Latest / Identity at the Center / #227 - Behind the Golden Arches of IAM with Ebony Love of McDonalds

Transcript

#227 - Behind the Golden Arches of IAM with Ebony Love of McDonalds · Identity at the Center

0:05
This is identity at the center. If it has anything to do with I
0:11
Am, this is the go to podcast now your hosts Jim McDonald and
0:17
Jeff Steadman. Welcome to the Identity at the
0:21
Center podcast. I'm Jeff and that's Jim.
0:23
Hey, Jim. Hey, Jeff.
0:25
How are you? Oh, not so bad yourself.
0:28
I'm doing great. I'm in a very experimental mood,
0:30
so I thought of I thought of this question in my own mind and
0:35
then I thought, you know, I I need to where else?
0:37
Would you think a question, someone else's mind?
0:41
This came from my very own mind man and I thought, okay, I've
0:45
got to bounce this off Jeff. I'm not sure how he's going to
0:49
approach it, but I'm going to do it.
0:51
And we're better to bounce it off of Jeff than on the Identity
0:55
It's Center podcast in front of potentially millions of
0:58
listeners. Millions of listeners, you know,
1:00
billions of atoms out there listening to us, Yes.
1:05
I don't know if I should be concerned yet or not.
1:06
And this is the part of the show that I have no idea what you've
1:09
cooked up for me. So I'm absolutely reacting here.
1:11
All right, so the question is what is the most important,
1:16
important Google technology on the following list?
1:21
Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Android or Chrome?
1:29
And when I say important, I mean first important to you and then
1:33
second important to Google. Well, search I think by far is
1:38
the number one, because that's how they make their money is ads
1:40
based off search. So to Google it's got to be
1:43
search. Give me that list again.
1:44
It was Search, Maps, Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Android
1:51
and Chrome. OK, it's definitely not the last
1:54
few there. I think it's between search and
1:56
maps. I got to say search, I mean it's
2:02
it's been a game changer for society to be able to find any
2:06
piece of information basically in the world about any topic.
2:11
Maps are important. I definitely use it all the
2:12
time, but I feel like just the fact of having.
2:17
You know, basically the world's information at your fingertips
2:19
is really what sets it apart. Okay.
2:23
Now I surprised. Well, I I might, I think after I
2:28
answer the question, you might change your perspective just
2:32
from the standpoint of how I'm thinking about it.
2:34
So again, I'm thinking about it from like what's the most
2:37
important to Jim? So I meant.
2:39
It's like to everybody or OK, so this is me personally, yeah, I'd
2:44
still go with search. I mean, I use it every single
2:47
day. I use it every day per hour.
2:50
But if Google search went away, I'd use Bing.
2:54
If Google Maps went away, I'd use Apple Maps.
2:58
You can argue which one's better, but it's not like
3:02
there's not a almost equivalent replacement.
3:06
Gmail was one where I started to think of Okay, that's a
3:10
contender. I actually think Gmail is
3:12
superior to other mail platforms but the Windows Mail.
3:17
You have Windows Mail. You got other ones like Proton,
3:21
other ones that are more security focused.
3:25
I'm a Gmail person myself, but. I don't think that there's
3:28
anything special compared to others.
3:30
I think anything on the list has has other contenders, even the
3:34
winner, which was YouTube, that's that's my pick.
3:40
I don't think there's anything else like YouTube.
3:42
I don't think there's a close second.
3:45
Yeah, Vimeo, other sorts of I mean you could argue like
3:49
Facebook or Instagram for videos they've they've tried to make a
3:52
play into that. But clearly YouTube is the
3:54
dominant player. Yeah.
3:56
And you what I'm saying is that I wouldn't I don't think it's a
4:00
fair way to answer the question by saying well somebody else
4:05
would step into his place. Well sure that's true of just
4:07
about anything that's common technology now.
4:10
But look at YouTube and it is so much better than any of its
4:15
other competitors and from I also I'm not sure if it's the
4:20
the most important for Google, but.
4:25
I can tell you the search is the number one, That's how they make
4:27
their money. Everything else is a distant
4:30
like 5th place compared to their search revenue.
4:33
I wonder what's what they make in terms of revenue on YouTube
4:36
because they don't create really any of the content yet.
4:40
They blast you with ads and they know so much about your your
4:45
watching preferences, but you really get that with.
4:49
I mean, they integrate that with every one of their services,
4:53
right? So it's like certainly search
4:56
leaves a a trail, a footprint of what you're interested in.
5:00
Maps leaves a footprint of where you, where you're gone and where
5:04
you've gone and where you're going.
5:06
Gmail, I mean they can just basically read your emails and
5:10
figure out what you're interested in.
5:11
So yeah. Anyway, I thought that was an
5:14
interesting question, but for me it was.
5:16
YouTube was the standout service.
5:19
Search for me, I mean it's. It's the one thing that I and I
5:22
subscribe to YouTube. I'm one of the premium members
5:24
so I don't have to watch the ads on YouTube videos because I have
5:28
it all the time. But yeah, searches, I mean the
5:31
thing I will say in favor of what you said is that I do think
5:37
Google search is way better than Bing or something like that.
5:42
Yeah, I mean, Bing's been sort of an afterthought for years,
5:45
but with, you know, ChatGPT integration and the whole Bing
5:48
AI thing, I think it's gotten a lot better.
5:50
I think it's come along, it's come along quite a bit.
5:53
But I think you get used to also the search results in the way
5:57
that Google does that compared to Bing because they each have
5:58
different approaches to it. So a lot of times they do
6:01
surface the same information, but the UI is a little bit
6:04
different. The order that they show things
6:06
in is a little bit different. So I think it's just a matter of
6:08
personal preference at this point.
6:10
Yeah, that's all I got for you all.
6:12
Right. Well that wasn't that was
6:14
somewhat interesting. I have to search.
6:17
I think search is far and away still the the right answer but
6:20
to each their own. Speaking of Google Google
6:23
searches, I'll say Google Google searches.
6:28
You can Google search Cybersecurity Midwest Summit
6:31
2023 because I'm going to be on a panel talking about identity
6:35
and access managements in a few weeks.
6:37
Now that's coming up in Cincinnati, OH on September
6:39
14th. It's put on by Commspark and CDO
6:42
magazine. So I'm going to be there part of
6:46
a panel on i.e., Identity and Access Management.
6:48
Hopefully people will come check that out.
6:50
If you're local to the area or even feel like flying in just to
6:53
watch that, that'd be fantastic. I'll have a link in our show
6:55
notes for people to check out more information around that.
6:59
We got a lot of stuff going on, like we have a lot of discounts,
7:02
which is really cool to like to give to listeners and stuff like
7:04
that. Very fortunate to partner with a
7:06
bunch of people. One of those discounts is with
7:08
Identity Week America. I'm actually going to be there.
7:10
I'm hosting a panel. We're going to be talking about
7:12
pass keys and modern authentication, things like
7:15
that. That's October 3rd and 4th,
7:18
that's in Washington DC We have a code Ida C30.
7:23
You get 30% off of your conference pass, which is pretty
7:25
cool. So I hope people take advantage
7:27
of that and come out to DC October 3rd and 4th.
7:31
But if they can't make it to DC because maybe they're on the
7:34
West Coast those same days. You're going to be at Octane,
7:39
which is taking place October 3rd to the 5th in San Francisco.
