Investgating Business of McDonalds and British Airways - Coursework Example

Investigating Business Contents Introduction 3 Purpose of business 3 Aims and objectives 4 Ownership 5 Organisational structure 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction McDonald’s and British Airways are two multinational business organizations that have significant rich historical backgrounds. One is a prominent name in the field of aviation industry and another is the most popular global fast food giant. Harmondsworth based aviation organization was founded in 1974. On the other side, the fast food organization was founded in 1948 at Oak Brook. In 2013 revenue of McDonald’s and British Airways were US$ 28.1057 billion and £11.421 billion respectively. Here in this article business scenario of these two contrasting organizations will be analyzed on the basis of certain criterions. At the end of the article a suitable conclusion will be drawn. Purpose of business The two organizations have distinctively different business purposes. Being a fast food giant McDonald’s has a clear cut purpose of providing quality and tasty fast foods to the global people. On the other hand being an airliner, British Airways has an important purpose of providing seamless travelling experience to the global airline passengers (Transport Committee of Great Britain, 2013). Civil aviation industry has gone through lots of Ups and downs. The purpose of this UK based industry is to create an atmosphere of suitable business environment around the world. The organization is a full service aviation player believes is worldwide business operations. The organization has a fleet size of 290. This high amount of fleet size is indicating one fact that, the organization wants extensive global route operations. In the international fraternity the organization has a clear cut purpose is to hold low fare identification (Reiman, 2012). On the other side, McDonald’s has 35,000 outlets across the world. It is articulating that, the company has clear cut purpose for the business is to get global domination in the field of fast food chain. Global aviation industry is changing its outlook. Purpose of British Airways is to cope up with the changes of the industry. Global fast food business has evolved a lot. Customer’s tests and preferences have been changed significantly (Bhattacharyya, 2011). In this aspect McDonald’s has a purpose to come up with new food items to remain competitive in the highly cut throat market. But earning profitability is a common thing that holds integral parts of their business operations (Jones, 2008). British Airways with its low cost fare tries to create a permanent and long term experience in the minds of the travellers. On the other hand, McDonald’s tries to amaze its customers with its amazing array of fast food products (Johansen, 2012). The British aviation giant has a clear cut purpose of crating unique air travelling experience for its customers. Purpose of McDonald’s is to create a finger licking experience for global customers. Aims and objectives Every organization has certain aims and objectives, on the basis of which the organizations carry out their business operations. In this case, two gigantic organizations have their own aims and objectives. British Airways has a vivid objective i.e. customers are the nerve centre of everything and the organization has designed their operational structure according to that (Barrows and Neely, 2011). The organization has clear cut objective to invest more money into their products and services. This objective is driven by a particular aim i.e. to maintain their frontrunner position in the global aviation industry. On contrary, McDonald’s aims and objectives are to carry on continuous innovation into the fast food industry to mitigate the ever-increasing competitions from other competitors. The organization has a highly effective objective of workforce development and customer orientation. The fast food giant believes in the inclusive growth. This believes has designed their organizational aims and objectives which are to create a wonderful working environment for their employees. Dedicated and committed perseverance towards the duties is an integral part of aims and objectives of British Airways. In case of McDonald’s Plan to Win is a highly motivating factor for the organization. Over the years the organization has given significant priority to the 4P’s (Pride, W. and Ferrell, 2008). Their aims and objectives are highly dependent upon those 4 P’s. As par the requirement of the global fast food industry, continuous innovation in fast food item has certainly secured its place into the aims and objectives of the company. British Airways has an aim to be the most responsible and highly regarded airline in the world (British Airways, 2010). Timeliness and hassle free journey experience is an inseparable part of their business objectives. Over the years the organization has persuaded with this factor. Profit maximization and maintaining sustainable growth hold the key priority position in the aims and objectives of McDonald’s. The organization has a clear cut objective is to remain relevant with their aims. Ownership Ownership pattern talks about the business function of any organization. It shows how the organizations can take their strategic decision and it also indicates up to what level government interventions are relevant. Ownership pattern may vary in case of different types organizations. McDonald’s is a publicly owned organization and listed in NYSE. At the inception period the organization was a privately owned entity but in 1961 the organization came up with initial public offerings. In 1972 the organization was controlled by the British Government but during the Conservative ruling period the organization was