W
hen McDonald’s opened
its first restaurant in China in 1990—
an outlet in Shenzhen, a city that bor-
ders Hong Kong—the company knew
it was taking a giant step in its global
strategy. It also knew that as one of the
icons of Western culture, it would have
to make some adjustments in its
approaches—including its approach to
employee and leader development—to
succeed in its operations in the vastly
different culture of China.
McDonald’s went on to open more
stores in China—including, in 1992,
an outlet in Beijing that at the time
was the largest McDonald’s in the
world—and today it has more than
eight hundred restaurants in the coun-
try, with nearly fifty thousand ...