McDonald's UK & Ireland CEO | Interns, New Menu & British Food

Summary

Podcast Summary: Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future

Episode: McDonald’s UK & Ireland CEO | Interns, New Menu & British Food
Host: Jimmy McLoughlin (Boxlight Creative Studio)
Guest: Lauren Schultz (CEO, McDonald’s UK & Ireland)
Date: April 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

Jimmy welcomes Lauren Schultz, the new CEO of McDonald’s UK & Ireland, to discuss her transition from the US, her views on British food, innovations at McDonald's, the ever-evolving menu, and, crucially, the launch of the company’s major new paid work experience program designed to boost youth confidence and career prospects.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Lauren’s Move to the UK and the CEO Role

• Transition Experience:

  • Lauren has been in the UK for ~8 months, after a 17-year McDonald’s career in the US ([04:04], [04:50]).
  • Immediate focus was on learning, listening, visiting ~50 restaurants, meeting franchisees and suppliers ([05:38]):

    "First 30 days is all about listening, learning, understanding the context... So you can start to build prioritized plans." — Lauren ([05:38])

• First 100 Days Strategy:

  • Inspired by the book The First 90 Days, Lauren underlines the importance of building trust and understanding operations on the ground.
  • “You can start to build prioritized plans about where you need to take that market.” — Lauren ([05:38])

Modernizing a Classic Brand

• Balancing Tradition & Innovation:
  • Celebrates McDonald’s’ 50-year presence in the UK.
  • Blends nostalgia (“nuggets and Big Macs”) with tech and menu innovation—e.g., digital menu boards, self-serve kiosks, app integration like “ready on arrival” ([07:20]).
  • Menu changes frequently to keep up excitement; “Menu Heist” brought in international items ([08:26]).

Menu Evolution & Customer Trends

• Dynamic Menu Development:

  • New items appear almost monthly—"We do aim to bring new items onto the menu just about every month" ([08:51]).
  • Core favorites remain unchanged, but temporary offerings keep customer engagement high (e.g., Mini McFlurries).

• Selection Process for Menu Additions:

  • Rigorous assessment: trend analysis, operational feasibility in very busy kitchens, and customer testing ([10:23]–[12:11]).
  • UK & Ireland has “the busiest restaurants in the entire system” ([11:56]).

Launch of the Work Experience Program

• Major Initiative:

  • Launching “the nation's largest work experience program” with 2,500 paid placements ([13:16]).
  • Response to the issue of nearly 1 million NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) young people in the UK.
  • Program gives a 5-day paid taste of restaurant roles—everything from customer service and kitchen work to inventory management and even tech experience ([16:21]):

    “By offering 2,500 work placements... we are hoping that we can get more people into work, experiencing what it feels like to be in the workforce...” — Lauren ([13:16])

• Application Process:

  • Candidates register interest online, local franchisees allocate slots ([15:39]).

• Broader Social Impact:

  • One in three managers at McDonald’s UK & Ireland are under 25 ([36:00]).
  • Addressing youth confidence barriers, indexed in the newly-launched Youth Confidence Index ([13:16], [33:36]):

    “There is this level of anxiety, social anxiety, shyness, lack of confidence that exists in that younger demographic... But going back to the community, teamwork, the family they kind of felt in the restaurant, people helped them.” — Lauren ([33:36])

Careers, Skills, and Hiring Philosophy

• Essential Attributes for Team Members:

  • Lauren’s 3 Cs: Content (results-driven), Character (values), Collaboration (team player) ([26:30]).
  • Also values creativity, strategic mindset, and data fluency—especially as AI’s role expands in the workplace ([28:04]).

    "...creativity in how you solve problems is so important. Having a strategic mindset, also very important. And data fluency..." — Lauren ([28:04])

• Innovation Example:

  • Cites “Menu Heist” as an example of human creativity that AI couldn’t replicate without deep contextual knowledge ([28:15]).

    “Really great creativity within brand communication... has to be done by humans.” ([29:18])

• Lauren’s Own Career Story:

  • Began as a deli worker, then studied art history, worked in hospitality, attended business school, and entered McDonald’s via a creative business school project for the Happy Meal turnaround ([18:02], [29:45]).

Scale and Operations

• Restaurant Workforce:

  • Each UK/Ireland restaurant employs roughly 80–130 people ([19:11]).
  • Growth in tech and ordering options increases, not decreases, roles ([20:10]):

    “For our crew it’s about empowering them... Technology enables them to be better at customer service.” — Lauren ([20:17])

• Community Connection:

  • Despite global branding, 80% of UK & Ireland McDonald’s restaurants are small-business franchises; the majority run by locals and source through the UK/Ireland supply chain ([22:05]).

Magic Moments, Family Focus, and Local Flexibility

• Customer Experience:
  • Franchisees encouraged to create “magic moments”—coloring tables, community face painting, character appearances, etc. ([24:57]).

    “...Customer experience leads... are in the lobby making sure if you order at the kiosk, you can take a number and put it at your table.” ([25:53])

Parenting, Work Ethic & Raising the Next Generation

• Work Ethic in Family Life:

  • Lauren, mother of five, values effort, teamwork, and responsibility at home as in business ([38:48], [41:12]):

    “I think if they see how hard I work and how hard my husband works, they realize they have to be part of the team that exists in our household.” ([41:12])

• Praise for Effort, Not Just Results:

  • Emphasizes importance of praising kids for hard work and persistence, not just outcomes ([40:13]).

