Encore: Turn critics into allies | Bob Langert

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4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When an organization is battered by critics, how does it usually respond? “Deny and push back, put out some sort of lame statement,” says Bob Langert, “and no progress is made at all.” But based on 25 years leading sustainability and corporate responsibility at McDonald’s, Bob proposes another way: To work with critics.

In this talk, he shares stories that take us from the Amazon to slaughterhouses, from tree huggers to corporate suits, all in the search for common ground with his greatest detractors.

While we're taking a break, we hope you enjoy this favorite from the TED Business archive.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:10.0	My first big birthday party was at McDonald's.
0:15.0	It was my sixth birthday.
0:17.0	Friends, family, everyone was there celebrating me
0:21.0	and it was in the late 80s.
0:23.0	McDonald's the place we all went for our vanilla ice cream swirl
0:27.0	with some caramel on top and some nuts if you didn't have allergies.
0:34.0	But meanwhile, something very different was happening with McDonald's in the UK.
0:40.0	A group was campaigning against the company, activists, organizing protests,
0:45.0	handing out pamphlets, accusing them of low wages, unhealthy food,
0:50.0	deforestation, animal cruelty, and much more.
0:53.0	They called the company McGrady, McCancer, McMurder.
0:58.0	So what did McDonald's do to actually address this?
1:01.0	They placed spies inside the group.
1:03.0	At times, there were more spies and meetings than activists.
1:07.0	And there were times where the spies were taking notes on each other
1:10.0	about what the other spies were doing, not knowing their spies.
1:13.0	Gangster techniques is what I'm talking about.
1:16.0	McDonald's, like many companies, saw their critics as threats,
1:20.0	enemies to ignore when they could or to silence when they needed to.
1:25.0	McDonald's eventually dragged two of the activists to court for libel.
1:30.0	Believe it or not, this ended up becoming the longest legal case in UK history
	...

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