What McDonald's Learned From Burger King's Turnaround

McDonald’s chief executive officer, Steve Easterbrook, unveiled his turnaround plan for America’s biggest burger chain, making a big deal out of an initiative to carve up his company into four geographic segments and put them under new management. “It will spread insight faster, it will enable quicker decision making, it will eliminate mistakes, reduce costs, and unlock growth,” he said in a videotaped presentation this week. He also touted the promise of McDonald's sleeker operations in Australia.

What Easterbrook neglected to mention was even more intriguing: McDonald is following the lead of Burger King, its second-largest competitor. Burger King seemed to have lost its way until 3G, the Brazilian private equity group, took it private in 2010 as part of a $4 billion billion leverage buyout. The new owner rejuvenated the troubled chain with young leadership and a restructuring plan that was highly controversial at the time.