商业周刊:麦当劳CEO史蒂夫·伊斯特布鲁克使麦当劳陷入冰寒时节(1)

CEO Steve Easterbrook is leaving McDonald into the age of cold

麦当劳首席执行官史蒂夫·伊斯特布鲁克使麦当劳陷入冰寒时节

By Thomas Buckley and Leslie Patton

撰文：托马斯·巴克利和莱斯利·巴顿

Three years ago, Steve Easterbrook ran out of patience.

三年前，史蒂夫·伊斯特布鲁克失去了耐心。

Before flying home to Chicago for the Christmas holidays, he stopped in Madrid to meet with Spanish executives from McDonald's.

在飞往芝加哥度圣诞假期之前，他在马德里停留，会见了来自麦当劳的西班牙高管。

In a conference room at the company's local office off the A6 highway,

在公司位于A6高速公路附近的一个会议室里，

the mood soured as managers lamented¹ heavy losses on the evenings when FC Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F. competed.

经理们感叹巴塞罗那队和皇家马德里队在晚上的比赛中惨败，心情变得很不好。

Diners were staying home and ordering from archrival Burger King for delivery—a service McDonald's didn't offer.

食客们呆在家里，从主要的竞争对手汉堡王那里订购外卖，而麦当劳并不提供这项服务。

Conceding to Burger King in any circumstance is an indignity²,

在任何情况下，向汉堡王让步都是一种侮辱性的行为。

but losing hundreds of thousands of customers to the enemy's modernized³ tactics during one of Spain's most important weekly fixtures⁴ was the final straw.

但是，在西班牙每周最重要的体育活动进行时，因为对手采用的现代化战术，而失掉数十万顾客，实在是让人忍无可忍。

It represented everything that was defective⁵ at the business Easterbrook had been running for 22 months McDonald's Corp. was just too analog⁶.

这代表着伊斯特布鲁克22个月来经营的麦当劳所存在的缺陷，而这仅仅只是种类推。

A week before he was named chief executive officer,

在他被任命为首席执行官的一周前，

the company announced it had suffered one of its worst years in decades as dejected U.S. customers abandoned the brand for Chipotle burritos and Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

麦当劳宣布，由于沮丧的美国客户放弃了Chipotle墨西哥卷饼和Chick-fil-A三明治品牌，公司经历了数十年来最糟糕的一年。在英国，

In the U.K. hundreds of artisanal burger competitors had appeared seemingly overnight on the food-delivery mobile app Deliveroo,

数以百计的手工汉堡包竞争对手似乎一夜之间都出现在食品递送手机应用 DeleVoOO 上，

which indulged the couch potato demographic with an unprecedented⁷ ease of access that felled the appeal of McDonald's drive-thrus.

这给那些电视迷带来了前所未有的便捷性，使麦当劳的汽车餐厅的吸引力大为逊色。

The time had come to address a weakness that stretched far beyond the company's Iberian territories.

现在，到了该把这个远远超出该公司在伊比利亚地区的缺陷予以解决的时候了。

1 lamented   

adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• her late lamented husband 她那令人怀念的已故的丈夫
• We lamented over our bad luck. 我们为自己的不幸而悲伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 indignity   

n.侮辱，伤害尊严，轻蔑

参考例句：

• For more than a year we have suffered the indignity.在一年多的时间里,我们丢尽了丑。
• She was subjected to indignity and humiliation.她受到侮辱和羞辱。

3 modernized   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的过去式和过去分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• By 1985 the entire railway network will have been modernized. 等到1985年整个铁路网就实现现代化了。
• He set about rebuilding France, and made it into a brilliant-looking modernized imperialism. 他试图重建法国，使它成为一项表面华丽的现代化帝业。

4 fixtures   

（房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动

参考例句：

• The insurance policy covers the building and any fixtures contained therein. 保险单为这座大楼及其中所有的设施保了险。
• The fixtures had already been sold and the sum divided. 固定设备已经卖了，钱也分了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

5 defective   

adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的

参考例句：

• The firm had received bad publicity over a defective product. 该公司因为一件次品而受到媒体攻击。
• If the goods prove defective, the customer has the right to compensation. 如果货品证明有缺陷， 顾客有权索赔。

6 analog   

n.类似物，模拟

参考例句：

• The analog signal contains high-frequency video information,which helps make up the picture.模拟信号包括有助于构成图像的高频视频信息。
• The analog computer measures continuously,without proceeding step by step.模拟计算机不是一步一步地进行，而是连续地进行量度。

7 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。