British Food & Cultural Adaptation (Quickfire)

• Trying UK Classics:
  • Fish & chips enthusiast, prefers “chip shop” style over fries ([42:38]).
  • Sausage rolls have caught on with her kids in British school ([43:09]).
  • Not keen on rice pudding or beans; still adapting!
  • Favors global cuisine, particularly “innovative Indian” in London; loves pubs and Sunday roasts ([44:08], [44:50]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There are now more political leaders who’ve worked at McDonald’s than have attended Oxbridge.” — Jimmy ([01:32])
• “We have the busiest restaurants in the UK and Ireland in the entire system.” — Lauren ([11:56])
• “We are officially launching the nation’s largest work experience program... offering 2,500 work placements.” — Lauren ([13:16])
• “Hospitality is about solving problems and customer service—two skills that really carry on through.” — Jimmy ([35:33])
• “You don’t know what you can’t do until you do it.” — Lauren ([35:20])
• “One in three of our managers are young people.” — Lauren ([36:00])
• “Do not praise them for good work, praise them for hard work.” — Jimmy ([40:13])
• “The English pub... on a cold day, it’s pretty magic.” — Lauren ([44:50])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Lauren’s UK Arrival & CEO Strategy: [04:04]–[07:10]
• Menu Innovation & Operations: [07:20]–[12:35]
• Work Experience Program & Youth Engagement: [13:16]–[17:28], [33:03]–[37:28]
• Hiring Philosophy & Skills for the Future: [26:30]–[29:41]
• Lauren’s Career Story: [29:45]–[32:16]
• Scale, Tech, and Magic Moments: [19:11]–[25:53]
• Parenting, Work Ethic & Chores: [38:48]–[41:20]
• British Food (Quickfire): [41:28]–[45:17]

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Conclusion

This episode gives listeners a closer look at how McDonald’s is evolving in the UK—pushing innovation both on the menu and in social impact. Lauren Schultz brings an American outsider’s eye to British business, food, and youth opportunity, emphasizing both the speed of change in the sector and the foundational skills that stay constant: teamwork, effort, and creativity.

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For listeners:
This summary encapsulates the core of Lauren’s approaches—whether you’re curious about leadership, youth jobs, McDonald’s culture, or the subtle art of the perfect chip.

Transcript

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[Jimmy]

Jobs welcome to Jimmy's Jobs of the Future. Today we're joined by Lauren Schultz, the UK and Ireland CEO of McDonald's. Now. She's been in post for nine months, having moved across from America, having done lots of different roles there. So we spoke to her about how she's found the transition into the uk, what she makes of British food, et cetera. But more importantly, we have also discussed with her what McDonald's are planning to do for young people in the United Kingdom, launching their new Work Experience placement. As many of you will know who've listened to the show for a long time, McDonald's have been a big backer of ours, supporting episodes with Pat McFadden and also we did a big video documentary with them last year as well. So we are huge fans of what they do because they employ almost 100,000 people under the age of 25 in the UK. And my favorite fact at the moment is that sometimes British politics is talked about for being dominated by Oxbridge elites. Well, since Zach Polanski's victory as leader of the Green Party last year, there are now more political leaders who've worked at McDonald's than have attended Oxbridge, with Kemi Badenoch also having famously worked there as well. So it shows what a launch pad it can be for a political career as well. So thanks very much to McDonald's for all their support and we hope you enjoy this episode. Lauren welcome to Jimmy's Jobs of the Future.

[Lauren Schultz]

Hi Jimmy, it's Good to be here.

[Jimmy]

Delighted to be here in your HQ, which also includes a McDonald's restaurant as well.

[Lauren Schultz]

It does.

[Jimmy]

How cool is that?

[Lauren Schultz]

It's very cool, especially for our employees that get to get free meals here every day.

[Jimmy]

When I was researching for this podcast, I did actually sit in a McDonald's and go to one quite regularly. And it is fascinating, like how busy they are at like all times of the day. But what are the sort of, what are the peaks as you see it?

[Lauren Schultz]

Well, we have a breakfast peak generally between 7 and 9am, big lunch peak between 11 and 1:32pm yeah, littler snack peak. We're trying to build that peak and then dinner peak and another area we're trying to build is late night.

[Jimmy]

Okay, so what's the snack peak then? That's quite interesting.

[Lauren Schultz]

Things that are on our savor menu are very popular at that time. Things like our small burgers and small chicken sandwiches and add on nugget mini McFlurries are actually up a lot right now. So that's been a popular item for snack period. And we're trying to keep building our beverage business as well.

[Jimmy]

And what's your, what is your go to breakfast meal?

[Lauren Schultz]

I am a classic Egg McMuffin fan and they are particularly good in the UK and Ireland because they're 100% sourced from the cheese to the muffin to the egg to the butter on them from UK and Irish farmers.

[Jimmy]

So you've been here how many months now has the uk?

[Lauren Schultz]

I am on my eighth month. Almost to the day.

[Jimmy]

Almost to the day. So what, what is the first eight months like as the McDonald's, UK and Ireland CEO?

