Word: mcdonaldization
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...happy exception. Throughout the nation, thousands of couples who have survived Monday Night Football, jogging and the ERA debate are facing a trickier challenge. The computer that they were told would bring the family closer together may now be driving them apart. Says San Diego Psychologist Thomas McDonald: "They're beginning to realize they're losing their spouses to a machine...
...coming out of Shanghai after President Nixon's 1972 visit to China. That historic trip had been a seemingly endless sequence of banquets with Chinese delicacies: shark's fin, goldfish in white sauce. The return to the U.S., arranged by flight crews from Guam, was fueled by McDonald's burgers, French fries and milkshakes...
Successful corporations also have pantheons of heroes, who serve as role models. Like Henry Ford of Ford Motor Co., Thomas Watson of IBM or Ray Kroc of McDonald's, they "have great symbolic and mythic value within the cultures of their companies." Employees are proud to be connected with these magical figures, say the authors, and draw strength and courage from them. Mary Kay Ash, who overcame severe arthritis to found Mary Kay Cosmetics, uses that achievement to inspire her salespeople...
Even though exceptional individuals such as Ford, Watson and Kroc are rare, companies continually create new heroes. The members of IBM's "Hundred Percent Club," who have met their annual sales quotas, become office stars. Likewise, the McDonald's franchisee who cooked up the idea for the fast-food chain's bestselling "Egg McMuffin" breakfast sandwich in 1972 found his way into Ray Kroc's autobiography, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's, and has become part of company lore...
...often as not, a firm's in-house culture is reflected in the face that the company presents to the world at large. The "work hard / play hard" cultures of companies like McDonald's, IBM, Xerox, Pitney Bowes and R.H. Macy carry well beyond the office, showing up in a dedication to sales and customer service. A spirit of entrepreneurial risk-taking helps "bet-your-company" firms like Exxon and Boeing to make huge investments in high-risk ventures that take years to develop...