Mcdonald's Global Strategy

The hospitality business is fiercely competitive. When McDonald’s began its increased growth in the 20th century, few alternatives exited allowing them to have some starting advantage and monopoly until others joined. With domestic growth slowing down, the brand began increasing its efforts and investments outside US. This encouraged other brands to follow and made other domestic brands to also develop and capture market share before the American giant begins to get a foot hold. This improved the whole fast industry and allowed customers more choice and variety. At the turn of the millennium, the brand faced some major bottle necks in its operation on the domestic market in the US. The market become saturated with brands that have very little

Many forces are leading firms into the international arena. For example, global trends are leading to a more favourable environment for foreign business involvement. Trade barriers are falling in Europe (e.g., the European Union) and North America (e.g., the North American Free Trade Agreement). Also, newly industrialized countries, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil, are leading to increasing global competition and new marketing opportunities. There is a worldwide shift toward market economies, as in China and Vietnam, and financial capital is now readily exchanged in global markets. In addition, communication is easier due to satellites, the Internet, and cellular phones, and English is becoming a universally spoken business language, particularly in Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe. Finally, technical standards have started to become uniform in industrialised countries around the world. The strategic management implications of increasing globalization are profound. Managers cannot afford to ignore opportunities in foreign markets. However, business methods and customs differ from country to country. These differences make stakeholder analysis and management even more important. Analysis of broad environmental forces, such as society, technology, and

However, strategic planning does not always lead to the kinds of changes that are necessary to remain competitive over the long term. Ineffective strategic planning is often the result of a missing ingredient – strategic thinking.

Organizational leaders can learn a great deal from studying the strategies of competitors. Clearly, an organization can learn things from competitors that will lead to improvements in performance. However, by the time a firm develops the skills and acquires the resources that are necessary to imitate industry leaders, those leaders probably will have moved on to new ideas and strategies. Consequently, industry leaders break out of traditional mind - sets and defy widely accepted industry