[Lauren Schultz]

It has been fun and fast and very impactful. I've really enjoyed getting to know my team, the franchisees, the suppliers, and get our business humming in the right direction.

[Jimmy]

So what does like the first hundred days? You can tell I'm coming at it from a politician's background here. Right. The focus on the 100 days, like what do you, what do you do in those first hundred days as the kind of CEO coming to a new country, etc, we should say you've been at McDonald's for a long time before as well, right?

[Lauren Schultz]

My 15 year pin, actually. It's actually 17 years now, but every five years you get a new pin.

[Jimmy]

Oh gee.

[Lauren Schultz]

This year there's like a little bit more of a bedazzle to it.

[Jimmy]

Very good. Okay. And what's, what was your role before becoming the UK CEO?

[Lauren Schultz]

I was a field vice president in Columbus, Ohio, which is a region that spans about seven states in the coal belt of the country.

[Jimmy]

Okay.

[Lauren Schultz]

Not quite Midwest. We're in between the Chicago area and the Northeast.

[Jimmy]

Interesting.

[Lauren Schultz]

And so you were saying first 90 days.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly right. So what, and so what did you do when you came here? Do you go and visit lots of different places, et cetera? How do you kind of get a

[Lauren Schultz]

feel for it, first of all? Cause I know you are trying to build the careers and ambitions of people that are in the workforce. I would recommend the book first 90 days every time I've taken on a new role. Recently I've read that book again. It's got all kinds of dog ears and underlines attached to it. So I've built 90 day plans, a hundred day plans, based on some of the guidance in that book. And I think that first 30 days is all about listening, learning, understanding the context. What is exactly that starting point? So you can start to build prioritized plans about where you need to take that market. I would say the next 30 and then 60 days is a lot about going out and taking that plan that you're building and starting to get the trust and credibility and ambassadorship within the community. So I did visit, in total, I think about 50 restaurants in my first six months on the job. In that first 90 days, probably 30 restaurants spoke with all of our leadership franchisees. And I think I was out with about 30 franchisees in the field starting to meet our suppliers and being in meeting rooms and roundtables with them and of course getting to know the staff and the teams and what people do and making sure they knew where the vision was, what the plan was. And we were getting work systemized so people were getting the most out of their jobs.

[Jimmy]

And. And McDonald's has been in the UK now for 50 years. Right. So how do you kind of like refresh something like that? How do you come in and, you know, what's the, what's the sort of brief of your job?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah, we are, we are a timeless brand. And I think that presents so many great opportunities to hearken on the nostalgia, those early memories with our business and our brand. But it is a balance of kind of the past looking and the forward looking of our brand. And you can see even in this restaurant today how modern we are with digital menu boards and kiosks and things being on the app, whether it's loyalty or we now have ready on arrival so you can plug your order in before you get to the restaurant. So you can, as you see, mobile order collection, pick it up and go right on the spot. And I think you see it too in our marketing. We blend the heritage of our business, those core items that people have loved for years and years and years, nuggets and Big Macs, with fresh new items. We put Menu Heist on the calendar last year in November and brought in heisted menu items from international markets, which prompted, I think, a very modern and fresh and fun way of thinking about our brand, especially in the international context that we operate.

[Jimmy]

And the menu does feel like it changes more than ever in some ways now. And you were talking about the mini McFlurries earlier, and if I have a bone to pick with you, it is now that the Cadbury creme egg mini McFlurry, which was a guilty pleasure of mine for the last month, is now off the menu. I know it's my favourite one, but like, is that there's obviously a conscious thing, but what's. What are your kind of reflections on how the menu is changing?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah, I think our core items, we will always have fan favorites that will be tried and true and stay on forever. Nuggets, our Big Mac, our Quarter Pounders, clearly our hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chickens, never gonna go away. But we do know that our fans love food noose and food excitement and they're looking for something new and different when they're going out to a restaurant. And so we do aim to bring new items onto the menu just about every month. And so we do it typically under kind of a campaign theme. So Menu Heist was one. Our festive menu around Grinch included things like pickle flavored fries. Very grinchy of us. And then, you know, promotions. Now the Cards promotion, we're leaning on kind of expanding your vision of what our core menu is. So we're doing a double Big Mac and we're doing spicy nuggets as well. Flavor, adventure, those are some of the things our customers are looking for. So we're always looking for ways to spice it up. But generally speaking, those things don't last until they, they come back around the next time.

[Jimmy]

But I remember, I remember the McFlurry launching as a kid. Right. And I remember it being as almost like a real cultural moment. Yeah. In terms of McDonald's kind of moving into ice cream. So you had the sundaes before, but the McFlurry sort of thing. How does something. If is there a benchmark that something would have to hit, like the kind of spicy McNuggets to be made permanent?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah, it's. So I have to Tell you, I worked menu for McDonald's in the US business for a very long time. So these are all topics that I am very passionate about and probably too well studied on. So if I'm using weird technical terms, I'm sorry, I will ask for clarification if I do. When we think about what goes on to the menu, we have to think about what is our current menu, Those core items that customers know us for and love us for. How much reach do those currently have? And where might we have an opportunity based on customers changing needs to plug a gap in our menu or get to a new occasion? We talked about that snacking day part. While we are seeing more customers come to us for snacking, we can probably do better at snacking by delivering a beverage lineup that is more competitive with where some of the other restaurant players are going to. So we look for gaps. And then what we would have to do is figure out, okay, what do customers want in this current environment? Where might there be a trend? Not just a trend, a lasting trend. Because if we're going to put something on as a new core item, McFlurry's as an example, that's a lasting trend. People loved our ice cream. They love the combination of an add in like M&M's or Oreos or Cadbury mini eggs, which was delicious. They love that. And the next part of all of that though is can we actually do it in our kitchens?

