BUS501 Strategic Management

Just elaborate on the strategic, tactical, operational and contingency plans for McDonald

Find a company (large, international, or multinational companies are preferred for this assignment) Analyze the company based on the following items:

Mission statement

Strategic goals

Tactical goals

Operational goals

Strategic plans (e.g. the main strategies)

Tactical plans

Operational plans (e.g. Policies, standard operating procedures and rules and regulations)

Contingency planning

Mission statement

McDonald’s is a leading fast food chain, which started its operations in 1940. It seeks to serve freshly prepared fast food to satisfy its consumer’s needs while keeping its’ products healthy and tasty. According to the corporate website of the company, it seeks to go beyond what they sell (McDonald's). McDonald’s follows the vision of becoming a household name by imbibing a sense of belonging among its consumers, and become a part of the society rather than just a fast food outlet. Its founders Richard and Maurice McDonald started a restaurant in 1940, when Ray Croc later purchased the company in 1955. Croc was a visionary and transformed the organization into what it is today (Blogger). His mission was to promote the American way of life across the world and thus led to the expansion of the fast food chain.

Strategic goals

The company is oriented towards making the customer experience at highest priority. This is their basic goal and their everyday activities are geared towards improving the customer satisfaction (John).  The company firmly believes in the fact that customers who leave the store should yearn to come back again (News room). This kind of following has made McDonald’s the leading food market chain across the globe and a favorite hangout amongst office goers as well as students and families. The strategy to keep customers hooked to its service standards and food quality has been worthy of appreciation, as well as expected from such a large brand.

 Tactical goals

The major tactical goal for McDonald’s is to garner stronger connect with its consumers and expand its base. In order to achieve this, McDonald’s has to address uncertainties regarding health and nutrition issues related to its products (Ahmed). A 2004 movie named “Supersize Me” highlighted the ill effects of consuming fast food and it affected McDonald’s repute as a healthy food company (ucallit). McDonald’s has to deploy various tactics in order to avoid being perceived in such a manner and it has followed the principal of connecting with consumers more seriously since the issue of the movie arose.

 Operational goals

While managing its operations, McDonald’s has a mandate for its management team to achieve nutrition, speed and efficiency (Aderohunmu). McDonald’s need to attain efficiency since it operates on a large scale. It sells more than 75 burgers every second from over 33,000 outlets worldwide. All operations need to be handled very professionally as each customer expects to receive the best quality food from the outlet. At this scale, even minor differences in efficiency levels can result in significant difference in the profits of the company and the time factor to produce each order is important for the company. The operations team is always engaged to streamline the production, billing, and delivery process in order to attain the best results (McDonald's). The rolling stock is also an important factor in the food industry, therefore the operational readiness to provide the required quantity of input materials across its stores is a significant challenge for the team at McDonald’s.

 Strategic plans (e.g. the main strategies)

According to Steve Easterbrook, the CEO of McDonald’s, the company needs to overhaul its business model in order to sustain its business. Thus, the company plans to increase the share of franchise business compared to its ownership business. In addition, the CEO acknowledged that they need to do more in order to be dynamic in responding to the consumer’s preferences and the emerging competitors (Peterson). The company has a clear strategy regarding its growth, where it plans to expand its presence in high growth markets such as China and Russia. This expansion strategy aims to address the long term sustainability issues facing the company, as a diversified market presence will help in mitigating the impact from its core markets in the US and Canada.

Tactical plans

The company plans to streamline its management in order to be able to take faster decisions and improve discipline. It plans to rely on the tactical plan of attaining a better connect with the audience. The practice of distributing toys along with its happy meals is a huge success. It helps in leaving an impression among the kids, who make the restaurant as their favorite place. The company has plans to restructure into four market areas of The US, Lead Markets, High Growing Markets and the foundation Markets (Peterson). The restructuring exercise will help the company to focus the consumers of different regions accordingly and help stay in the competition.

Operational plans (e.g. Policies, standard operating procedures, rules, and regulations)

McDonald’s follows the ten strategic decisions for improving its operational efficiency.  Some of these decisions are based on providing affordable products, consistency in quality, maximum capacity utilization, strategic location, and productive and simple layout (Gregory). McDonald’s also places focus on its supply chain management using technology and automation. It uses advanced technologies in order to develop scheduling of supplies according to demand (Gregory). The production lines at McDonald’s are designed according to near term demand forecast, thereby reducing chances of overcapacity. This results in lesser maintenance cost and wasteful power and personnel requirements. Thus, McDonald’s seeks to save costs in its operations and plans them as efficiently as possible.

Contingency planning

McDonald’s has a contingency plan in case things do not go as planned. For example, one of its social media campaigns went against the planned outcome in 2012. When the company launched #McDStories on twitter, it hoped that people would stories about their McDonald’s outings with the hash tag, and it would help in improving its social footprint. However, the hash tag was instead used for negative feedback and bad experiences by the consumers and the management had to retract the promotion quickly. The management was quick to change tactic and introduced another hash tag named “Meetthefarmers”, which was successful (Garcia). These quick responses are crucial in order to balance unexpected outcomes and the presence of a backup plan in the twitter incident was helpful in averting a major embarrassment for the company.

References

Aderohunmu, Dr. Rotimi. McDonald's Restuarant. 15 November 2004. Webpage. 6 October 2017. <https://www.scribd.com/doc/82448394/Operations-Management-McDonald-s-Analysis>.

Ahmed, Rizwan R. Strategic Marketing Plan For McDonald's. 2016. webpage. 6 october 2017.

Blogger. "McDonald's." 2017. mcdpopculture. Blog. 5 October 2017. <http://mcdpopculture.blogspot.in/p/katie.html>.

Garcia, Tonya. Digital. 24 January 2012. 6 october 2017. <http://www.adweek.com/digital/mcdonalds-had-a-contingency-plan-for-twitter-promo-gone-awry/>.

Gregory, Lawrence. McDonald's Operations Management. 5 February 2017. Webpage. 6 october 2017. <http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-operations-management-10-decisions-areas-productivity>.

John, Akinyemi Oluwayinka. SlideShare. 4 March 2014. Slide. 5 October 2017.

McDonald's. Our Mission. 2017. Webpage. 5 october 2017. <http://corporate.mcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/our-ambition.html>.

News room. McDonald's Unveils New Global Growth Plan. 1 March 2017. webpage. 6 october 2017. <http://news.mcdonalds.com/Corporate/news-stories/McDonald-s-Unveils-New-Global-Growth-Plan>.

Peterson, Hayley. McDonald's CEO reveals his massive plan to save business. 4 May 2015. 6 Octoner 2017. <http://www.businessinsider.in/McDonalds-CEO-reveals-his-massive-plan-to-save-business/articleshow/47151145.cms>.

ucallit. Goals And Objectives of McDonald's. 18 March 2011. Webpage. 5 October 2017. <https://ucallit.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/goals-and-objectives-for-mcdonald%C2%B4s/>.