:

As co-founders of Kickstarter, the popular online crowdfunding website that lets people raise money to help fund all manner of projects, including cooking gadgets and movies, Mr. Strickler and Mr. Chen could have tried to take their company public or sell it, earning millions of dollars for themselves and other shareholders.

Instead, they announced on Sunday that Kickstarter was reincorporating as a “public benefit corporation,” a legal change they said would ensure that money — or the promise of it — would not corrupt their company’s mission of enabling creative projects to be funded.

“We don’t ever want to sell or go public,” said Mr. Strickler, Kickstarter’s chief executive. “That would push the company to make choices that we don’t think are in the best interest of the company.

Read Full Story