McDiploma // McDonalds

In Hong Kong, a job at McDonald's was something people did before their real career started. Recruitment was sliding, and the managers who had spent years running restaurants were still being filed under burger-flipper. McDonald's had quietly built the answer: a Professional Diploma in Management Development, accredited at QF Level 5, the same tier as a bachelor's degree under the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework. An industry first, fully funded by the company. Almost nobody knew it existed.

So we gave it the ceremony it deserved. We staged a full graduation congregation, with all the apparatus of a university commencement, for 222 restaurant general managers who had never walked across a stage for anything. The people who ran the restaurants graduated as what they had become: certified managers with a qualification the city recognises. The story carried itself, and the decline in job applications reversed.