McDonalds International Business Strategy Leadership - Essay Example

McDonald’s International Business Strategy Leadership Contents Introduction: 4 History of the company: 4 The need for strategic changes: 5 The theory of Leadership and Motivation: 6 Leadership-This is the way which helps the organization to achieve its target by the way of changing the mind of the employees working inside the company as well as the customers. The benefits which an organization can derive from an effective leadership program are listed. 7 In any organization effective leadership is the key factor for the success of the organization. 7 Leadership is the way by which planed can be successfully implemented. 7 Leadership is the tool by which a company can effectively utilized the potentiality of the employees as well as any new strategy. 7 Motivation- in general motivated people are those who can take firm decisions along with performing their own work in a correct manner. This people set examples for others in the work place. Now regarding motivation there are many theories but in them Maslow’s hierarchy is the most popular one. 7 The scope of change: 9 Problems faced in bring those changes: 9 Changes in management: 10 Recommendation: 12 Conclusion: 12 Introduction: Among many qualities of management “leadership” is that quality without which an organization cannot succeed. It is the internal leadership quality which helps an organization to lead a market where it is performing its business. Along with this the organizational quality of leadership helps the company to spread its business in a wider range and can attract customers more. This is so because this particular quality helps in motivating their employees towards their work and can give their best regarding their performance. In any organization the success totally depends upon how motivated way the employees are working, as they are the main part of the business upon which the entire target achievement of the company is dependent. In the discussion we are going to analyze how an U.S. based restaurant win over the entire world’s people mind regarding one particular type of food. The name of the company is McDonalds. It is the world’s largest food chain service and is serving eight million people on a daily basic. End number of striking strategies is the reason behind the success of the company. History of the company: The restaurant McDonalds was established in 1955 in San Bernardino of California. The two McDonald brothers, Richard McDonald and Maurice McDonald started the restaurant. Later on it was modified and many changes took place in its business pattern by their partners. In the 80’s the McDonalds Company faces tough competition from other American competitors such as Burger King and Wendy’s etc. Many remarkable promotional strategies were taken by those companies to attract more customers and in history this incident is termed as the “burger wars”. But in that situation also McDonalds market share did not go down and there were no effect in the sales on that period. Since 1955 till now McDonalds is working in a remarkable way. Its attractive range of fast food has always created heavy demand in the mind of the customers. In case of going globally McDonalds has taken extensive marketing plan and has done many campaigning’s for their product as a result of which they have become a globally recognized brand name. In all over the world McDonalds have more than 32,000 branches in 117 countries (William ,2006). The need for strategic changes: The company from the very beginning of its journey remains very much focused regarding their targeted customers and the item of fast food they offer to their customer. McDonalds has kept its menu list very small and has always maintained the more or less same menu in the entire world’s different branches. But in spite of being so much famous globally still the company is facing some strategic problems. Now-a-days world has become very heath conscious and a number of people worldwide wanted to avoid fast foods in their main routine of food habits. Due to the maximum people getting lesser time to exercise or do any physical exercise, they want to have foods with low calories which will not increase fat in their body. In general fast food is not at all considered among healthy foods and diet conscious people avoid these types of food as they consider fast foods as junk foods. McDonald’s maximum number of customers is young youth. But in most of the world’s country it has been noticed that present youths are more figure conscious and they do not want to have those foods which can make them fat or unhealthy. Rather they prefer to have foods with high proteins. In this scenario McDonalds is facing a very critical time as their product line is entirely based on fast food items. McDonalds is gaining negative reaction from the side of their potential customer about their product as unhealthy for the health of their customer (Vignal, 2009, pp. 97-98). McDonald to handle this situation has to change their products or some of their procedure to be prepared. This is necessary because to maintain same amount of sales report the company has to prepare those type of food which are more proffered by the customers of present time. It is one of the rules in case of sustaining for long time in the market regarding any product that the company has to change its strategies, its policies, and even necessity can come to change the entire products and or its design. Successful companies are those who can cope up with these changes and can perform according to the demands of the situation. The other fast food competitors have started to change their product and have introduced those food items in the menu which are relatively low in calorie value and more nutritional value (Han, 2008, pp. 72-75). The theory of Leadership and Motivation: These are the two key tools for any organization which helps to reduce any conflicts arises inside the company. Blow the theory of Leadership and Motivation are being discussed. Leadership-This is the way which helps the organization to achieve its target by the way of changing the mind of the employees working inside the company as well as the customers. The benefits which an organization can derive from an effective leadership program are listed. In any organization effective leadership is the key factor for the success of the organization. Leadership is the way by which planed can be successfully implemented. Leadership is the tool by which a company can effectively utilized the potentiality of the employees as well as any new strategy. When there is a need of implementing new changes in the strategy then also the leadership helps the organization to adopt with those changes (Bolde, 2013, pp.