7:43
So we're going, we're going nationwide, we're going coast to
7:47
coast. I'm going to be on the East
7:48
Coast, you're going to be on the West Coast.
7:50
And we have a new discount code that the Octa folks have
7:53
provided to us. We can share with listeners.
7:55
So if you use the code. OKTNIDA C30, I know it rolls
8:01
right off the tongue. You get 30% off of your Octane
8:04
registration, so I'll have that code in our show notes and we'll
8:07
start to promote that. That's breaking news.
8:09
We just got that earlier this week as is at the time of this
8:13
recording, So hopefully people come out, introduce you, you
8:17
have the stickers, so that would be a good place to get identity
8:19
of the center stickers. I will have stickers.
8:21
I'd love to meet people and anyone who's going to be at the
8:24
conference. Any of our listeners who would
8:26
like to just meet and have a hallway conversation please
8:30
reach out to me on LinkedIn. Yep.
8:34
And then you and I are both going to be at the Authenticate
8:37
conference, which is coming up October 16th to the 18th.
8:41
That's in Carlsbad, CA. Podcast The official podcast of
8:45
the Authenticate conference, which is very cool.
8:47
We got a discount there. I D AC15 podcasts 15% off of
8:51
your authenticate. So we are like.
8:54
Like swimming and discounts for for for these conferences.
8:58
So hopefully people are taking advantage of them if they're
8:59
going to be out there. Yeah, the part that I've really
9:02
been getting excited about with the authentication conference
9:04
too is yes, we're going to be on the stage as part of the
9:08
keynote. I think that's going to be kind
9:10
of a highlight moment. But each time we go to
9:13
conferences together, we're recording episodes with some of
9:17
the, you know, thought leaders who were speaking at the
9:19
conference were at least attending the conference and we
9:22
usually have a a podcasting room to do that.
9:25
What we're going to have this year is podcasting room with
9:28
some chairs so that we can have a live.
9:32
What's that? We don't have to stand.
9:33
We have a chair to sit in. I feel like I have a chair.
9:38
Yeah. Well, I think it's just going to
9:40
be really cool. It's going to add an element for
9:43
our guests as well to, you know, hey, it's like being on a a real
9:48
show. We can have, like, laugh tracks,
9:50
or we can put up signs like applaud.
9:53
There may be up to two or three people clapping, which would be
9:56
amazing. That would be crazy.
9:58
Taped in front of a live studio audience.
9:59
All that stuff. So yeah, we've got a bunch of
10:03
different stuff. We'll have all these links in
10:04
our show notes. Hopefully people take advantage
10:06
of it, come out, see us introduce yourself, get a
10:08
sticker, whatever it may be. And we're always happy to chat
10:13
with folks. I know we're going to talk here
10:15
in a second and you're going to kind of introduce our topic.
10:18
But I will say that this conversation is something that
10:21
started at a conversation at identifiers earlier this year in
10:24
the hallway and Speaking of thought leaders.
10:28
That's what we've got today in the space.
10:30
So Jim, what are we going to be talking about today?
10:32
And then I'll introduce our guest.
10:34
So we've already had a conversation with Ebony Love.
10:39
She's with McDonald's and spoke at Identifiers as you mentioned.
10:44
I thought was so cool was the the title of her session was
10:47
something like Bata Bapa which I thought was really hilarious.
10:53
I'll. Turn that into our ringtone if
10:54
you remember. What's that?
10:56
Didn't I turn that into a ringtone?
10:57
I put it on Twitter. You doing that?
10:59
Oh gosh that's yeah that's that totally would remind me of
11:04
something you would do anyway I guess.
11:06
You know that was really cool that it was near that I was like
11:09
I love McDonald's. So we talked with that beneath
11:11
and she kind of explained the story.
11:14
So obviously all this can't go in the title, but the the what I
11:17
thought was like super interesting was how she kind of
11:22
like started with the angle of you know, solving a problem that
11:25
was a common I M problem like okay, how can we make this
11:29
onboarding process quicker? And then going through the
11:33
process of trying to solve it, you start running into well we
11:37
have to impact this system and that batch process and things
11:42
like that and then you have to pull a whole bunch of people in.
11:44
Next thing you know it's like an enterprise level initiative.
11:46
So I don't know how you make a title out of that something like
11:52
I am turns yeah I I am turns very hard or something like
11:58
that. But it's it's not that only that
12:01
is very hard. It shows.
12:03
I think what we are all coming to learn is like as our IT as I
12:08
T everything gets digitized. IT becomes or technology becomes
12:13
the center of everything and identity is the center of
12:18
securing everything. It just starts becoming very
12:23
enmeshed and ingrained in all the processes that happen
12:27
between systems, especially when you have, when you're
12:30
integrating modern systems and legacy systems.
12:34
So you have to pull in a greater, greater audience.
12:38
And I think one of the things we've been talking about for a
12:40
long time is what makes good I M program manager.
12:44
And it's not just being the smartest technologist.
12:47
It's not just being the best project manager.
12:51
It's not just being any one thing.
12:53
It's somebody who can work with people and bring people together
12:57
to solve problems. And if you don't have the right
13:00
people, then to get the right people and to get the leadership
13:04
behind and to get the grassroots behind it.
13:06
And it's all those things. It makes a good I M program
13:09
manager. And as Ebony was telling her
13:12
story, that was what started jumping out at me.
13:15
So I know a very catchy title there.
13:18
I think we exceeded our character account for that.
13:20
So I'll have to shorten that up. But yeah, you've mentioned it.
13:23
Why don't we go ahead and introduce our guest today?
13:26
She's Ebony Love. She's the director of
13:28
cybersecurity deployments with McDonald's.
13:30
Welcome to the show, Ebony. Well, thanks so much Jeff and
13:33
Jim for having me on the show today.
13:35
I really appreciate that. We get a chance to have a
13:38
conversation. Yeah, and thanks for taking the
13:41
time with us. You know, we had a little
13:43
hallway conversation. Want to give a shout out to
13:44
David Maudie. He's the one that kind of
13:46
introduced us as we're kind of milling around the Aria in Las
13:49
Vegas. So I'm glad we're able to
13:51
connect here. Jim had a very long preamble of
13:54
what we're going to talk about. But before we get to that, we
13:57
have a rite of passage that the first time anyone joins us is we
14:00
like to learn a little bit about their identity origin story.
14:03
And how they got into Identity and Access Management.
14:05
So let's start there. You know, how did you get into
14:08
the IAM space? Is it something that you chose
14:11
or did it choose you? It definitely chose me.
14:17
So I my background originally and what I was working on when I
14:22
first came here was. In the I have a background and
14:27
just master data management, content management experience
14:30
and I was working on some something around digital asset
14:35
management because that was kind of in my wheelhouse and I got an
14:40
opportunity to while all of these privacy initiatives were
14:46
coming out, GDPRCCPA, those had some.
14:51
Tieins to what we were doing with our digital asset
14:54
management program. And so I got kind of looped into
14:57
those working with legal teams and and ultimately I was
15:03
approached and asked if I would work on just a really small
15:08
proof of concept that was kind of stuck and it wasn't really in
15:11
my space. But it's like yeah, I can you
15:13
know work on that and it was for our, our cybersecurity
15:17
organization. So I, you know, just kind of
15:19
picked it up. Ran with it, asked a bunch of
15:22
questions and you know got that, you know back on track.