[Jimmy]

Yes.

[Lauren Schultz]

You mentioned how busy our restaurants are. We actually have the busiest restaurants in the UK and Ireland in the entire system. We have the most amount of traffic coming through our restaurants on an average basis than any other market out there.

[Jimmy]

Oh, really?

[Lauren Schultz]

And so to make sure that we don't just fill a customer's needs, but also can operationalize it is really important. So customer testing might tell us this is where we need to be, but then restaurant testing will say this is what we can and can't actually deliver while still giving those many, many customers that we serve as best of a customer experience we can get.

[Jimmy]

And one of the big things that you have launched in your first few months is this Youth Confidence Index. Right. Talk to us about that. Because one of my things I sort of worked out is you've been here 50 years. That's almost a million people that have been employed in McDonald's now. It's pretty incredible. There are now more political leaders of major parties in the UK that have worked at McDonald's and have been to Oxbridge. Right. Which is also the kind of fascinating fact Zach Plansky and Kemi Vaden. For anyone that's kind of like, listening. So it's like this incredible, sort of like starting a point for lots of people, and you're launching something quite exciting.

[Lauren Schultz]

We are. Next week, we are officially launching the nation's largest work experience program. It is built on the heels of a problem that I know we are all trying to solve, which is the fact that the country is endearing almost 1 million young people who are not in education or, or employment or training, and we want to be part of that solution. So, to your point, we have a history of being a first job for people, of being that first entrance into work experience. And by offering 2,500 work placements, again the largest in the nation, we are hoping that we can get more people into work, experiencing what it feels like to be in the workforce, to be part of one of our teams and get those skills, experiences, lessons that they can then employ to an interview or to reach their goals of a career ambition. And this youth index that we talked about is very in line with the listening that we tend to do on any part of our business. We talk to our customers all the time, we talk to our crew all the time. And whether they're engaged, I talk to my employees all the time. It was just natural, as we thought about what our role is in the Nation. We employ 100,000 young people under the age of 25 right now. And it was important for us to understand within that broader context, within the broader society context, what exactly is that group of young people telling us? And they're telling us they want jobs, they have career ambitions. One in eight have a career ambition. I was talking to one of our young workers yesterday, 17 years old, Gethin from Cardiff, and he said he wants to be in the army someday. That's what he is working towards. And only in our restaurants is he getting that. That vibe of teamwork, the community, the teamwork that he needs to then be a successful person within. Within the Army. And I just love that.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, yeah, that is. It's one of the things I think about school is it does massively index on individuals and actually a whole lot of life. And work, when you're an adult is about teamwork. There isn't much of that there. So how are these two and a half thousand work placements going to work then?

[Lauren Schultz]

So starting next week, you can go on our website, you can fill out an application or register your interest. I've been told that's the way to say it here, register your interest. The Americanisms and British isms still are a little at odds with each other. And from there we'll make sure that the local franchisee that would be in your community is going to sift through them and make sure that we can place as many people as possible within these, within these slots.

[Jimmy]

And how long are the programs going like. And they're paid as well, right? This is.

[Lauren Schultz]

They're paid work experience programs.

[Jimmy]

Exactly. Because sometimes people think of work experience as, yeah, unpaid, two weeks type thing. But this is. Talk to us a bit more. It's going to be paid. And how long are they going to

[Lauren Schultz]

be paid work experience programs? Five days. And it's actually very contextual with what anybody entering our corp. Corporate. Corporate workforce would, would do. So that five days is going to give you a good understanding of what the different jobs are within our restaurant. Everything from making a burger and putting our world famous fries together with that burger, to serving a customer to doing things like inventory management and accounting and you know, tech troubleshooting. Talk about AI and where jobs are going. I mean some of the tech transformations happening right. In our restaurants and to get a peek under the tent of what it means to kind of operationalize technology in our restaurants is a big deal. So it's a, it's a span of opportunity. Over five days, you might ask. That's not enough to really get the work experience. But it is. I mean you're going to get an understanding of what it's like to use these skills. Teamwork, problem solving, conflict resolution, like I said, accounting, inventory. And then from there, if you want to stay on. We are always hiring.

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

And if you don't, you at least have a bit of that additional confidence you might need or the talking points you might need for an interview that then you can go out and get that next job.

[Jimmy]

Having had a go at making a big arch as well. It's not as straightforward as it looks.

[Lauren Schultz]

You've made a big arch.

[Jimmy]

I have. And it was a bit of a, it was a bit of a disaster. There was a lot more letters on it than it should be. I think we still got some footage

[Lauren Schultz]

that it's a healthier big arch.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, healthier big arch. That's really interesting. What was your first job?