privatized, it was privatized in 1987. But currently the organization is a public limited company and the company is owned by shareholders who have limited liabilities. The organization is listed in London Stock Exchange. According to this ownership pattern the organization has a structured board of directors which control the whole corporate governance. According to the UK legislation, board members of the organization have the authority to allot share by taking resolutions in the general meeting of the company. On the other hand ownership pattern in the case of Macdonald’s is little bit different. The organization has laid out lots of franchises across the world. So ownership pattern of the organization are little bit decentralize but main controls remain with the head quarter only. In case of British Airways ownership pattern are more centralized in nature (British Airways, 2014). All the key strategic decisions are being taken by headquarter only. In case of Macdonald’s, owners of the franchises have some decision making freedoms. 15% of the MacDonald’s restaurants are directly operated by direct McDonalds Corporation. Rest of the 85 % are operated by the franchise owners and joint ventures. It means ownership pattern of the global fast food giant are firmly dependent upon its franchises and joint ventures. British Airways have several subsidiaries across the world. UK government has direct intervention on the ownership pattern of British Airways. In case of McDonalds ownership pattern, government intervention is less. Organisational structure Organizational structure of McDonald’s is more functional in nature. At the top of the organizational structure, CEO is there. After that, the chairman of the board is there. According to the operational scale of the organization, the company has several departments and with the help of all those departments most of the functional works are being done. But all the works are gathered and are being sent for the permission of CEO. Organizational structure of this global food giant is much more hierarchical in nature (Macdonald’s, 2014). Chief operating officer of the organization reports to the chief financial officer. This kind of functional nature in their organizational structure is absolutely suitable with the huge business scale of the company. Decentralized organizational structure has made the company to understand both local and global needs and demands of the customers. The organizational structure of the company has high level of formalization. In their organizational structure communication are being done in a horizontal fashion which is little bit unusual with their organizational structure. But nevertheless this kind of horizontal communication helps the company to overcome lots of limitations created by functional nature of the organizational structure. On the contrary to McDonald’s, organizational structure of British Airways is significantly flat in nature. There are very less level of hierarchy present in the company. That means organizational structure of British Airways is relatively flat in nature. It means in British Airways span of organizational control are relatively high than the span of control in McDonald’s. In case of McDonald’s, due to more levels of hierarchy span of control is less (Macdonald’s, 2012). The business of the airliner is significantly customer centric. That is why the nature of the business has assisted the company to come up with a divisional organizational structure. This kind of organizational structure has helped the company to clarify job roles and responsibility in proper ways. Due to this organizational structure decision making process is less time consuming. In the case of McDonald’s, decision making process is much more time consuming. Conclusion All the above discussions and arguments in the article are clearly articulating that due to the varying nature of the companies and their operational domains, there are significant differences in between these two organizations. All these differences are quite natural and absolutely suitable with their varying business operations. During the course of this article it has been noticed that organizational structure of McDonald’s and British Airways are functional and divisional respectively. The two organizations belong to different industries, that is why their purposes, aims and objectives are different and there is nothing abnormality with all those differences. References Barrows, E. and Neely, A., 2011. Managing performance in turbulent times: Analytics and insight. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Bhattacharyya, D., 2011. Performance management systems and strategies. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. British Airways, 2010. Corporate governance statement. [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 November 2014]. British Airways, 2014. About British Airways. [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 November 2014]. Johansen, L. T., 2012. Fast food vindication. California: Lisa Tillinger Johansen. Jones, G. R., 2008. Organizational theory, design, and change. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Macdonald’s, 2012. Annual report. Available at: [Accessed 10 November 2014]. Macdonald’s, 2014. What is the structure of McDonalds and how each department in the organisation interact?. Available at: [Accessed 10 November 2014]. Pride, W. and Ferrell, O. C., 2008. Marketing. London: Cengage Learning. Reiman, J., 2012. The Story of purpose: The path to creating a brighter brand, a greater company, and a lasting legacy. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Transport Committee of Great Britain, 2013. Aviation strategy: First report of session 2013-14, Vol. 2: Oral and written evidence. London: The Stationery Office. Read More