15:25
And while I was doing that and opportunity came open in the the
15:31
I M space and I got approached actually by a couple of people
15:35
who asked me if that was something I'd be interested in
15:37
doing. And I said, well I know how to
15:40
log in like what what what do you need?
15:44
So, so I ended up just, you know.
15:49
Looking into the opportunity, it seemed like something really
15:53
exciting. It was a space that I really
15:55
never been in cybersecurity. It sounds really scary and
15:58
intimidating and I thought, I'm up for a new challenge, so, So
16:02
that's kind of how I landed in cybersecurity and my first role
16:08
was kind of owning all of the authentication services and at
16:12
the time it spanned employee, franchisee.
16:19
Crew and consumer. So we had you know I don't, I
16:24
don't know how many can actually reveal the actual number but it
16:27
was lots lots of identities there to manage.
16:32
And so that's what I came in to do is really manage that service
16:38
and just make sure that everyone always had access to our app to
16:43
their internal tools that you can come in and.
16:45
And and get to work. So that was kind of trial by
16:48
fire in in the identity and access management space.
16:53
So you so you kind of sort of chose it, which puts you a
16:56
little bit in the rarer side of the spectrum.
16:59
I would say like 90% of the people we talked to, they kind
17:03
of fell into it by accident. But maybe it's just because
17:05
we're old heads and it, it wasn't a thing like 20 years
17:09
ago. So I put you into rarefied air
17:11
that you actually, like, sought it out.
17:14
Tell me about this role of director of Cybersecurity
17:17
deployments. What does that mean?
17:20
Or in the case of like the office base, right?
17:22
What would you say you do here? Well, it's those TPS reports
17:26
somebody's got to get. Their Did you get the cover
17:28
sheet? Cuz we've got a new cover sheet.
17:30
There's a new cover sheet. I'll get to the memo, don't
17:33
worry. Right, right.
17:35
So, So what my team does is we take any of the the security
17:42
services. That need to to go from our
17:47
global organization into our markets, we take those services
17:51
and we deploy them. So if you look at take
17:55
authentication services for example, so you you'll have that
17:59
that service running and and what we do is we basically on
18:04
board markets to the different tools and technologies that they
18:08
need to protect. The data and and assets, so it
18:12
could be anything from the authentication and identity
18:16
services to SSL certs to network security.
18:21
So really any anything that they need from a cybersecurity
18:24
standpoint that we offer as a service, my team basically
18:29
implements that or pushes it out to to our our partners in the
18:33
markets. So Evany, you've been doing the
18:35
speaking circuit a lot this year and talking about a big project
18:39
that you did at McDonald's. Was wondering if you kind of
18:42
tell us about that project? Yeah, sure.
18:45
So one of the the the challenges that I had kind of coming into
18:51
the space and I think this will be familiar people is that you
18:56
you end up sometimes inheriting technical debt and so.
19:02
Somebody at some point has to address it and and I got to be
19:06
that lucky person to address the tech debt and we had an an
19:11
opportunity to not just really because anybody can kind of come
19:17
in and go okay let's just upgrade to the next version and
19:21
and and just keep going that way.
19:23
And what I really wanted to do was say, well, how do we make
19:28
this more effective, more resilient?
19:31
More scalable for the for the company.
19:35
So we're not doing this every year trying to figure out you
19:38
know how we you know how we change things to meet the
19:42
business needs. So so one of the components of
19:50
this, and it was a identity sync, is really what this this
19:57
tool that I had dead. And one of the the challenges
20:01
that came to us from our functional business partners was
20:05
that that process was just taking too long.
20:08
And so along with resolving the, the tech debt in terms of just
20:12
the coming on to the latest version of software, we also had
20:16
an opportunity to take time out of the of the onboarding
20:21
process. And and when I talk about
20:22
onboarding, it's really when you when you create an identity for
20:25
someone, how long does it take? For that identity ready for them
20:29
to use. And in the initial kind of
20:34
iteration that we had that particular tool was running
20:38
everything in in batches and and the batches are and if you can
20:44
just imagine you know this company is pretty, pretty huge.
20:48
Those batches are they take a long time to run and so we've
20:53
scheduled these batches with these huge time scales so they
20:57
wouldn't bump into each other, you know while they're running.
21:01
And just what that means for the business is the longer you take
21:05
to kind of create an identity, the longer it takes before
21:08
someone can actually use it, which means you're delaying you
21:11
know potentially training or you're onboarding them and and
21:15
we just really needed to get that get time taken out of that
21:18
system. So that was one of the areas
21:21
where we thought, hey, we're going to resolve this tech debt
21:24
and we're going to be able to refactor this so we can also
21:28
take time out of the system. So, you know, it's like a bonus.
21:35
So you referred to the business there a few times.
21:38
And I'm wondering, you know, as an identity practitioner in your
21:41
role at McDonald's, who are your business customers?
21:44
Who are you talking about when you talk about the business?
21:47
Yeah. So ultimately my, you know when
21:50
I look at that the customer base of that particular tool, it
21:54
could be anybody from someone sitting in a corporate function
21:58
to to our restaurants out in international markets to our
22:06
franchisees. So it can go from you know just
22:13
just run the gamut and and at the time of that project that it
22:17
didn't handle consumer I D's. So by the time of that that
22:22
project, my scope had been kind of skilled back a little bit
22:26
because customers are a whole that's a whole different animal
22:32
you know there. So we're really talking about
22:35
the internal, the folks that are actually running our business
22:39
day-to-day is what we're looking at.
22:42
I think you have such an interesting challenge because
22:44
you know, we talk a lot about within the identity from like
22:48
BDE which is kind of your classic we've got.
22:52
Employees who work here in this building and we give them the
22:55
access, we talk about B to C, which are obvious like the
22:59
customers, the people who buy the burgers and fries and then
23:03
you've got the this franchisee population now they're the,
23:07
that's the to me that the hardest one to solve for that's
23:11
the B to B business to business, right.
23:13
These are independent companies that have bought restaurants or
23:19
run the restaurants. Around the country, but in a way
23:24
they're they're the I I think at least one of the customer
23:28
segments that you you identified as your business customer.
23:34
So you you're trying to solve this problem for, you know,
23:39
relative to those franchisees, I'm wondering does that?
23:43
Concept create I might am I making a bigger deal out of it
23:46
or does that add an additional layer of complexity?
23:50
Because I would imagine that it's harder to mandate change
23:55
like new processes, new systems, new screens to go to when you're
24:01
talking about like the independent franchisee
24:03
population. Yeah, I think and and this, you
24:06
know, this isn't unique to, you know, to McDonald's.
24:10
I think when you look at just the different types of of
24:14
business models that are out there, any multinational
24:17
company, you know, has these challenges where you're trying
24:20
to meet legal requirements in different in different
24:24
countries, you're trying to account for differences in
24:29
employment laws and all of these things.
24:32
I think the twist for any company that has any kind of a
24:36
franchise model is you have to remember that you're working
24:40
with independent business owners.
24:42
And so there's a certain amount of of things that you can kind
24:47
of mandate because it's required by the brand.