[Lauren Schultz]

My first job was babysitting back when I was in eighth grade for a neighbor down the street. But my real first paycheck was working in a deli in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a French deli. At 16 years old I was a prosciutto slicer and cheese Slicer and wrapper and communicator. I would translate exactly what that cheese was to a customer who had no idea what that cheese was and made chicken salads and tuna salads and made sandwiches. It was a lovely Saturday and Sunday job that earned me that extra pocket money to buy the T shirt I really wanted at Banana Republic, which was the thing to have back in 98. Yeah,

[Jimmy]

I remember the 90s well. What were you like in the 90s? Mum, dad.

[Lauren Schultz]

Right, that's right, yeah, that's what I was like.

[Jimmy]

And what like. Because what's the average employment numbers at McDonald's? Right. Like each restaurant is probably looking at around 80 to 100 people over the course.

[Lauren Schultz]

That's right. And that's surprising to some people. Our restaurants are, are big businesses. On average, we run 6 million pound restaurants across our 1600 restaurants in the UK and Ireland. And generally speaking, our roster size, that's like the number of people that are in crew or in management at a restaurant are between 80 to even 130 individuals. Any one shift you might see 25, 30 people on the floor because it takes a lot and it takes a lot of teamwork to serve that number of customers.

[Jimmy]

And is that because I was thinking about this when I was in McDonald's the other day and watching this, there were like 15, 20 people, right. And it was sort of mid afternoon that Cadbury's mini McFlurry dip that I needed and it was, but it was busy. And is that because of the, you know, often we think of the amount of technology that's coming in as kind of replacing jobs, but actually because there's like nine different ways that you can order now.

[Lauren Schultz]

Nine or ten.

[Jimmy]

Is it?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah.

[Jimmy]

Right, Is that, is that what's created? And there's table service as well.

[Lauren Schultz]

That's right.

[Jimmy]

What's creating the jobs?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah, we've gone from one way of ordering, maybe two ways we brought in our drive throughs in the 70s to I think it's more than 10 different ways of ordering your meal. And that does take a lot of configuration, a lot of, like I said, teamwork in our restaurants to make that happen. We think about technology as something that can simplify the experience for the customer, making it a very simple, seamless order to pick up to enjoying your great meal. And for our crew it's about empowering them. And if you can use technology to make their jobs easier, it enables them to be better at customer service. We talk about empowering them to create more magic moments in our dining through. Because we know we need to keep getting better at customer service. I look at customer contacts every single week and figure out how we can get more accurate, how I can create more magic moments, better hospitality. That's a goal of ours and technology enables that.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, absolutely. And it is those magic. I mean, I remember, like, growing up, there'd be one that we would go to in Derby, where I'm from. We'd go on a Wednesday evening and there would be. There would basically be quite a famous Derby county footballer that would go in there. Like celeb. Yeah, yeah. He was taking his kids. Right. But it was like. And I remember the exact booth that we used to sit in and so on. And like, it was a really sort of like, you know, special time, whatever. I also have his autograph about 50 times, I think, from the amount of times I would go to him. But it's like it just. I sort of just shows like that it's kind of. Obviously, in some ways the brand is like the most American thing, but because it's been here so long, it does feel sort of quasi British a little bit as well.

[Lauren Schultz]

Absolutely. I mean, we are an American brand, but we are British owned and run and supplied and of course shopped in the UK and Ireland. And it's really important for everyone to understand that. I mean, we might look like a giant American company, but most of our franchisees own between one and eight restaurants. They're small business owners and they are tried and true in that community. Always looking for, you know, not just creating a magic moment, but giving back to that community, employing from that community and of course, sourcing from local farmers. Yeah, I do want to go back to that, that magic moment thing, though, because when I go out to restaurants, usually I'm escorted out to a restaurant and they have all of their teams there and everybody's in like perfect uniform. There's presentations and balloons. But what I really like to do, and this is like a new family thing that we're here and I made my kids, made my kids, like, talk about it. We're doing let's Explore Sundays, but you have to, like, raise your hand at the let's Explore Sunday, you know, and we're going to go out to the country and see different things in. In England. And last weekend we went to Stowe Landscape. We have this book called Hidden Walks. And so we're doing these hidden walks around National Trust areas like Stowe.

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

And so in that area we went to the local McDonald's that was there. And of course my Franchi if they're listening to this or like, oh my gosh, he's traveling on Sundays, be ready for it. But it was the most wonderful family moment. And I wasn't the only family that had that moment. They had a whole table designated for coloring and there were kids getting their coloring sheets and coloring at their table while they were waiting for food. The food was great. The hospitality, there was someone walking around making sure everybody was well situated. It was a very magical American family goes to the UK experience. And I can say that because it was a surprise visit. And I think more often than not, you're going to get those magic moments in our restaurant.

[Jimmy]

That's interesting. The queen used to say that everywhere. I used to smell of fresh paint when she went, because everywhere have been painted.

[Lauren Schultz]

That's right.

[Jimmy]

But there are lots of things like that. Sunny and I were in one the other day and they'd got face painting every Saturday afternoon there and so on. And I was like, I was quite glad that wasn't my local one. Otherwise it'd be even harder to get my kids like out. But what's the, like, what, what freedom do franchisees have to do things like coloring tables, face painting, et cetera?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah. Well, you should know too, our 50% of our business is families. We have a big Happy Meal business specifically. And so nurturing families and making sure we do deliver those magic moments is big, very, very important to us. With that, we have a whole local store marketing program. And you can opt in, you can do in essence, whatever you want within a playbook to make customers experiences as magic as possible. So we have characters that come in. I was in a restaurant once and I think Bluey was there. And we have the Disney princesses that come. They have face painting, balloon art. Like I said, coloring is always there. And I think the most important thing is we have what we call customer experience leads that are in the lobby making sure if you order at the kiosk, you can take a number and put it at your table.

