Company Background and Activities
The McDonald’s is a worldwide organisation that is specialising on providing highly available food of fast cooking time and delivery. The executives have always put equality and global food distribution as their first priority (Wenzel et al., 2020). Hence, this company is well-known to support workers all around the globe, fighting the race and gender issues in the workplace (Johannessen, 2017). Thus, McDonald’s as a very influential and modern organisation has various opportunities to help people with unfortunate economic, social, or political situation providing service, vacancies, and other advantages globally (Li et al., 2005). The aim of this paper to analyse the strategic structure of this well-known company and learn external and internal factors of their job.
Vision and Mission Analysis
McDonald’s leaders believe that people are their most valuable resource as they compete with national and international fast-food giants throughout the world. They invest in their employees’ growth and job satisfaction because it is the right thing to do and, perhaps, because their success as a business depends on their commitment to delivering outstanding value (Lynch, 1994). The McDonald’s system provides employment and growth opportunities to a vast number of minority groups in the United States and people around the globe (Salama et al., 2011). Their commitment to opportunity also includes support for their employee’s education (Mujutaba, 2007). For example, McDonald’s UK offers approximately $1,800 to each employee to invest in their education, training, or ongoing involvement in sports or the fine arts.
Strategic Internal Analysis
To take a better look at the marketing strategies of McDonalds it is necessary to refer to the PESTLE factors of a better analysis: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. To consider the political factors, the fast-food chains have always been criticised for being a bad influence on the obesity rates among children and adults and the rates of people suffering from heart diseases (David and David, 2016). That is why multiple political activists all over the world usually try to make the audience support their initiatives to control McDonalds and other food companies providing the similar product (Vlados, 2019). In the United Kingdom, the government carefully regulates the amount of salt food intake in McDonalds because of the proven correlation between the consumption of salt and various neural and heart illnesses.
RBV vs I/O
Over the last 20 years, the Resource-Based View (RBV) of strategy development has come to be identified as one of the principal methods of analysing and delivering the sustainable competitive advantage of an individual company. Some writers have seen it as providing the basis of some aspects of global strategic development (Alford and Greve, 2017). Essentially, the RBV can be defined as the search for the sustainable competitive advantage of a company that will derive from its superior ability to develop, use and protect its competencies and resources (Haberberg and Rieple, 2008). It counts when compared to other firms in the same market (Lynch, 2000). Speaking of the input and output analysis, McDonalds has managed to preserve all the sufficient methods of marketing while allowing innovative strategies as well (Hill et al., 2014). This makes the company stay on a leading position applying new positive changes in their working environment (Romme, 2016). Therefore, their contribution in social, economic, and political spheres pays off by faithful and reliable customers.
Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix
Speaking of the main internal factors of the organisation’s structure, it is essential to distinguish its strengths and weaknesses. First, McDonalds has a strong brand name, image, and reputation (Rowley, 2004). It is known for a strong global presence, specialised training for managers known as the Hamburger University, and strong performance in the global marketplace (Johnson and Whittington, 2020). McDonalds Plan to Win focuses on people, products, place, price, and promotion, it has introduction of multiple successful new products regularly and is rather focused on customer’s needs (Vignali, 2001). It is necessary to find the weaknesses of the company, too (Han, 2008). McDonalds has been criticised for an unhealthy food image, high staff turnover including top management (Lees, 2012). Moreover, the company has been sued multiple times for unhealthy or dangerous foods in the menu.
Strategic External Analysis
As for the technological methods that McDonalds has been using worldwide, the company provides digital marketing that helps with global popularisation, outreach, and decreasing of costs. Moreover, the pay benefits for the employees are quite unprecedented because 90 % of the restaurants are franchised which allows the executives to put their own wages and prices (Capon, 2008). The current aim of McDonalds is to raise the wages of their workers up to 15 USD per hour because of the rising inflation rates and other complexities of the economic system (Rajawat et al., 2020). Additionally, the organisation has a visible presence in the social media because of constant development and keeping up with newest Internet trends and networks, like Facebook or Twitter.
As for the ecological factors of the organisation’s marketing, there are ongoing discussions of the inevitable negative influence of beef production on the climate change situation (Vrontis and Pavlou, 2008). Indeed, the food-chain has been collecting the needed amount of beef from cows on the deforested areas in the Amazon jungle to maximally cut the costs since 1986 (Talpau and Boscor, 2011). Many environmentalists say that, in order to survive in current socio-economic discourse and prevent the ecological crisis, McDonald has to find more sustainable resources and cut down the beef consumption in general (Rajavat et al., 2020). Hence, the development of sufficiency and sustainability has been the first priority for McDonalds’s marketing strategy.
Competitive Profile Matrix
As for the analysis of the sustainable competitive advantage, McDonalds has seven main factors that make this organisation so successful. The company has prior or acquired resources, imitability, and durability (Danca, 2005). Moreover, McDonalds is praised for having appropriability and substitutability in general (MacIntosh and Maclean, 2014). And, additionally, the global food-chain can be named truly competitive and capable of high innovation (Mujtaba and Patel, 2007). That means constant modernization which leads to overall success in the global competitive capitalist marketplace.
External Factor Evaluation Matrix
To analyse the matrix of external factors, it is crucial to outline the opportunities of McDonalds in the global marketplace. First, the economy is forcing people to trade down and choose less expensive options (Westley and Mintzberg, 1989). Demand for healthier options for children has been successfully established adding to the menu more fruit and vegetable options for kids as well as the demand for more natural choices on menu (Schröder and McEachern, 2005). Moreover, more than 57% McDonalds outside US absorb US losses so that economics and competitors inspire brand loyalty and return customers (Arndt, 2007). Nevertheless, the company has multiple threats that show potential problems that need urgent solvation in order to continue the leadership (Gander, 2017). For example, healthy eating demands and increasing media attention to fast food and its negative effects are eroding some number of sales (Heng). Also, McDonalds struggles to stop the price wars and steady US unemployment rate and lack of nutritional value of the products.
Recommendations
McDonalds is a quickly developing fast-food chain that has been putting low prices and availability first for many years. However, the food quality has to be seriously improved, as nutritionists say, to better the overall well-being of the potential customers, as well as their mental health. Indeed, it is of hight importance to prevent consequences of fast-food chains that are harmful to society. Further, it is important to stop the monopolization of one company and give the food-related companies economic and business freedom. Nevertheless, for the last decade McDonalds has been praised by many economic and social scientists for helpful and influential changes in the fundamental structure of this global organisation.
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