Perspectives from the McDonald's CSR Team

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By Kathleen Bannan, Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, McDonald's One of the great perks associated with being a member of the CSR team here at McDonald's is the wide range of activities that occupy our days. There are always new things to learn; interesting people to meet; and exciting places to visit. A prime example of this is our 2005-2006 CSR Fellows Project. In partnership with the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, we sponsored six MBA students who were interested in learning more about how CSR is integrated into our business operations throughout the supply chain. For this initial research endeavor, the students were invited to explore our beef supply chain-the ranches, feedlots and processing facilities that supply burgers to our restaurants. I had the privilege of working closely with the Fellows as they completed their "fork to farm" journey. To get a deeper look at this project and the Fellows themselves, you can view a recently released podcast, The McDonald's You Don't Know: Opening our Doors, at the end of this post. Their Fork to Farm Report is also prominently featured in our 2006 Worldwide Corporate Responsibility Report. Working with the Fellows was a wonderful experience on a personal level, but it also reaffirmed my belief that interactive stakeholder engagement is essential to sustainable business success in today's world. Listening, learning and improving are what it's all about. And if your doors are closed to the world around you, achieving success in today's environment is daunting task.