24:50
So for example, if you order a Big Mac, that Big Mac is going
24:56
to be the same in Arizona as the Big Mac that you get in, in
25:03
China, right? So there's just certain things
25:06
from a standardization that you want that same experience to
25:12
happen. But there's also, you know,
25:14
there's just certain components that you cannot dictate because
25:18
you can't tell people who own their own business how to run
25:21
that business. You're there to facilitate them
25:24
being successful at running the franchise that you've sold them.
25:28
So you know you're going to offer a certain amount of
25:30
standardization, but you can't force fit everything.
25:34
And so there's a I, I almost liken it to kind of being a
25:39
salesman, you know, like we're essentially selling services to
25:44
them and and we have to be mindful of you know what's
25:49
what's going to make them choose, you know, this way of
25:53
doing things over something that they come up with themselves or
25:56
that they go to another company you know to go after.
25:59
So there's always that you know that that fine line that needs
26:04
to be, you know that needs to be managed and you know ultimately
26:07
we're all in it to make sure that everyone's successful and
26:11
you know the brand is strong and you know and people have a good
26:14
experience when they come into our restaurants.
26:17
But but there's there's always you know certain flavors that
26:21
you have to to be mindful of so. Is that business process and
26:26
this is absolutely pun intended, secret sauce to McDonald's.
26:31
And what I mean by that is the way that you interact with
26:33
franchisees and the tools that you provide them, is that
26:38
considered you know? A competitive advantage because
26:40
I would imagine, right, there's always, that's the product that
26:43
they're buying from you in their case is the franchise itself,
26:47
right, And everything that comes along with it.
26:49
But you're not the only organization that does
26:51
franchises. So yeah, I'm wondering if that
26:54
is the case. Yeah, I think and anyone who's,
26:57
and granted I am not, this is not my realm of expertise.
27:01
This is me as just a Lehman, you know, you know, studying
27:06
business and and looking at different things.
27:08
But if you're an entrepreneur and you want to start a
27:12
business, you want that business to be successful.
27:16
And so you can come up with something from scratch, right?
27:21
Which is, you know, I'm just going to start my own business
27:23
and, you know, put out a shingle or, you know, stand up a Taco
27:26
truck or whatever it is, right? You can decide to do that
27:29
yourself or you can say okay, I'm going to buy into a process
27:35
that's already built, that's built on success and and so you
27:40
if you want your business to be successful, you want to choose.
27:43
You want to make the right choice, right.
27:46
And you know I think that that's just you know every everybody
27:53
who who's doing anything in entry you want to be the best at
27:57
you know and you want to be the the company of choice for your
28:00
consumers, for your business partners, for you know just for
28:04
for anything. So I I do think that there is a,
28:07
there is a secret to that. There's a competitive advantage
28:12
and and it's one of the reasons why we're so successful you know
28:17
worldwide. So it's just it's an incredible
28:20
business. Okay, So you confirmed my my
28:22
feelings on that and you mentioned Taco Truck, so I'm
28:25
guessing that's the next McDonald's menu item will be
28:28
some sort of McDonald's Taco. I'm just kidding.
28:30
I'm not gonna put you on a spot. I have no insight whatsoever and
28:36
too many selection or what's coming.
28:39
So if there are tacos that happen, it's not because I had
28:44
any insight into it. We just stopped talking about
28:48
Taco. I'm getting hungry.
28:52
Why don't we talk about some of the outreach that you've done?
28:56
Because they think this is something that a lot of identity
28:59
people really need to take under their belt and really get good
29:03
at is working with the business. And you know, we were kind of
29:07
chatting before we hit the record button and some of the
29:09
stuff you've done around. You know, visiting restaurants
29:11
and talking with workers and really trying to understand what
29:15
is your customer experience and you have so many different types
29:19
of customers, right. You've got to probably figure
29:21
out okay. Well, this might work for this
29:23
scenario where you probably get questions, well, why can't we do
29:25
it this way And you know, there's probably reasons you
29:28
know, for that. Can you talk a little bit about
29:31
sort of the experience that you've had?
29:33
You know, being in the stores or maybe talking with you know,
29:36
franchisees and and stuff like that where it's like okay, that
29:40
was kind of interesting and something maybe you hadn't
29:42
thought about before or maybe a good example that kind of added
29:45
value right to that conversation.
29:47
Yeah, absolutely. I think that, you know, I've
29:50
been kind of either in IT directly or IT adjacent for
29:56
almost my entire career. And one of the things that that
30:00
is super common is, you know this, this expression, you know,
30:05
I'm from corporate. I'm here to help, right?
30:09
Or you know, when you have an an IT project, it's this, this
30:14
other thing, right? It's not part of the business.
30:19
It's this thing that's off to the side, right?
30:21
It's a, it's a a function unto itself, right.
30:26
So a lot of times we go into these technology projects with
30:30
this kind of laser focus. This is a technology process
30:35
program. And therefore, I just need to
30:37
talk to technology people. I just need to focus on the tool
30:40
in my own process. And it's very insular and that's
30:45
certainly one way to approach it.
30:48
But we're not here to do tech for tech's sake, right?
30:56
We do tech on behalf of the business.
30:58
We do tech with the business, you know, with our entire, you
31:05
know, strategy and success in mind.
31:08
You know, it's it's I think too often we have this kind of view
31:12
that especially in cybersecurity that it's this, you know, just
31:17
package it up, put walls around it, stick it over here and you
31:22
know we'll call you if something or something happens.
31:26
But it's really it's, it's integral, you know technology
31:29
powers our business which I I think is pretty, you know it's
31:33
pretty common these days that that technology is really
31:36
foundational to a lot of businesses.
31:38
But I think it's been really important to our success and we
31:41
can't forget why we're doing this.
31:43
So one of the things that's really important for us to do is
31:46
to make sure that you don't forget why we're doing this and
31:50
who we're doing it for. So making those, those visits to
31:56
to our franchisees, talking to the owner operators, meeting
31:59
with the restaurant and crew and I I had an opportunity, a couple
32:04
of opportunities, but earlier this year I went on not this
32:12
year, sorry it was late last year, had the opportunity to go
32:16
on some visits. So went into Georgia and just
32:23
visited several of the franchisees and just going to
32:27
the restaurants and watching what happens, watching the
32:30
customers come through the door, watching the crew, you know
32:33
interact, going behind the counter and seeing the fries
32:37
getting made and the burgers getting made and you know the,
32:40
the, you know how they're actually staffing and you know
32:44
all these different things. So actually just being in the
32:46
business and and having the opportunity to interact with the
32:50
people who really drive you know drive what we do.
32:54
I mean it you know if you're sitting in in cybersecurity you
32:58
know really anywhere you know at a corporate location you're just
33:03
behind a laptop right. But the real meat of the of what
33:06
this business does is out is out in our restaurants and out
33:11
talking to our our customers. So, so that is, I think it's
33:15
it's something that that you know, everybody should do.
33:19
You know, I think even you know I say everyone should, should
33:24
take a job in the service industry whether it's in the
33:27
food, retail, you know, restaurants.
33:30
Everyone can benefit from having a job like that.
33:33
Because I think it will make you more of an empathetic person,
33:38
you know, to just have that experience.
33:41
But it's just, it's really incredible just to to see the
33:44
the people who actually make it happen every day.
