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It’s no secret that McDonald’s is in the midst of a protracted sales decline. The chain hasn’t seen positive quarterly same-store sales in the U.S. since the third quarter of 2013. But while McDonald’s has been more vocal about its struggles recently, it has not offered much detail or insight into why the decline happened in the first place.

Until today, when during his first earnings call as CEO, Steve Easterbrook shed some light on where he thinks the chain faltered. An analyst asked Mr. Easterbrook: “Steven, as you have seen all of the research that McDonald’s has had, [were] there maybe one or two big things that consumers were telling you about three or four years ago that you needed to change, and you could have prevented the decline in the sales?”

Mr. Easterbrook’s candid response was that although there were a number of initiatives executed a few years back, including the long-term project of reimaging the restaurants and the overhaul of the chain’s coffee program, one initiative the company didn’t take seriously enough or forsee was “to create that future pipeline of growth platforms.”

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