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Tosh Stuart

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 McDonald’s Background Information 4 Mission and vision 4 New Business Division 5 Division of McDonald’s Menu 5 Vision, Mission and Value Proposition 6 SWOT Analysis 7 Internal and External Environmental Analysis 7 Supply and Value Chain Analysis 7 Change Management Plan 8 Strategic Objectives 8 Balanced Score Card 8 Conclusion 9 References 10

Strategic planning is essential in ensuring that a business attains competitive advantage and stays relevant throughout its lifetime. This study discusses the strategic planning of McDonald’s with the proposal of menu division. This division seeks to offer McDonald’s full menu all daylong so that customers can acquire any food they wanted any time of the day. A SWOT analysis provides the status of this intervention while the management plan outlines the strategic objectives, balanced score card and the communication plan in relation to the division.

Strategic planning is essential to ensuring a business remains relevant in the market throughout its life. This study provides the strategic planning of McDonalds whereby division of its menu has been proposed to ensure its competitiveness. The SWOT analysis of this division is also provided whereby the probable impacts of the division on the organization are outlined.

McDonald’s entails a chain of restaurants offering fast food products across the world in over 100 countries. The company came into existence in 1940 and established into McDonald’s Corporation in 1955. It is the largest fast food restaurant chain in the globe with over 36,000 outlets globally as well as serving over 60 million customers daily. McDonald’s provides different products within their menu, and this is dependent on the country of operation. However, the dominant products include hamburgers, soft drinks, desserts, various chicken types and flavors as well as vegetarian food. Either the products are all offered as “eat in” or “take out” hence the customers have the option of either carrying their food home or eating at the restaurant.

McDonald’s operates under the vision of becoming a modern progressive burger company that will satisfy its customers through improved tastes, high-quality food and an excellent service that shows them their value. Their mission statement entails being the best place for eating and drinking as well as building an organizational environment that empowers the employees. To attain its mission and visions the company seeks to incorporate innovation in their goods, services and the organizational environment to ensure that they meet the expectations of all stakeholders.

Most customers have expressed positive reviews about their experience at McDonald’s, however the challenge has been how to meet there menu preferences at any time of the day. A fixed menu has been a challenge to the customers since they could only order a particular food at a given time but why would the restaurant not provide chicken or burger for instance early in the morning when the customer feels like having it? This challenge is what led to McDonald’s introduction of an all-day breakfast menu where customers could have the foods on the menu at any time of the day (Fuhrmeister, 2016).

According to Griswold (2016), the introduction of an all-day package in the past year unexpectedly yielded higher returns to McDonald’s whose sales were reducing. Its competitors like Dunkin Donuts and Jack in the Box felt the heat of this intervention when their sales did not meet their expectations. Through this strategy, McDonald’s seem to have gained a competitive advantage against its rivals although it seemed a great gamble due to its impact on working operations and schedules. However, this could be a temporary relief since its competitors also have their plans to curl the losses. It might be essential for the company to introduce a new business division that would ensure positive long-term returns.

The proposed new division is McDonald’s having its entire menu available to its customers throughout the day. This division could be essential in attracting many potential customers since they would have the opportunity to eat anything at any time they wanted.

The vision of this intervention is to enhance the quality of product and service provision and this will be achieved through making available all the products right through the day. This vision is in line with that of McDonald’s described above since they both seek to satisfy customers high quality food and services. Its mission is to ensure customer satisfaction through the experience where what they want would be readily available. This mission also complements that of the brand since by ensuring the best services and customer satisfaction then McDonald’s will turn into the best restaurant. The mission and vision will serve as a motivating factor to ensure the objectives of the strategy are successful.

The Value Proposition for this intervention is that it will make McDonald’s a one-stop restaurant whereby customers will be served with all their preference food at any time of the day. Customers will save their time and hassle of looking around for the food they wanted for instance just because it was not early in the morning and main meals had not been prepared. This division will create a competitive advantage for both the customer and the business. As the customers will be enjoying quality, readily available products, and services, the company will be enjoying high returns. The competitive advantage will be higher for the company since there are fewer competitors with such interventions.

The strengths of McDonald’s include its strong brand image that is recognized internationally, and this will make it easier to market the proposed division to many consumers. The brand also has a strong market share of over 19%, and this means that the division could be an opportunity to capture the potential customers as well as make the existing ones loyal (Makos, 2015). Its market diversification globally would be essential in reducing market-based risks that could be associated with the division. The diversification has also diversified their incomes, and since they do not depend on one source of income, then there would be an opportunity to get resources needed for the division.

The weaknesses that McDonald’s faces include its declining market share due to competition although this division could help in reducing this challenge. The company has a lower product diversification with low product development since their menu is not balanced to meet the needs of all customers. Although the brand is diversified, their revenues are highly dependent on the economy of western countries hence, it is vulnerable to changes in the western economy (Greenspan, 2015). The opportunities for this division include the expansion to other markets like Asia and Africa. Product diversification can also be achieved for instance by coming up with a menu that accommodates a big population. Low costs products like those within the all-day breakfast can be used to enhance the market. Competition from other companies is the major threat to this division and McDonald’s in general.

McDonald’s has a well-established inbound and outbound logistics that has seen the company remain sustainable in its business. The economy of scale has ensured that customers attain value for their money, and this can be seen through its cheap menu, for instance, the $1 menu. The division of the menu will ensure that customers continue to get this value. Quality control measures are ensured through inspections and audits while supply chain control ensures that the demand does not surpass the supply. The outbound logistics are also passed through quality control measures while information systems are in place to capture the growth indicators.

The infrastructure of McDonald’s is highly developed to support this division proposal. The company has a good brand recognition, company image, and financial strength to enable the implementation of the division. The core competency of McDonalds has been dependent on its diversified infrastructure, well-established operations and supply chain. The division of the menu will help the company improve its competitiveness and ensure that it continues to be the number one restaurant by market value.

` Strategic objectives about customers entail to increase the retention rates of customers, to improve customer service quality, make all products readily available to customers as well as improve the sales within global markets. Financially this division is to enable more than 15% increase in annual profits and ensure a steady increase in revenues.

McDonald is the top company in the food industry thus; it has the challenge of ensuring that competitors do not overtake them. Different divisions were introduced to ensure that competition is overcome for instance the introduction of the McCafe where cheap products are offered and health consciousness through the provision of healthy products. McDonald’s has a well-established supply chain, and it acquires all its raw materials from the same supplier for all outlets. Empowerment of employees is essential and for instance, McDonald’s does this by offering training programs to its employees through the Hamburger University in Oak Brook, Illinois (Speizer, 2006).

There is a huge competition in the fast food industry with all companies looking for avenues to attain competitive advantage. McDonald’s has been in this market for over six decades, and although this proves its ability to compete, it requires proper strategies to counter competition. Division of its business through providing a full menu throughout the day will be one great strategy that will enable the company to overcome competition. However, this strategy will require other organizational support strategies to ensure that it results in positive long-term outcomes.