33:48
Yeah, I have a motto that everybody should have to work
33:51
retailer food service, at least for some period of time and
33:54
shout out to all my food service piece out there because I spent
33:57
almost 10 years. I think I've done everything
34:00
from busboy to service to bartending to, you know,
34:04
restaurant management. It's a thankless job and you
34:07
learn to realize that, you know, sometimes that person's ranch
34:10
dressing is not the most important thing in the world.
34:13
So definitely would agree with that.
34:15
One of the things that I always find is top of mind for a lot of
34:18
businesses that have, you know, the a large number of employees
34:22
and a large number of people who are coming and going from the
34:26
environment, onboarding, offboarding, etcetera, you know,
34:29
retails notorious for that as well as as food service.
34:32
One of the things that you've kind of.
34:35
Taken on is how do you get on boarding to be faster?
34:37
And it's usually the first point of contact that a lot of people
34:41
have when they come into their job.
34:43
A lot of organizations are trying to have like we want to
34:46
have all of our access in by day one or day 2 or maybe even
34:50
before that, but a lot of companies struggle with that.
34:53
More realistically, it's probably like, well, we got them
34:55
their e-mail and their Active Directory account.
34:57
For day one. And the rest is going to come
35:00
when it comes down the line, right?
35:02
Or maybe it's as requested. Can you talk a little bit about
35:05
that onboarding experience and sort of the journey that's been
35:08
on? And if you had to guess like
35:10
where do you think you are in that journey?
35:12
Is it still towards the beginning?
35:13
Do you think you're in a good spot right now and you kind of
35:16
adapt as things come along? Or are there things that you're
35:19
thinking about already that was like, oh, I saw this person in
35:23
Georgia do this thing is like. If I could solve that, that
35:26
would maybe be helpful for other people.
35:28
Yeah. Yeah, there's there's always
35:29
room for, there's always room for improvement.
35:32
And I think that you know one of the things that we are, you
35:37
know, really good at focusing on is the customer experience.
35:41
If you know that the interactions with our apps and
35:44
the Dr. thru and coming into the lobby and the kiosk like it's
35:47
you know it's very focused. You know and we also have that
35:51
same focus for for our crew and and employees right, like they
35:57
also have experiences right. And those can be great
36:01
experiences or really terrible experiences.
36:04
And I think what's interesting about, you know, for those of us
36:09
who got to work in the kind of corporate, you know, sector, if
36:14
you come into a new job and you start day one and if if they
36:19
don't have your ID ready, what do you do?
36:21
You're just like I'll just, you know, work on my phone, I'll go,
36:24
I'll walk around the building, I'll talk to a couple of folks.
36:26
You know, I'll just, I'll go to lunch, do these things.
36:29
It's not a big deal. But but when you're working, you
36:35
know, particularly in the retail industry, we compete really hard
36:40
for talent, right. And and if someone does not have
36:45
a good experience, they don't have to, you know, sit around
36:49
twiddling their thoughts. They want to make money.
36:51
You know, they're they're you know, they're, you know those.
36:54
I think those of us who if you start day one, you're not on an
36:59
hourly wage, right? You're going to get paid whether
37:01
you're twiddling your thumbs or you know or actively you know,
37:05
at your desk where if you, you don't have a different approach,
37:09
you're just you're having a different experience.
37:11
And so people don't want to stand around waiting for things
37:15
to happen. They want to be able to start
37:18
working, start earning, Start learning, you know those types
37:21
of things. And so that experience, you
37:24
know, if you know to me, if I, if I come into a place and they
37:29
hire me and say I can start in a week, well that's the week that
37:35
I'm not earning. So is there some place else that
37:37
I can go that can, you know get me on a lot faster And and those
37:41
are the choices that people are making for work.
37:45
So I think when we look at it from that standpoint, how
37:50
quickly can we identify someone, recruit them get them to apply,
37:56
interview them, hire them, train them and get them started Like
38:00
that is a, I think everybody has those challenges in terms of how
38:04
long does that process take and how do we take time out of that.
38:07
And it's so important I think in the restaurant industry to
38:11
remember that you're not dealing with with days you may have, you
38:15
know it's not days and weeks you know that you have, you may have
38:18
minutes and hours you know to make that a good experience.
38:22
So, so that's something that we we continue to to work toward
38:27
and make the best experience possible for you know for our
38:32
talent. Yeah, just to comment on that,
38:36
it seems like. You really make a strong case
38:41
for the importance of onboarding as a way to retain talent.
38:47
It sounds to me like something that this is organizationally
38:51
understood, Management gets this.
38:53
Management is behind this and willing to invest to send you
38:57
and and teammates out to restaurants to get a feel for
39:03
how the technology that you are implementing impacts.
39:08
The franchisees or the restaurants, their ability to
39:11
conduct business. Is that what you found though
39:14
that this is really understood organizationally that you know,
39:18
speeding up the onboarding process actually does have a
39:22
business impact? Absolutely.
39:25
And and it's not just a, it's not a problem that only the
39:30
business can solve and it's not a problem that only technology
39:33
can solve. And I think that you know any
39:36
company that it's still kind of under this mindset of kind of
39:42
separating IT from the business right is going to struggle
39:49
because it's a partnership you you have to be able to see the
39:52
bigger picture and you know I think when you know I talked
39:58
earlier about tech debt if you were just looking with.
40:03
And I talk with my hands. Nobody.
40:04
So I'm drawing. I'm drawing a box.
40:09
Just. But it's helping keep the lights
40:11
on, so it is keeping. Behind the 4th wall, right?
40:14
The lights keep going off in your office and you're like
40:16
waving your arms around trying to get the motion sensor to
40:18
work. So it serves dual purpose.
40:20
It's dual purpose. I feel like one of those like
40:22
air dummies that. What are those the?
40:25
Yeah, like the wind thing. Yeah, the wind.
40:27
Thing in the car dealer. Yeah, yeah.
40:29
That's what I that's what I feel like right now.
40:31
But you know, if if you keep your your functions segregated
40:36
and just if you're in IT and you're just looking at your tech
40:39
debt, as all I have to do is upgrade this version and that's
40:42
it. No, you actually have to look at
40:45
who am I doing this on behalf of and go talk to them.
40:49
You know, like identities don't belong to cybersecurity, right?
40:54
Identities belong to, well, they belong to people.
40:59
That's a kind of probably a different topic.
41:03
It's a philosophical discussion, right.
41:05
But you know, but at the end of the day, like the, the
41:08
identities drive your business function.
41:11
So it's a partnership and you have to be talking and looking.
41:16
It's it's bigger than just the tool or the software that you're
41:19
using. It's how do we enable the
41:23
business to move faster, how do we enable our partners to be
41:28
successful, How do we do all of these things.
41:31
We have to be talking to each other and we have to be thinking
41:34
bigger than just the next version of you know software
41:38
that's you know, that's faster. So that's just kind of the way
41:41
that I, you know that I look at this that it's not just you know
41:45
identity is is really foundational.
41:48
And so we can't just look at identity as something that
41:51
belongs to cybersecurity and therefore only cyber can make
41:54
decisions or you know or have projects or initiatives or
41:58
whatever. It's you have to get everybody
42:01
involved and know what problem you're solving.