-5-8). Motivation- in general motivated people are those who can take firm decisions along with performing their own work in a correct manner. This people set examples for others in the work place. Now regarding motivation there are many theories but in them Maslow’s hierarchy is the most popular one. This theory says that The want and demand of human being can not be stopped. Human get motivated when there is a need unsatisfied by him or her in the life. The human needs maintain a hierarchy. As one need is satisfied another above need which is in the higher level in the hierarchy will arise for fulfillment. This is shown in a diagram below. So in an organization enough opportunity must be given to the employee so that they can motivate work there and can achieve enough growth. These can be done by making enough opportunity of growth, giving them recognition, involving them employees in the decision making process. If all these can be maintained in an organization then there is and every possibility that the company will achieve its goals and targets, can make employees sustained for long time, in tough market condition also the company can run in a stable manner. The above discussion about leadership and motivation gives us a view that how these two elements can help an organization to face its critical situation inside the company as well as in the outside world. In our topic McDonalds do need to apply these two elements to bring a successful change in its strategies and policies (Steel, 2006, pp.- 889-893). The scope of change: Promotion and advertisement are the tools which can help this global brand to gather its past position in the mind of the world’s people along with introducing new range of food items which will serve ten purposes of the health conscious people. The company has to adopt several new advertisement campaigns so that people can come to know about the change they have made according to the requirement of their customer. McDonalds has already started working on these issues and the executives have designed several plans to bring these changes successfully. A team has been created separately who are working on the implementation of these plans and new strategies. The objective why McDonalds are doing these campaigns is to make the customer informed about their new change and how this change can help them (Glanz, 2010, 4-8). Problems faced in bring those changes: In case of any company it is quite hard to bring changes internally. This is so because in most of the cases there is chance of facing conflict for changes. As it is hard to set a new strategy for an organization at the same time it is also hard to implement those plans in real practice. Here the situation of conflict arises among the management levels and its team members. In the way of changing the managerial strategies the management has to be ready to face many obstacles in the way of change. (MacArthur ,2012). In case of McDonalds the same thing has happened as the company decides to change its strategies. The problems faced by the company are discussed below. The company has faced some obstacles from the side of their employees. Some employees are in for of the changes which are taking place inside the organization according to the market need. But there are some employees who are against this change. They are doing so as they are thinking that the company is not doing a correct job by changing its strategies. They have a fear that the way company is going to change it can bring difficulties and failure rather than success or growth, in future. Another problem regarding this issue is a group of employees think that the management will not be able to implement these strategies and plans inside the organization successfully. At present world ever business especially who are related in international business they required information technology as one of the basic criteria. But in McDonald as conflict has risen in the mind of these IT related employees also that there is no need of this change. So the company will naturally face a problem from the side of these employees also. There is a chance that many employees for this reason can quiet from the job of McDonalds and a huge amount of recruitment will be needed to be done for the company. May be many experts who has given well amount success to the company they can also resign and the company will have to face a tough time for this. McDonald is facing problem from the side of some of their customers also. These customers is not agreeing with the changes and like those employees these group of customers also think that McDonalds must not bring any changes in its strategies or management (Brinckerhoff, 2011, pp. 6-9). Changes in management: The McDonalds Company’s management has to be ready for facing this kind of situation as to bring changes in operation. In this particular situation the company needs to be focused more on the strategic leadership qualities of various departments. The proper application of leadership and motivation can save the company to come out from this critical situation. Below the initiatives are discussed which could have be taken from the side of the company (Guenette, 2012). The information provided to the employees should be authentic and it should relate that much