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

And as a, I have five kids. As a mom of five kids, you just kind of want to be served sometimes. And for someone, the customer experience needs to come out with a tray and it's all there. It just makes it so, so much easier. And if you forget the catch up, they'll go back and get a little bit more for you.

[Jimmy]

I'm going to ask about five kids later, but okay, what's the talk to us about, like what you look for when you're hiring people? Right. Because you're in this new leadership role in the UK and Ireland. You're going to be here for a while. Like, what is it that you're looking for when you're hiring?

[Lauren Schultz]

It's, it's funny you ask that because I've had to kind of used three Cs quite, quite a lot recently. I've just brought on a new chief marketing officer, a new head of supply chain, and the three words that really stand out are content. And content is someone that drives results, someone that really understands how to focus and prioritize to get those results based on the plan that we have set. I talk about character, really strong values. It's important to our business, it's important to our brand, and it's very important to me. And I talk about collaboration and clearly I talked about teamwork earlier, but I like to build teams where there's no I in team, no egos. We are all in this together and we all understand how the business works together. So each functional lead can do their part to drive the overall business. I think though, as well as those three Cs, as we think about future of work, creativity is really important these days. And I think having not just critical thinking skills, but creativity and how you solve problems is so important. Having a strategic mindset, also very important. And data fluency, knowing how to look at data, look at charts and put those dots together, very important. And in a world where AI is becoming a bigger and bigger tool, if you've got creativity and, and a good strategic acumen and data fluency, you'll be successful in just about any job you can take on.

[Jimmy]

So can you give me an example of a creative idea recently that could not have been done by AI?

[Lauren Schultz]

I think our menu heist is a really good example of that. Our menu heist was a campaign that we ran in November. And it's something that's very uniquely McDonald's, something that I don't think AI could have just thought about in the context of a restaurant industry. They would really need to know our business specifically. But a fun fact about McDonald's is that the menu changes everywhere you go. If you're in France, if you're in the uae, if you're in America, you're gonna get different menu items. And so the menu heist was an aggregation of some of those very interesting, well loved and even maybe daring products. The McSpicy with the pineapple on top was one of those make you uncomfortable sandwiches here. But there was a lot of people that wanted to try it because we didn't have that. And that taste combination was different. And I think it's not just the concept that something that's creative, it's how we then executed it. And I come from a marketing background, so it's a passion of mine. Really great creativity within brand communication, I think has to be done by humans. I think the insights, I think kind of the gathering of what might feed that creative could be outsourced to AI. But how humans bring creativity to life is a uniquely human skill.

[Jimmy]

How did you get into marketing? What was the sort of idea?

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah, so if I go back, I went from deli meat slicer to. That was a Saturday job to college. And my degree in college was in art history, which great degree, great critical thinking skills. I think history is a phenomenal thing you can understand, especially in these times. But that didn't necessarily land with what I was going to do next in my job. I was once one of those people under 25 without education and employment or training. At age 22 to 23, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. And I then went back into the restaurant industry because I had a passion for it. I loved hospitality, I loved food. And I worked for a fine dining company called Big Burrito Group. They still exist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm giving them a shout out because my. My career really did start with them. And they like this work experience program, trained me how to be a hostess and a server and work the line in the kitchen and expedite and ultimately be an assistant manager for one of their big flagship restaurants. And that then took me back to business school. I wanted to get some additional skills, some additional education, so I could maybe work in a more corporate environment. Still staying in hospitality?

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

So my business degree, getting back to your question, was in marketing specifically.

[Jimmy]

Okay.

[Lauren Schultz]

I loved the notion of business growth, understanding where consumer and business competition and industry collided and where you could figure out the growth opportunity. And I then. Sliding door. I know you're a kind of fan of the sliding door theory. Someone from McDonald's came to my business school and did a case study on the Happy Meal business, which back in 2008 was in decline in the US business. And they asked business students to come in and give them solutions on how they could turn around the Happy Meal business. And I was one of those students. And I think I presented pretty well back then clearly. And the person that was in charge of that, that case study for McDonald's basically helped me get my foot in the door back in 2009. And it was a foot in the door.

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

Very low level position at the company, but it was in marketing.

[Jimmy]

What was your plan for rejuvenating the Happy Meal way back when? Do you remember?

[Lauren Schultz]

At some point, I remember it being a holistic business plan and I think that was important because you might be able to market Happy Meal better, but you had to think about the things that we're thinking about now in our business. Did you have a family plan in your restaurants where you were talking to families about, you know, how good our food is and how great that magic moment is? How do we market it? How do we even create a drive through experience that was fanciful, I can remember, like we were going to paint the drive through, I think, and make it more family friendly. Ridiculous. Never happened. But there were some good nuggets. But I think it was the whole business orientation that was impactful.