42:05
Yeah, really well put. And I think one of the things
42:08
for me that's so compelling about your story and you talked
42:11
about this was, you know, that tech debt, that's really a
42:17
hurdle that's beyond the ability to work within just a silo to
42:22
solve a really big problem, right?
42:24
It wasn't like. You could just make some changes
42:27
to your system and take onboarding from a 12 hour
42:31
process down to, you know, every, you know, 5 minutes or
42:35
near real time or something like that, right?
42:37
You had this large web of IT systems that go from an event
42:45
that happens within the identity control space to actually
42:50
turning into. Access on the systems that folks
42:54
need for training or conducting business.
42:58
And so to me, the reason that was so compelling was you had to
43:02
then say, all right, this is not something that can be solved
43:05
within my silo, my sphere of influence.
43:10
I now need to work with others outside of my group, and I
43:16
really think that. I actually don't think that that
43:20
is. When you, when you, when you
43:23
kind of abstract all the details of like how it works at
43:25
McDonald's. I don't think that that's that
43:28
uncommon of a challenge. I think I am practitioners in
43:31
large organizations wind up facing this problem a lot.
43:35
And So what I'd ask you is what are some tips or tricks or even
43:41
maybe how you went about approaching that problem right.
43:45
You had to get the other teams in a room.
43:47
You had to. Get management support.
43:50
You had to keep the grassroots support and ultimately drive to
43:54
a solution. I guess maybe to ask you are you
43:57
there yet? Have you have you guys kind of
44:00
like fully solved for where you want to be at the end state?
44:05
But then even what's the path to get there.
44:09
Yeah, I think, you know it's it's a journey that you know
44:13
that we're on. I don't.
44:14
I don't know. You know that you never say
44:17
like, OK, we're like we're done. Yay, This is, you know,
44:22
completely solved and perfect. But I think what I would, you
44:26
know, say is that, you know, sometimes people feel kind of
44:32
constricted by their span of control.
44:35
And if you look at, if you take an identity program and just
44:40
look at it like these are the, these are the pieces that I can
44:44
control and I'm in this box and and I don't know how to get
44:48
outside the walls, right. I think we create those walls,
44:52
right. We we imagine the walls are
44:54
there and what we have to do is begin to think about okay, it's
44:59
not just off in the corner. What I have to do is actually
45:04
reach out, you know, like I didn't just decide one day I was
45:07
going to go visit a bunch of operators, right?
45:10
Like, I actually had relationships with the people
45:13
who have the relationships with the operators and we went
45:16
together, right? So it's.
45:19
So I I think if you don't have relationships outside of your I
45:25
M practice, you need to start creating those, you know, So who
45:31
not just looking at, well, who supports my, you know, my tool
45:35
or who's you know, who's managing the tool?
45:37
Who's using the tool, Go talk to them.
45:40
You know, who's who's benefiting from, from what you're putting
45:43
out there, go, you know, set up a conversation, try to establish
45:48
those relationships just outside of your immediate network, get
45:53
closer to what your business actually does, right.
45:58
So how can you learn more about about the business that you're
46:02
in, the challenges that your you know that your business partners
46:07
have that your functions have talk to people.
46:10
That's the biggest thing because if you you know with with the
46:16
the project that I had, if you're just solving one piece,
46:20
you're going to get a partial solution and that sounds really
46:24
obvious but some people don't look at it that way.
46:27
I think if you if you have an objective where if the if your
46:32
goal is to solve the tech debt, you can check that box.
46:36
If your goal is to advance the business and make things better,
46:40
you can't check the box by yourself.
46:42
You have to be able to to bring other people along with you.
46:47
I feel very fortunate that and it's not just at my level.
46:51
Our entire you know, leadership gets this and so you know, so I
46:54
know that can be challenging if if you're in an organization
46:57
that is just isn't set up like that.
47:01
But to me it starts with those initial conversations you know
47:05
and and you can if you don't have those relationships start
47:08
building them because you're going to hear so much that you
47:12
didn't know. You know you're going to learn.
47:15
You'll learn a lot just by talking to, talking to your end
47:20
user. Talk to your end consumer and
47:23
and learn where where does your work end up at the end of the
47:28
day. And go talk to those people
47:29
because they're the, they're the ones who are dealing with what
47:33
you're, what you're putting out at the end of the day.
47:36
You know, just ask them what you know, how, How is this
47:39
experience for you? What could be better?
47:40
What kind of challenges are you facing?
47:43
Get out there and shake hands and kiss babies.
47:47
I'm curious, when you had a conversation, when you have the
47:50
conversations with those franchisee operators, how do you
47:54
talk to them about identity? Do they know?
47:57
Things Are they asking questions?
48:00
Do you find yourself having to explain the importance of it?
48:02
Like what's their like what? What do you get from the
48:05
conversation you're having with those, with those types of
48:07
folks? Because we rarely get into
48:09
franchise type models on the show.
48:11
We just haven't had as many conversations around it yet.
48:13
I think it's helpful for other people too.
48:15
I think it's it's really, you know, if you go at it from a
48:20
technical standpoint, you're going to get crickets, right?
48:24
Like I, you know, you you can't go to someone and just start
48:27
talking to them about cybersecurity identities.
48:30
What you want to talk to them about is tell me about your
48:33
business. You know, how many, you know,
48:37
how many restaurants do you have?
48:38
How long have you been in the business?
48:39
Well, you know what, What are some of the challenges that you
48:42
know that you're facing and you you're able to make connections
48:47
just by getting to know them and and asking them about asking
48:51
them about their business. So and you can do this with with
48:55
anybody in a function too like it.
48:57
You know, it's because I know franchise model isn't isn't for,
49:00
you know, not everybody has that there.
49:02
But you know let's say you have a, you know, a finance business
49:05
partner, we'll go have a coffee chat with them and just, you
49:09
know, just ask them, you know, what do you do for the company,
49:12
You know, how how does this, you know, how does this relate to
49:16
these overall goals? What are some of the challenges
49:18
that you're facing? And you can eventually kind of
49:20
come around to that, to the identities.
49:24
You know, I I think for us it's pretty straightforward because,
49:26
you know, you're talking about people you know, So tell us
49:29
about your, you know, tell us about your people.
49:31
What's the, you know, the best thing about you know about your,
49:36
you know, your, your folks. You know what what what things
49:39
are you celebrating? You know, we had one.
49:42
I I met a restaurant manager who it was like her third year with
49:48
the across the company. It was like she had the highest
49:52
daily sales on a Sunday for like the third year running.
49:56
She's just like this incredible. I don't know how she does it,
49:59
you know, but just, you know, talking to them about their, you
50:02
know. Her shake machine probably
50:03
works. I had to.
50:04
I had to get it out there. You had to get.
50:06
They're not broken. They're they're under
50:09
maintenance. I'm sorry, please go.
50:12
There's a patient cycle that has her run.
50:16
You want clean ice cream, don't you?
50:18
Yeah, but we don't want it to start at 6:00 PM.
50:23
So so she is leading sales. I mean, what was the secret to
50:26
her success? Like, how is this happening?
