Brands
McDonald’s and Accenture expand tech partnership for enhanced experiences
Mumbai: McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) announced an expansion of their strategic partnership to help execute McDonald’s strategy to leverage the latest edge technology and apply generative AI solutions across its restaurants worldwide to improve operations as well as customer and crew experience. Through this work, McDonald’s also will enhance the digital capabilities of its employees.
This partnership will help support McDonald’s technology strategy which aims to leverage scale and unlock greater speed and efficiency for customers, restaurant teams, and employees. This includes the acceleration of automation innovation from equipment manufacturers, allowing restaurant general managers to quickly spot and enact solutions to reduce business disruptions, ultimately reducing complexity for restaurant crew and leading to customer benefits such as hotter, fresher food.
This phase of innovation is also designed to build an even stronger technology team at McDonald’s. Accenture will help train and support McDonald’s global workforce by using Accenture’s learning and development programs, online training courses and boot camps for emerging talent to ensure the workforce has the AI, data and edge computing skills needed in the digital era.
McDonald’s executive vice president and global chief information officer Brian Rice said, “In order to unlock the opportunity in our ongoing digital investments, we chose Accenture, our long-time partner who has helped us build our digital foundation, to work with us on this next phase of innovation. Accenture’s deep understanding of our business, our industry, and of course technology, will allow us to leverage the full potential of the cloud and generative AI solutions by implementing advanced practices to quickly leverage those technologies as well as to nurture and empower the talent within our organization. Lifelong learning and digital upskilling are at the heart of our culture and long-term growth plans – and embedding this across our workforce will enable greater business agility and performance.”
Accenture chair and CEO Julie Sweet said, “We are incredibly proud to continue to partner with McDonald’s as they reinvent the customer experience, stay ahead of their customers’ changing needs and reimagine what a restaurant can be. This new work will be a leading example across industries of innovating with tech data and AI at the core, across the cloud continuum, all the way to the edge. And doing so in a way that keeps their people in the forefront, building the skills they need to meet and delight their customers in new ways every day.”
Brands
Oyo parent Prism appoints former Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi to Board
Former market regulator joins Prism to strengthen governance for IPO
NEW DELHI: Prism, the parent entity of Oyo, has appointed former Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi as an independent director, as the hospitality firm gears up for its planned Rs 6,650 crore initial public offering (IPO).
Tyagi, a 1984-batch IAS officer, served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from 2017 to 2022. His appointment is aimed at strengthening the company’s governance framework and providing strategic oversight as it moves closer to a public listing.
He joins a high-profile board that already includes several prominent names from global business and policy circles. These include Troy Matthew Alstead, former CFO and group president of Starbucks; Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Air; Deepa Malik, paralympic athlete and Padma Shri awardee; William Steve Albrecht, professor of accountancy at Utah State University; and Bejul Somaia, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Prism founder Ritesh Agarwal, said Tyagi’s experience in capital markets regulation and public-institution stewardship will be critical as the company scales operations and enhances long-term accountability.
The company recently filed preliminary papers with Sebi to raise Rs 6,650 crore through a confidential route. Market sources estimate its valuation will be in the range of $7 billion to $8 billion.
Over the course of his career, Tyagi has held senior roles in the ministry of finance, where he oversaw investment policy and financial-sector reforms. His induction to the Prism board signals a renewed focus on aligning the company’s internal standards with the stringent requirements of public markets as it advances toward its IPO.