[Jimmy]

And on the let's go back to the sort of two and a half thousand placements bit again because I do think that sort of, you know, it can be just that sort of catalyst, that ignition moment to just see what it's like. Right. Because I was struck by the survey of like, you know, one in three thinking that the workplace isn't for them. I mean, that really, like hit home with me because I just think, like, there's so many opportunities, there's so many different workplaces as well for so many people. Just think it's not a place for them. I don't know. Just cut quite, quite deep.

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah. I have been out in the field a lot. I think I said that. I think I visited 50, 60 restaurants in the now eight months that I've been here. And I said this. A lot of our restaurants are run as well as employed by young people. And I've talked to a lot of them. And the index, as well as these verbatims that I've had from young people in our workforce, I think tells that story. So there's a book called the Anxious Generation. And I think there is this level of anxiety, social anxiety, shyness, lack of confidence that exists in that, that younger demographic. And a couple of the people that I talked about basically told a really good story about that that was preventing them from getting a job. They were beneficiaries of a work experience program that their local franchisee had stood up going into the school saying, hey, we can be your first job. And so they tried it and they were shy. Those first two, three days they were on the job, they were very shy. They didn't Want to talk. But going back to the community, the teamwork, the family, they kind of felt in the restaurant, people helped them. We have crew trainers in our restaurants. They help bring them out of their shell and say, you can do it. And they did it. And now one of those people that I was talking to, Emma, she is now a crew trainer herself and she's now paying that forward. And she's like, I'm not shy anymore. I'm actually pretty confident in the restaurant. And she goes, I still have work to do in confidence, but I feel way better about it. And I think that's part of it. It's just. They just got to try.

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

And as I was talking to some of these young people, their word of wisdom was, don't be nervous. We've all been there, We've all had a first day. Just give it a shot. You don't know what you can't do until you do it.

[Jimmy]

Until you do it. And it's one of the points that Daniel Priestley, who's a big UK entrepreneur, says he started out at McDonald's as well, is that hospitality is about solving problems and customer service. Right. And it's like those are two skills.

[Lauren Schultz]

Exactly. Right.

[Jimmy]

That like really kind of carry on through. And he. But, but also is that I asked him what he learned from working at McDonald's and he was like, the teenagers can run multimillion pound business.

[Lauren Schultz]

That's right. That's right. That's right. And actually one in three of our managers are young people, which is pretty incredible. So if you think about under 25s running big businesses, that's exactly what Daniel Priestly is referring to. Yeah.

[Jimmy]

And one of the things as well, the biggest barrier that people thought they couldn't get a job was a lack of experience. Right. Which also. It is a classic chicken and egg problem.

[Lauren Schultz]

Totally catch 22.

[Jimmy]

Like, how do you, how do you get it? Do you think you might expand this program in the future? Because it's obviously a new trial for you.

[Lauren Schultz]

That's right. This is a start. We have ambitions to make it bigger every year, to build on it. We certainly think that when you welcome people in as new employees to their restaurants, they feel all those great things that the young people I've been talking about, the community, the teamwork, the I can do this. And they build careers. I mean, I've seen so many of our franchisees now start as crew and they worked all the way up to franchisees. Danny, on the restaurant that I was visiting a couple weeks ago, said just that I'm here now, I'm working my way up to be a manager, but my goal is to be a franchisee and we can make that happen for people. That's, that's in essence the magic of that first job. And like I said, we've got ambitions to keep making it bigger and better every year.

[Jimmy]

Well, it's, I think it's really exciting and it's also one of these things of where you guys just get cut through, right. Because you're McDonald's. So like you announcing this is going to kind of get it. You know, you can put it on ads in the restaurants and so on and really sort of like, I think it's a kind of brilliant program. I want to talk about the sort of generational point as well that you were just making as well because you've got five kids. How, how old are they?

[Lauren Schultz]

My oldest just turned 13. She's three years away from her first job at McDonald's. My second is 11. I have an eight year old and then I have twins, identical girls that are five.

[Jimmy]

Yeah. So I want your advice because I have three daughters, six, four and two. Incredibly excited that I was coming to a McDonald's. They finally understand what dad might do and they like, I just interested. I've, I've asked sort of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and Rishi Sunak about this, about like parenting advice. Right. Like what? How do you sort of manage it all? How do you try and guide them about careers and just sort of development in that kind of space? Because it is a, it is a strange world for those at that age now where, you know, we're looking when they enter the workplace in three to five years time, it may look very different with AI.

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah. How do I manage it all? Not well, not perfectly. I am certainly not one of those moms that compares myself to other moms. I think we've all got to do it our own way, parent our own way. But I do think values, faith, those are things that are very important in our household. And I think one of those values is work ethic. I don't think work ethic's going anywhere and I think they're held to a high standard of completing their work. My five year olds are doing phonics that is different than the US and they've got to put in work on their red words every evening so they stay on the British curriculum. Very proud of them actually.

[Jimmy]

That's sick.

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah.

[Jimmy]

I spend a lot of time economics in our house as well. I'm still not great. Great at them.

[Lauren Schultz]

No.

[Jimmy]

The education systems changed. And how do you kind of like install work ethic in kids? I mean, like, it's one of the things that I, I, when, you know, I've read about and so on, is that don't praise them for good work, praise them for hard work. Praise the effort. Like, my absolutely 6 year old at the moment is loving copying YouTube videos of cartoons of characters and whatever. And they are amazing. Like, my son does that. Yeah, yeah. Right. And it's like. But it's trying to, you know, remind them it's the effort that kind of counts. Right?

