Thomas Mucha

As Managing Editor in charge of correspondents, Thomas Mucha oversees the GlobalPost correspondents team and contributes to special features and reporting projects. He also writes a weekly column...

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Thomas Mucha's Notebook:

November 12, 2009 15:14 ET

Here comes the McAssault

Get ready, world: McDonald's is targeting you.

The U.S. fast food giant says it's opening 1,000 new restaurants next year. It will also renovate 2,300 more.

Here's the McBreakdown of new joints for 2010:

  • 490 across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia
  • 260 for Europe
  • 150 in the U.S.
  • 80 for Latin America
  • 20 in Canada

The business rationale?

"Today's market conditions have accentuated our strengths," said McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner said. "The time is ideal for us to further differentiate our brand and grow market share. We are determined to keep stretching our business, increasing traffic and becoming more relevant to a growing number of customers around the world."

McDonald's is one of those great science lab companies of globalization — an icon that tries to adapt its business model and menu to local tastes, while keeping it all under the same umbrella. Sometimes it works (especially in a global recession, where people are spending less on food). Sometimes it doesn't.

But as recent GlobalPost coverage shows, it's always fun to watch — from what the company is doing to attract Moroccan taste buds, to how it's fending off a new competitor in Indonesia, to changing the culinary traditions of France.

 

 

November 10, 2009 16:43 ET | Updated: November 10, 2009 17:41 ET

21st century commies

Tired of all the Berlin Wall coverage yet? We don't blame you.

But before you zone out on all that coverage about something that happened two decades ago, check out these two smart and interesting projects that look mostly ahead, not back.

First, if you haven't seen GlobalPost's take on that seminal event, you should. While it does take (ahem) a few wistful glances back, the project does a great job of analyzing how the end of the Cold War is playing out today across the whole of eastern Europe — from politics, to food, to sports, to famous East German clunkers.

The second comes from our friends at Panos Pictures. It's called "Twenty-First Century Communists," and tells the important story of how Marxist principles have lived on in three countries: North Korea, Moldova and, of all places, Nepal. 

Twenty-First Century Communists from panos pictures on Vimeo.

November 10, 2009 11:17 ET

Google yourself at the airport. For free.

Our internet overlord has made a nice gesture.

Through the holidays, Google is offering free WiFi at 47 airports around the U.S. The list of airports includes places large (Houston) and small (Traverse City), and will cover about 35 percent of U.S. travelers.

There's a catch, of course.

After signing in you'll be asked if  you want to set Google as you home page. You'll also be asked to try the Google Chrome browser.

"This is one of our holiday gifts to our users, and when you connect, we also hope you'll take the opportunity to try some of the latest Google products," the company said in a statement.

Still, free is free.

 

November 6, 2009 09:04 ET | Updated: November 6, 2009 09:06 ET

Our stonewashed jeans economy

Let's take a trip back to 1983:

  • Michael Jackson first performs the moonwalk.
  • Margaret Thatcher wins in a landslide.
  • Ronald Reagan proposes a "Star Wars" defense system to intercept Soviet missiles.
  • The U.S. jobless rate hits 10.2 percent.

Michael, Margaret and Ronald may be gone from the global scene, but the U.S. labor market might as well be wearing tight stonewashed jeans and humming Culture Club's "Do you really want to hurt me."

It hasn't been this bad in 26 years.

The U.S. economy, the world's largest, shed 190,000 jobs last month. The jobless rate rose from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent.

So while the overall picture is improving, most economists don't expect the labor pains to end until next year, as unemployment is a "lagging indicator." (Meaning: it's often the last thing to improve as things get better).

“There’s no doubt that the slashing and burning of jobs has abated quite a lot,” Allen L. Sinai, the founder of Decision Economics, told the New York Times. “The economy is recovering, but it is a very soft recovery.”

Boy George could not be reached for comment.

 

 

November 4, 2009 13:36 ET | Updated: November 4, 2009 14:41 ET

Mickey Mouse Mandarin

Will the Mouse play in mainland China?

That's the big question today after Walt Disney said it won Chinese government approval to build a giant theme park in Shanghai.

The tab: a reported $4 billion, which would make it one of the biggest foreign investments yet in China.

But as Forbes smartly points out, the move comes with plenty of risk.

Disney, you see, already has some Chinese experience. It opened a theme park in Hong Kong back in 2005, with less-than-stellar results.

Here's the money graph, according to Forbes:

"After years of missteps, Disney's annual visitors in Hong Kong are still about 25 percent below original targets set at the park's opening. In its first year, Disney's Hong Kong park attracted 5.2 million people, below its goal of 5.6 million. Visitor numbers fell 20 percent in the second year to just 4 million, and grew to 4.5 million visitors in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, still far below the numbers it hoped to draw."

The problem? Culture, of course. Like most U.S. companies trying to do business in China (or anywhere else), Disney has had trouble matching up local tastes, customs and values with its business model.

So what does work in China?

Perhaps the Mouse should study the reporting of our own Kathleen E. McLaughlin, who last month discovered a theme park in southwestern China that features singing and dancing dwarves.

Yes, it is a small world after all.