50:28
So I think just in talking to her, she's super personable,
50:34
She's very kind. She's very active in the in the
50:38
community. So I'm, you know, so some of
50:41
those she was organizing fundraisers and you know she was
50:47
just really involved in the community and that, you know
50:49
that's the the thing that's just really, you know, that that is
50:53
just it's really great to kind of see is that you've got folks
50:58
who are really tied in to their community and it's like a hub,
51:03
you know, so she's so she's just like the hub, you know, and
51:07
people just orbit around her. It's really, it's really
51:10
incredible. It's funny you mentioned that
51:13
hub cuz let's start to wrap things up.
51:15
But I have an early McDonald's memory of my own and it really
51:18
was the hub for us. We would show up, get breakfast
51:22
there, and then we'd go play flag football every Sunday
51:24
morning in our local league where I played.
51:28
And that was our thing. And we did that for years, like
51:33
every Sunday. I go get my sausage biscuit.
51:37
This was pre MC Griddle, which might be the greatest Jim, if
51:41
you had added the MC Griddle to the list of different things
51:45
that are important like Google search and Google Maps, I can
51:47
tell you right now. MC Griddle.
51:49
The sausage MC griddle would be #1 and it wouldn't even be
51:52
closed. It's down, right?
51:55
Yeah, I know. I like the MC Griddle, but I
51:58
mean I like Katash brown too. Hash runs are really good.
52:04
Have you ever consistency? Have you put the hash brown in
52:06
the Mcgriddle? OK, All right.
52:08
So we can. OK, so hold on a second here.
52:11
Wait a second. I got to recover for a second
52:13
here. All right.
52:14
So all right, let's let's go to the lighter note.
52:17
Because I want to ask McDonald's questions, and I was going to
52:19
ask if there's a secret McDonald's menu, but now you're
52:23
talking about just combining legit, like, legit good things
52:27
together to make your own item. But go on, I want it.
52:31
Tell me more about this. Yeah, I just, I I love doing
52:34
this. So one thing and you know, not
52:36
to, you know, plug, you know, plug too many things.
52:39
But if you go into the McDonald's app, you can
52:42
customize things. So sometimes what what I will do
52:46
is in our the restaurant here in our headquarters in Chicago
52:53
features in international menu. So we bring in menu items from
52:57
different countries around the world and most recently, so
53:00
filet fish is my absolute favorite menu item.
53:04
But this month we have a shrimp burger from Japan and I love
53:10
shrimp and I've been waiting to try the shrimp burger.
53:14
And so one of the things that I did is I I ordered a I ordered
53:21
the shrimp burger and there's like a special one that it comes
53:24
with and I ordered the filet of fish fun list.
53:28
So what I was able to do is make a shrimp filet of fish.
53:33
Double Decker, you're. Like a fan scientist there.
53:39
So I think, you know there's there's so many things that you
53:42
can do if you go in with any, any item that you're adding,
53:46
there's a little customized menu so you can add, add things, take
53:50
things away. So I like just playing, playing
53:53
with that and, you know, seeing what I can come up with.
53:56
Are there any secret items? Like if you were to go to a
53:58
store and ask for X? And I'll give you an example.
54:01
So I used to work for Chili's long time ago and there was
54:06
originally on the menu they had a chicken or country fried
54:11
chicken or something like that. It was CFCH.
54:14
If you're a chili had, you know that you know the shorthand for
54:17
putting in the order, and they got rid of it off the menu, but
54:21
they could still make it if you asked for it.
54:24
I'm wondering if there are things like that that are not on
54:27
the menu but are kind of like a wink, wink, nod, nod, like, Oh
54:31
yeah, okay, we know what you're talking about.
54:33
We'll, we'll hook you up, Okay. So the one thing I haven't had a
54:37
chance to try this yet, but the one thing and I I would ask just
54:41
don't go in at like the absolute busiest time the restaurant, but
54:47
go in and see if they will make you an apple pie.
54:51
Mcflurry okay. So it's just Mcflurry.
54:57
And then crumble up the apple pie and mix it in.
55:00
So that's just That's my I'm. Gonna try that out.
55:05
Just non busy time. Get to know your crew members go
55:08
up to the counter, yeah. Just be a good human being,
55:12
right? Be a good human being.
55:13
Be polite and just see if they'll do it for you.
55:17
Okay, I'll try that out. All right, follow up question
55:21
and we'll start to wrap up. What's the coolest McDonald's
55:23
that you've ever visited? Goodness.
55:28
So I I'm going to have to say that the one that carries the
55:34
international menu downstairs so and that's the headquarters one
55:39
so and that. And I say that just because the
55:43
menu you know we have an opportunity.
55:45
If you can't travel the world, the world comes to you.
55:49
And so I've had an opportunity to try things from from Sweden,
55:53
from Saudi Arabia, from India, from Japan.
55:57
And it's just it's really, it's really incredible, you know, to
56:01
have. So that's cool for me just from
56:03
a menu perspective. The other thing that I'll say is
56:07
that even though we do have a standard menu, there are some
56:13
localizations that just depending on where you are.
56:17
So for example in Hawaii the restaurants will have spam, Spam
56:24
and rice, you know there or if you go to I think Germany, some
56:31
of the restaurants have beer, you know.
56:33
So it's just it's, you know, it's it's really interesting
56:37
just to see how how you can have kind of a a more localized
56:42
experience to local taste, you know?
56:45
So that's really fun. I think if you're traveling,
56:47
this might sound really lame, but if you're traveling to to an
56:52
international location, like go to a McDonald's and see what's
56:57
different about that, yeah. I'm with you cuz I did the same
57:00
thing. I was in London about a month
57:02
ago now, or maybe 3 weeks and I tried McDonald's.
57:05
Just see I'm like, alright, well you know, my wife looked at me
57:08
and she's like, why would you want to do that?
57:10
Like we're in London. It's like.
57:12
To see what the, you know, the difference is.
57:13
So and it was amazingly consistent.
57:16
You know, it was London, so it's a little bit different.
57:18
The other one I've been to was in France, in Paris.
57:22
There was one by the Louvre that we I didn't eat there, but I
57:26
remember just looking at it. I was like okay.
57:28
Like looking at the menu, I was like okay.
57:29
Yeah, that's definitely like not something that was that I would
57:33
expect. To see at a McDonald's, like, I
57:35
love that the restaurants in the South because you can get
57:38
biscuits and gravy, which is Oh yeah, so.
57:41
I'm waiting for, like, a chicken and waffles to hit a McDonald's.
57:44
Then we're going to be good, because I'll tell you right now
57:46
one I'm a connoisseur and I am on the quest to find the perfect
57:49
chicken and waffle. Jim knows this.
57:52
I'll give a plug right now to I know this is, you know, we're
57:54
talking McDonald's, but Yardbird at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
57:58
And that's chicken and waffles I've ever had, hands down.
58:02
So now the secret here to chicken and waffles is.
58:05
The chicken needs to be good and the waffle needs to be good.
58:07
A lot of places do. One or the other or the other,
58:10
Yeah. No.
58:11
I'm sorry I warned you. No points.
58:13
You get no credit off that. So, you know, here's that's my
58:17
suggestion for a menu. I don't be chicken and waffles.
58:21
So Jeff, when you went to the McDonald's in Paris, did you get
58:24
a Big Mac or Royale cheese? Well, this is like the Pulp
58:29
Fiction thing. I think that's what opened the
58:30
eyes. It's like, well, they don't call
58:31
it the Quarter Pounder because they're on the metric system,
58:33
right, Which I thought was like okay, That's kind of funny,
58:35
right? I didn't eat.
