To European eyes, McDonald’s sacking of cheif executive Steve Easterbrook over a consensual affair with an employee seems totally OTT. Surely a rap on the knuckles would suffice, or a fine, perhaps. When the now-Lloyd's of London chief John Neal got a rollocking for having a relationship with his PA by his old shop QBE, a £340,000 fine was the end of the affair (well, not literally - she's now his wife).
But Brit-born Easterbrook will have been well aware of the punishment for the crime. In 2010 the number two at the golden arches, Ralph Alvarez, was booted for having a relationship with the wife of one of its biggest franchisees.
And plenty of other US chiefs have had to walk the plank for the same offence. Boeing's Harry Stonecipher got the bullet for the same thing, while Lockheed Martin's chief executive-elect Christopher Kubasik was fired before he'd even started after he admitted sleeping with a subordinate.
McDonald’s may seem like a global giant, but it is highly reliant on franchisees in small-town America, where puritan Christianity runs deep. Indeed, a former high-up there tells me the company culture always felt like it sprung up in Nowhere'sville, Idaho.
It's a great loss of talent for the company, but like Alvarez, Easterbrook had to go.
