McDonald’s Corporation, the company that Ray Kroc built, has been selling hamburgers outside of the U.S. for decades. It certainly qualifies as one of the top global brands in today’s marketing vernacular, operating in 119 countries and deriving a significant portion of its revenues from outside of the U.S.

Each country implements the core McDonald’s menu to which in-country management is free to add localized menu items, e.g., the "Croque McDo" in France, the "Chicken Maharaja Mac" in India and salads in many parts of the world. International in scope, its Hamburger University is designed to deliver training programs targeting different management levels, ranging from restaurant managers to department heads and executives. In addition to the home office campus based in Oak Brook, Illinois in the U.S., there are two in Europe (London and Munich) and one each in Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Sydney.

McDonald’s training programs are delivered in up to 40 languages, with the primary languages being Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English (both International/Commonwealth and U.S.), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish for the top markets. The training materials consist of two elements: core content which applies globally for maintaining consistent food quality and services worldwide, and locale-specific content based on local menu items, food safety regulations and labor practices, etc.

The company continues to invest and support initiatives to adapt its products and services to different locales to ensure its global brand. Fully globalized, right? How could there be anything left for McDonald’s to learn in terms of staying on top in its international markets? To find out, please join us as we tag along with LISA Member Jia-Shin Chiu Osiel, Manager of Language Services for Worldwide Training, Learning & Development at McDonald’s, on a “typical day in the life of a Globalization Manager.” With full support (including financial) of senior management at McDonald’s, Osiel continues on her mission to bring globalization of business processes to the boardroom at McDonald’s.

Note from the Editor: The term "globalization" is used in this article to encompass all business processes required to design, create, test, market, sell, support, maintain and retire a product/service outside of a company’s domestic market.