58:37
I walked past it and it was on the corner and I don't know the
58:40
address, but it's by the Louvre and the menu items were, it was
58:45
all in French. So I couldn't really read it to
58:46
begin with, but I was watching people come out and.
58:49
The fries were the same. That was like the consistency
58:52
of, you know, like, OK, that's consistent.
58:54
And then it come out and you'd see, you'd see like wine and you
58:57
know, of course beer and stuff like that.
58:58
But there were different looking buns as well.
59:03
So it wasn't like the sesame bun that probably most people are
59:05
familiar with from like a McDonald's burger, right, Or
59:07
something like that. It had like it was almost like a
59:10
it looked like, almost like a croissant.
59:11
Basically it was, it was different.
59:14
More high end bread, of course. Well, yeah.
59:17
Jim, what's your, what's the, I don't know, the coolest
59:21
McDonald's you've visited? So back in around 2006 or 2007,
59:28
those of my buddy shout out to Mark Caesar over at Ingersoll
59:32
Rand. We both worked there and we were
59:35
in Belgium near Brussels and it was late and they closed the
59:41
restaurant and said only the drive through was open.
59:44
But we didn't have a rental car. We were just, you know, we're
59:46
taxing everywhere. So we got into the drive
59:49
through. We stood in the drive through
59:53
someone who is behind us didn't like that we were doing that and
59:58
kept bumping us in the back of their leg with their front
1:00:01
bumper of their car. We finally did to get around and
1:00:05
got our order and we got beer with our McDonald's order.
1:00:10
So that was definitely the most interesting story.
1:00:13
But I really like McDonald's. And one thing I was going to say
1:00:17
about the biscuits is they're surprisingly good.
1:00:21
You know, for someone who's lived in the South for 16 years,
1:00:24
I think the McDonald's Biscuits are pretty darn good all.
1:00:28
Right. Let's not turn this into a
1:00:29
commercial for McDonald's because I don't think they need
1:00:31
our help. But I think it's safe to say
1:00:34
that we're fans and, you know, look, it's a Global Icon, right?
1:00:36
I mean. It's everywhere.
1:00:38
So it's always just kind of talk about that because I think it is
1:00:40
a little bit of a cultural thing, like everybody kind of
1:00:42
knows like when I have my first Happy Meal, right?
1:00:45
Or a toy or something like that. That's what I love.
1:00:47
I love that everyone has a McDonald's story.
1:00:50
It's really neat. That's an icebreaker that I use
1:00:55
to start conversations sometimes, like tell me, tell me
1:00:59
about your what memory do you have?
1:01:01
And it's usually like a play place or.
1:01:04
You know, having a birthday party or something.
1:01:06
But it's, you know, it's, it's it's really neat that it's a
1:01:09
it's a common thread that so many of us have.
1:01:12
That reminds me of when I was growing up.
1:01:14
They had the outdoor play place and they had what was it?
1:01:18
It was like the burger jail that was like up.
1:01:21
And it was like this metal tube that you'd go in up into.
1:01:24
And then it was basically just a burger.
1:01:27
It was like metal poles is like a jail.
1:01:30
And I just remember like, this is the best thing ever.
1:01:35
I don't like to judge people, but you can learn a lot about a
1:01:38
person by their McDonald's order.
1:01:40
I had a friend in college who would get a cheeseburger and
1:01:43
fries. He would get a cheeseburger and
1:01:45
they would scrape all the cheese off.
1:01:47
What? And I was like, why don't you
1:01:50
just get a hamburger? I don't know.
1:01:54
There's the way I've always done it.
1:01:55
And then the other thing was he would eat his cheeseburger, the
1:01:59
whole thing, and then he would eat all of his fries.
1:02:02
No, see, now that's backwards. You got to eat the fries first
1:02:04
because the fries have a limited shelf life like that.
1:02:07
You want to get them when they're fresh.
1:02:10
I'm right. So are you're right.
1:02:11
So do you judge him based on that or not?
1:02:14
Absolutely 100%. He's a weirdo.
1:02:17
No, no, there's there's no wrong way.
1:02:19
It's just you know. Well, here's a pro tip for.
1:02:22
Fries choice, yeah. Get a Get a air fryer at home
1:02:26
and then you don't have to worry about it.
1:02:27
You just take the fries, you bring it home.
1:02:30
Open the air fryer for 3:50 for about 3 to 4 minutes depending
1:02:33
how far away your your travel was.
1:02:36
Just like new, the real trick is to order your fries with no
1:02:39
salt. Yeah, because I heard that gets
1:02:42
you a fresh, fresh batch. Fresh.
1:02:45
Batch. Yeah, but I want the salt so you
1:02:48
can get a side of salt and then put it on on your.
1:02:51
Own side of salt. All right, we're getting crazy
1:02:53
now. All right, let's go ahead and
1:02:54
wrap this up. We've taken up way too much of
1:02:56
Ebony's time. Ebony, thank you so much for
1:02:59
being part of this. We'll have a LinkedIn connection
1:03:03
for you in our show notes where people want to reach out, ask
1:03:06
questions, or, I don't know, share McDonald's story or
1:03:09
absolutely wonder if that is that store is is the McDonald's
1:03:12
store at corporate open to the public?
1:03:14
Or is it? Absolutely is, Yeah.
1:03:15
No, it's in the West West Loop of Chicago.
1:03:18
Come on down. OK.
1:03:19
So we talked about doing lunch and I think maybe I might want
1:03:22
to see if we can swing that. Let's let's do that.
1:03:27
All right, let's make it happen, Joe.
1:03:28
Yes. All right.
1:03:29
Let's do it. OK.
1:03:30
So we'll go and wrap things up. Ebony, thank you for being part
1:03:33
of the show. Jim, thanks for being part of
1:03:35
the show. As always, you can find us on
1:03:37
the web at idacpodcast.com. We're on Twitter, X, whatever
1:03:43
it's called. By the time you listen to this
1:03:44
at IDAC Podcast, Ron Mastodon at IDAC Podcast, at Infosec, dot
1:03:50
Exchange, Jim and Iron LinkedIn. We love hearing from people who
1:03:54
listen. You've got ideas for shows,
1:03:56
questions, comments, concerns, doesn't matter, reach out.
1:03:59
We're always happy to to have a chat.
1:04:02
Speaking of chats, I had a really interesting chat with
1:04:04
someone from Israel that was talking about decentralized
1:04:08
identity and trying to figure out how to make good apply it at
1:04:11
the government level, which I thought was really interesting.
1:04:13
So very cool for people to authenticate the conference.
1:04:16
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, and so connect with us.
1:04:20
Subscribe, like all that fun social media stuff helps us out.
1:04:25
Hope you enjoy the show. If you don't send it to an
1:04:26
enemy, we don't care. As long as people listen, That's
1:04:29
all we care about. So we'll go ahead and leave it
1:04:31
there for this week and we'll talk to everyone in the next
1:04:34
one. You've been listening to
1:04:36
Identity at the center. We hope you've enjoyed the show.
1:04:40
Make sure to like, rate and review and we'll be back soon.
1:04:45
But in the meantime, hit the website at
1:04:47
identity@thecenter.com and find us on Twitter at IDAC Podcast.
1:04:55
See you next time on identity at the center.