Was Steve Easterbook, McDonald's new CEO, too honest in his video message? Easterbrook outlined a turnaround plan and admitted, "The reality is our recent performance has been poor. The numbers don't lie."

After the video was released, S&P downgraded McDonald's credit rating to A-, and the stock took a 1% hit in early trading.

A Mashable author calls the presentation a "passionless video pep talk." Seth Fiegerman said the video didn't reflect the promised "brand excitement":

"Excitement - or emotion of any kind - was, however, conspicuously lacking from Easterbrook's even, careful speech. For 23 minutes, Easterbrook talked at the screen, staring straight ahead, rarely blinking and gesturing blandly with his hands while only occasionally raising his eyebrows for emphasis. He stood in an empty, beige McDonald's hallway decorated with generic artwork. The camera kept locked on Easterbrook's face, only breaking away to show a gray slide deck with numbers from time to time."

Ouch. To be fair, Easterbrook is in a tough spot. The company clearly isn't doing well, as shown in this bar chart.

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• Watch Easterbrook's video. What's your assessment?
• Are authors like Fiegerman being too hard on Easterbrook?
• What do you identify as McDonald's key strategies for turning the business around? Which do you find most and least compelling?