only which are required for that employee. It should be presented in such a way so that the people can understand it very easily. There will be a structured plan for the change and the management should lead and communicate about this plan with the employees of his/ her department. A good and well planned training should be organized by the top most head so that the employees also have the feeling that though a huge change is going to take place in the organization but there is a well divided work plan and each and every employee’s participation can bring the success surely. In global organizations various people comes from various culture. This culture influences their thought procedure a lot. So while changing policies will be implemented management of McDonalds have to be very conscious about this particular point. They should designee keeping in mind about the mindset of the department employees. The McDonalds must build a strong and effective internal culture inside the organization. This is important because the organization can by this way achieve more unity among the employees who are coming from various cultural backgrounds. The management of McDonalds will have to be very careful about providing the employee the real information, give them proper training regarding the development work and giving them enough scope of increments and growth opportunities (Sameer, 2012 pp.1-5). Recommendation: McDonalds has to change its product type as in the global market people are becoming more and more health conscious. The effects of fast foods have made the consumers aware about its harmfulness. So to build a good and harmless image in the mind of the consumers McDonalds must have to create a good and effective and reliable advertisement program. Through the advertisement they can show the changed food items they are introducing in the market and have to promote the food value of it. Mostly children are fond of this type of fast food which is again not at all good for their health. In the promotion if the healthily and nutritional food values can be shown then the parents can allow their child to have McDonald’s food. In case of bringing those changes the company has to give emphasis more on developed and improved research work. As marketing strategies will work only if the product is effectively changed and designed. The effective changes can be implementing in the organization through improved ideas, new activities, and innovative services initiated by the organization. All these will result in a positive way for McDonalds if they try their best in following the strategies they have taken. Along with these the company has to motivate their employees in a positive manner so that they also can contribute positively change in the organization and do not become another hurdle for the company. Conclusion: This is the basic criteria for any organization to serve its customer the product and services according to their need and choice. Along with this it is also another prime concern for the company to look after employee satisfaction. So in the above discussed case we can come to a conclusion that McDonalds must change its policies according to the demand of the market as it is important to sustain in the competitive market along with a group satisfied and motivated employees who are with the organization in any hard situation. Just as customers are important for the company, the employees are also the prime resource of the company. In case of every levels all the workers should feel a bonding with the company as a whole. All the changes should be informed to them and must be relate to their contribution. McDonalds has always followed remarkable strategies and that is the reason why they are the leading brand name in their sector. So they must give more focus towards their goals what they want to achieve along with involving their employees in this work. References: MacArthur.D.G , 2012. Change management essay on McDonalds.[pdf] . Available at: http://writepass.com/journal/2012/11/change-management-essay-on-mcdonalds/. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Steel. P ,2006. INTEGRATING THEORIES OF MOTIVATION. Available at: http://webapps2.ucalgary.ca/~steel/images/Integrating.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Bolder. R, 2013 . A REVIEW OF LEADERSHIP THEORY AND COMPETENCY FRAMEWORKS .[pdf] . Available at: http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/docentes/luisrodrigues/textos/Lideran%C3%A7a.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. William .A , 2006. McDonalds History .[pdf] . Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_history_timeline.html. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Han. J. 2008. The Business Strategy of Mcdonald’s .[pdf] . Available at: file:///C:/Users/Ensine/Downloads/905-2726-1-PB.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Vignali. C . 2009. McDonald’s : “think global, act local”- the marketing mix .[pdf] . Available at: http://www.freewebs.com/fin-law/MGT%203905Y(5)%20-%20International%20Business/Globalisation%20and%20the%20Marketing%20mix.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Glanz. K , 2010. HEALTH BEHAVIOR AND HEALTH EDUCATION .[pdf] . Available at: http://www.sanjeshp.ir/phd_91/Pages/Refrences/health%20education%20and%20promotion/[Karen_Glanz,_Barbara_K._Rimer,_K._Viswanath]_Heal(BookFi.or.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Brinckerhoff . P , 2011. Department for Energy and Climate Change .[pdf] . Available at: https://www.pbworld.com/pdfs/regional/uk_europe/decc_2153-electricity-generation-cost-model-2011.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Guenette. L , 2012. The McDonaldization. [pdf] . Available at: http://www.ncuscr.org/files/Guenette_1.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Sameer. S, 2012. Strategy and Repositioning the Brand McDonald’s. [pdf] . Available at: http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0912/ijsrp-p0935.pdf. Accessed on: Aril 05, 2014. Read More