[Lauren Schultz]

That's right. I think that said very well. Effort ethic is as important as what you end up delivering it. It's not something that's just turnkey. Like, you have to keep reminding them. These are the hours of the day that are for reading and they, they do piano, which I did growing up. I just find it an important skill to have. I think it helps with math occasionally. I'm pretty good at Christmas carols, but, yeah, it's a little shoddy. My Turkish march isn't as good as it used to be. But the other thing is role modeling. Right. And I think if they see how hard I work and how hard my husband works, they realize they have to be part of the team that exists in our household. Everyone's got to do not just their work, they've got to help with the chores.

[Jimmy]

Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

We don't have a whole lot of help in our house. So, you know, we have five kids and I think they all need to be doing their share.

[Jimmy]

Yeah. And household chores is one of those things that's apparently a very important indicator. We have some sort of quick fires.

[Lauren Schultz]

Oh, quick fires. I like that.

[Jimmy]

British. British. Well, basically British food base. Right.

[Lauren Schultz]

Okay.

[Jimmy]

So have you tried a baked bean?

[Lauren Schultz]

Well, American baked bean or an English baked bean?

[Jimmy]

English baked bean.

[Lauren Schultz]

I've never tried an English baked bean, but my, my husband's a big fan of American baked beans. I'm not, though.

[Jimmy]

Okay. Have you had a pork scratching yet?

[Lauren Schultz]

No. Say that again. A pork.

[Jimmy]

Pork scratching.

[Lauren Schultz]

No, no, no.

[Jimmy]

Okay, we'll be good.

[Lauren Schultz]

Where do you find those pubs? Got it.

[Jimmy]

Generally.

[Lauren Schultz]

Generally got it. I have had a Scottish specialty that was. There was, I think, some pork and other things in it. I forget what it was called, but it was very odd. And yeah, the Scottish franchisees made sure that I ate one of those. Yeah.

[Jimmy]

To find out what that. That is. If you had rice pudding.

[Lauren Schultz]

I've made rice pudding in the past. Not a big fan of rice pudding either. I'm sorry. I generally do love UK food. This feels like very misrepresentation.

[Jimmy]

Okay, well what UK food have you had? That, have you had fish and chips?

[Lauren Schultz]

I love good fish and chips. Yes. Honestly, your chips with vinegar is something that we don't eat a lot of in the us. Yeah.

[Jimmy]

Really?

[Lauren Schultz]

No.

[Jimmy]

There's more fries. Yeah.

[Lauren Schultz]

And I do like more of that plank style chip versus the thinner fries that we have, which are also world famous and delicious.

[Jimmy]

Absolutely.

[Lauren Schultz]

But yeah, the Mayfair chippy is a really good fish and chip spot.

[Jimmy]

Right.

[Lauren Schultz]

Yeah.

[Jimmy]

We can do the next interview there. Have you had a sausage roll?

[Lauren Schultz]

I have had a sausage roll, yes.

[Jimmy]

Why is that not taken off in America?

[Lauren Schultz]

Um, I, I don't know. I don't think we're as big of, I don't think we're as big of a sausage culture as the uk. My kids though, my three youngest go to a British school and the first couple weeks they were there like mom and now they call me Mum. Yeah. Which I find very, very sweet and endearing. Mom. They gave us this food and there was a sausage inside of a croissant and they wanted me to eat it and I didn't know what it was. I'm like, well knowing Greg, so I had to be like, that's a sausage roll and you should try it next time. Now they love it, which is great. And I think shout out to Greg. They do a great job with their sausage roll.

[Jimmy]

Absolutely. What is the favorite British food you've had so far? What's the best meal that you've had kind of had in the uk?

[Lauren Schultz]

You know, I went to a really great restaurant called BB's with an Australian friend of ours actually, and it was Indian and very fancy dining. But I love Indian food. My husband does not love Indian food. So I figured if it was like fancy and innovative Indian food, he might go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was just phenomenal. But I think all of the, the international influences that are in the, the UK market right now are fantastic.

[Jimmy]

I think London is it world's food capital now, which is something you would have said 20, 30 years.

[Lauren Schultz]

Absolutely. But I will say I'm a big fan in general of the pub. A Sunday roasts and a fire and just that general buzz of energy on a cold day. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's pretty magic. The English pub and I, I've heard until 7:30 they love children. I, I tend to, we tend to eat earlier 5:30, so we, we found that to be a great family dining destination, especially on Sundays.

[Jimmy]

Yeah. Late afternoon roast is particularly good. Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, thanks so much for coming on, Jimmy.

[Lauren Schultz]

It was a pleasure, Jimmy.

[Jimmy]

Amazing about the pub and all your kind of, like, interactions with it and. Yeah, thanks for coming on. I think it's amazing what you're doing with this.

[Lauren Schultz]

Thank you. We're excited about it.

[Jimmy]

And, yeah, hopefully we might be able to cover some of the stories of people that go on to get jobs. And who knows, maybe there'll be UK and Ireland CEO.

[Lauren Schultz]

I hope so. Thank you so much,

[Jimmy]

Sam.