• Burger King’s corporate culture attracts and values those that can take ownership, and rewards them accordingly, its global CMO Fernando Machado told Business Insider in a recent interview.
  • “The type of people that we attract are people who have our owners’ mindset,” Machado said. He called them “doers.”
  • The company discourages its employees from viewing their jobs as careers, instead encouraging them to view themselves as business owners.

If Burger King’s funny and self-deprecating ads are anything to go by – you better have your creative hat on if you want to work at the company.

But that’s not all it takes, the burger chain’s global chief marketing officer Fernando Machado told Business Insider in a recent interview.

Burger King’s corporate culture attracts and values those that can take ownership, and rewards them accordingly, he said. He attributed this doer-culture to 3G Capital, the global investment firm that owns RBI or Restaurant Brands International, Burger King’s parent company.

“The type of people that we attract are people who have our owners’ mindset,” Machado said. “We are looking for people who want to come and be partners for the long-term.”

In fact, the company discourages its employees from viewing their jobs as careers, instead encouraging them to view themselves as business owners.

"We don't want people to come here and have a career," he said. "You don't have a career, you are an owner of the business, and we remunerate accordingly."

The brand also structures its teams correspondingly, ensuring that they are really small, so that people are really accountable for the chunk of the business that they are responsible for.

"We tend to give much more responsibility to people at the early stages, even when the person doesn't have experience," he said. "All those things, when combined, create this ownership mindset which is present in people who are successful at Burger King."

Machado also described the kind of creatives that thrive at the brand, both in its internal team as well as its key agency partners.

"They really get the brand and share a very high creative ambition," he said. "They know that we execute good ideas and we are willing to pick up the fight to make it happen."