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(6)（在线收听）

In the burger wars, it's been besieged by cooler competitors with cult followings, including Shake Shack, Five Guys, and In-N-Out.

在汉堡大战中，麦当劳被一些更酷的竞争对手围困，其中有狂热的追随者，包括奶昔小屋餐厅（Shake Shack）、五小子汉堡店（Five Guys）和进出汉堡（In-n-Out）。

Earnings began to stagnate at McDonald's in 2013 and crashed by almost a fifth, to $4.7 billion, the following year as diners deserted.

2013年，麦当劳的收入开始停滞。第二年，随着食客的减少，收入下降了近五分之一，高达47亿美元。

Four months before stepping down in March 2015, Don Thompson, Easterbrook's predecessor, lamented that the company had failed to evolve "at the same rate as our customers' eating-out expectations."

在2015年3月卸任前的四个月，伊斯特布鲁克的前任唐·汤普森感叹道，公司未能以“与顾客外出就餐预期的相同速度”发展。

As insurgents claimed an ever-growing share of the market McDonald's had created, the morale at the old headquarters in Oak Brook

反对者声称，麦当劳创造的市场份额不断增长，位于伊利诺州橡树溪的原有总部的士气开始低落。

—a tranquil if uninspiring 1970s amalgam of gray cubicles set in a parkland in Illinois—began to sap.

它坐落在公园里，是一个建于20世纪70年代的安静、缺乏活力的灰色小隔间。

The company's strategic quagmire took on a superstitious quality when the estate itself became a hive of bad omens, with parts of the office complex flooding on an annual basis.

公司的战略困境呈现出一种迷信的性质，因为房地产本身就成了一个不祥之兆的蜂巢，部分办公楼每年都会被洪水淹没。

Easterbrook became global chief brand officer in 2013.

2013年，伊斯特布鲁克成为全球首席品牌官。

The following year, he traveled to Cupertino, Calif., to sit down with Tim Cook, Apple Inc.'s CEO, to discuss being a launch partner for the Apple Pay mobile payment system.

第二年，他前往加州库比蒂诺，与苹果公司首席执行官蒂姆·库克坐下来讨论成为苹果付费移动支付系统的发布合作伙伴。

The card readers McDonald's used lacked the necessary technology, so Easterbrook had a digital add-on installed on every machine at its 14,000 locations in the U.S.

麦当劳使用的读卡器缺乏必要的技术，因此，伊斯特布鲁克在其美国14000家分店的每台机器上都安装了一个数字插件。

Easterbrook first joined McDonald's in the finance department in London in 1993, and spent the majority of his career there.

伊斯特布鲁克是在1993年时，第一次加入麦当劳在伦敦的财务部门，并在那里度过了职业生涯的大部分时间。

After graduating with a natural sciences degree from Durham University,

他从达勒姆大学获得自然科学学位，

where he played competitive cricket alongside the future England captain, he worked as an accountant for the partnership that would become PwC.

在校期间，与未来的英格兰板球队队长一起比赛。毕业后，他在即将成为普华永道会计师事务所的合伙企业担任会计。