McDonald's: Polishing the Golden Arches

Essay by KatwirlUniversity, Master'sA+, April 2005

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Situation Analysis

McDonald's is one of the most recognizable brands in the world serving millions of customers daily in a multifaceted environment of more than 120 countries. Ray Kroc established large scale operation from the ideas of the McDonald brothers. He founded McDonald's system in 1956 with company land own franchises, treated as partners, implementing a business model founded in real estate operations with franchising was done through buying property and leasing it to franchisees. His strategy was uniformity of operations, while being committed to quality, service and cleanliness. Throughout the years and evolving environments, many CEO have followed Kroc's dream; some making beneficial decision, while some detrimental. This paper will examine ups and downs of this company and the critical issues that caused the falters in such an iconic company and what it can do to alter operation to regain market share lost with increased competition.

Problems management is facing

The problems that McDonald's is facing are the declining performance in the areas of customer service, employee turnover and order processing time.

McDonald's now has a customer service ranking that was not only the lowest among all national fast-food chains, an undesirable position it has held since 1994, but also lower than any U.S. domestic airline, and even lower than the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. They experienced a first ever quarter loss, revenue growth has declined, and same-store sales fell for 12 straight months. The company's current situation has been attributed to increased competition, poor management and marketing and a failure to respond to the changing needs of customers and franchisees. Cantalupo, CEO during the case time period, is now left with many challenges and problems. The company is also suffering form declining market share and a decrease in domestic sales. The most significant questions remained whether the...