Question

The final assignment for this course is a Comprehensive Case Analysis. The purpose of the Final Paper is for you to culminate the learning achieved in the course by describing your understanding and application of knowledge in the field of Organizational Management through the analysis of a mini case. The Final Paper represents 25% of the overall course grade.

Focus of the Final Paper

Choose one of the following case studies from Appendix 3 in your text for your final case analysis:

McDonald’s Corporation

Southwest Airlines

Ford Motor Company

Your final paper is a Comprehensive Case Analysis that will include six parts:

External analysis

Internal analysis

Strategic issues – Include at least two strategic issues.

Strategic alternatives – Include at least two alternatives for each strategic issue.

Recommendations

Implementation

Answer 1

The case study that has been selective for case analysis is McDonald corporation:

1. External Analysis:

• Rivalry opportunities: McDonald which is engaged in fast food industry has many rivalries. In spite of the challenges that the restaurant face, they also face threat from new entrants. In this case establishing loyal customers become difficult.
• Rivalry threats: McDonald can face rivalry threats from burger king and Wendy’s.
• Entrant opportunities: the entrants can face challenges due to government regulations, brand loyalty etc. but this won’t be a threat to current companies. This is because of which new entrants will not be high on the economy side.
• Bargaining power of buyers: the concern for the buyers is the health benefits of the food. Since it is a fast food, McDonald received a lot of concerns from the buyers. Hence it was forced to provide nutritional value of the food offered and also to offer fruits and salads to its customers.
• Bargaining power of suppliers: in this type of industry, it is necessary to maintain relationship with the suppliers for the company to meet the customer’s demands. It is also necessary to maintain relationship with other suppliers like people who supply coca cola, ketchup etc.

1. Internal Analysis:

Corporate structure:

They have their operations in over 119 countries with over 3200 restaurants. Most of which is owned by individual franchises.

Corporate culture:

As of now this is the largest in the fast food industry which promotes a friendly environment and also has catchy slogan attracting more customers.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

Has wide presence

Brand awareness

Flexible with its standards.

Weaknesses:

The revenue growth has been less in the previous years.

Its operations in Europe and Canada has lower operating income.

Opportunities:

Lower risk when more franchises are created.

Products are always fresh.

Threats:

Health issues in the product

Competition both at national and global level.

1. Strategic issues:

• It has underperformed and there has been less revenue compared to previous years. This may be due to increased competition, bad marketing, not meeting the changing the needs of the customers.
• Another strategic issue is poor customer service. One reason is due to employee turnover and also slow service.

1. Strategic alternatives:

• To separate Mc Café and Mc Donald as two separate entities:

This is because coffee at mc Donald is not considered premium. Since mc Donald is basically engaged in fast food business. It is because increased competition in united states, which made mc Donald to diverse its business beyond fast food. Hence for better image of mc Donald, it is better to separate its business from mc café.

• Strategic alliance with well-known coffee brand:

It is advisable for mc Donald to go on alliance with a well-known coffee brand supplier to meet the changing mindset of customers.

1. Recommendations:

• Rather than depending on suppliers at international level, it can find local ones to reduce their cost.
• Can focus on producing healthier foods for customers.
• Create more franchises in the Asia area.

1. Implementation:

The above strategies can be implemented by reducing the employee turnaround, having strategic alliances with some big shots by which it can diversify with the existing products, provide more choice of products to its customers to satisfy them and fulfill their expectations. Try to provide more healthy foods to its customers etc.