P6
How political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the business activities and stakeholders of McDonald’s

Contents page 1. Introduction 2. McDonald’s 3. Aims and objectives 4. Political factors 5. Political factors in UK 6. Political factors in USA 7. Social factors 8. Social factors in UK 9. Social factors in USA 10. Legal factors 11. Legal factors in UK 12. Legal factors in USA 13. Referencing 14. Bibliography

Introduction
In this report I am going to be talking about McDonald’s and how as an organisation it is influenced by political. Legal and social factors in two different business environments.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is a global organisation that is known all over the world. It is an organisation which has gone from strength to strength since it first opened its doors. It serves more than 60 million customers daily in more than 100 hundred countries worldwide. It has taken over the hamburger market and now is the largest chain of fast food restaurants in the world. They are a really popular organisation and are well known all over their logo is recognised by almost everyone around the world. In 2012 McDonald’s had sales revenue of $27, 5 billion and a profit of $5, 5 billion. These numbers on their own show you just how big the McDonald’s organisation is they make a huge amount of money and that shows that they are achieving what they set out to do as an organisation because McDonald’s is in the private sector and this means that they are in business to make a profit.so this is something which they aim to do as an organisation and when they are turning over really big figures and making a big profit out of the money that they are turning over it shows that they are doing really well. They sell a big range of food and drink products such as cheese burgers. Chicken. Milkshakes and more. So as an organisation they sell a huge range of products. McDonalds as an organisation value their customers as the biggest part of the organisation because without their customers they will be non-existent. So they aim to be their customer’s favourite place to eat and drink. They also aim to continually improve and become bigger and bigger this is something which is really important for the organisation they want to go beyond their targets and reach higher levels because they want to become the best at what they are doing. They are a global organisation and this means that they are an organisation which is all over the world this is something which is really useful for the McDonald’s organisation because they have entered in a lot of different markets and they have done well in most of the markets that they have entered and this is also really useful because they have access to a bigger amount of customers so they could potentially get more customers and get more recognition because they are an organisation which is all over the world. McDonald’s is also a plc. This means that it is a public limited company. This means that the anyone can buy shares in the organisation. The shares are sold on the stock exchange and everyone has access to the stock exchange. Through the stock exchange you can buy and sell shares. But because McDonald’s is a plc. this also means that they have unlimited liability and this means that if anything were to happen to the business such as bankruptcy then the shareholders assets can be affected this is something which could put people off buying shares in to the organisation because they do not know what to expect because anything can happen to the business and some people might not want to buy shares into the organisation because of this. So this could affect the amount of people who buy shares in to the organisation.
Aims and objectives
McDonald’s aims to serve good food in a friendly and fun environment, to be a socially responsible company, and to provide good returns to its customers. This is a really big aim for the McDonald’s organisation because as I have mentioned before they put their customers first and they have to make sure that they are aiming to satisfy the people who make sure that they currently exist as an organisation because without them they will not be making money and they will not be doing business. Also they want to be a socially responsible company because it will help them as an organisation because they will be seen as a good organisation and they will be given a good reputation.
Political factors
Politics can affect a business in a number of ways because they can affect how much tax that they are paying and this is something which could benefit them in a really big way. And also they can lay down regulations which could affect how a business is run. They affect all the people in the organisation because the government can affect businesses in loads of different ways because they can affect how long the employees are allowed to work and they also affect how much tax they pay this is something which will affect the business because if they put the tax up then they will make less profit because they will be paying more tax.
Political factors in the UK
In the UK we are run by political parties who aim to get power of the country. The people who get the most votes will have right to make decisions on the countries behalf make decisions on education. Health. Industry. Spending and more. Internationally the UK members of the eu make decisions affecting its member states. McDonald’s is affected by politics in a big way because when a political party comes in to power they have the right to put regulations on businesses which could affect how they conduct themselves. But they could also help the businesses because they can offer them financial support which is something which is really helpful to the businesses.
Political factors in the USA
In the USA people vote to elect the various members of the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as state and local government officials. And the person who is elected is going to make various decisions in the. Again businesses in the us are affected the same way as the businesses that are in the UK because they have the same sort of set up and they are really similar to each over in big ways. So again the aims and objectives of the businesses will be affected by the president’s decisions because they have a big say.
Social factors
Social factors can affect a business because likes and tastes are changing all the time and they have to make sure that they are keeping up because say for example there is a business that is really successful but it sells junk food and the country in which they sell their products decides to become more health conscious then it could affect how much money they are turning over. Social factors include attitudes to work. Education. Religion. Gender role and more. These factors will affect how they will affect what type of business they will set up and how they will run the organisation because there will be certain things which will not be successful in certain societies. For example if you went to India and opened up a McDonald’s that was selling beef then they will make less sales because in India the biggest religion is Hinduism and they are not allowed to eat beef.
Social factors in the UK
In the UK they have recently became a little bit more health conscious and this is affecting the types of products that the big businesses are selling because they have to make sure that they don’t look like an organisation which is putting people at risk to various diseases. Also because in the uk there is different religions which live here they have to cater for different types of people. For example in London there is a majority of people who are Muslims and Muslims have to eat halal meat. So to get more customers McDonald’s has recently decided to open up a halal McDonald’s in London to cater to the Muslims needs. This affects their aims because they have to make sure that they are keeping up to date with the social factors which are always changing.
Social factors in the USA
Just like the UK they are also really conscious about health because of certain matters that they have been affected by in recent years because recently they were announced as the second fattest country in world with a big level of obesity rates so they have tries to improve on this in a big way. By bringing about adverts and they are also trying to make people aware of what is going on. Also religion is another big factor because they have a big majority of Muslims and Jewish people so they have to make sure that they have kosher meat available and halal meat available if they want to bring in more customers.
Legal factors
All businesses which operate must all follow the law because it could affect how they work and what they are doing so they have to make sure that they are not breaking any of the laws that have been put down because if they do not cop operate with the laws they could be fined and they also could be prosecuted.
Legal factors in the UK
The legal factors in the UK and the USA are really similar to each over.
Legal factors in the USA
Legal factors in the USA affect how a business is run and how they conduct themselves all the businesses have to follow certain rules and regulations otherwise it could affect them in a big way because they could potentially be shut down.
References
http://www.dineshbakshi.com/igcse-business-studies/external-environment/revision-notes/65-legal-environment-factors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's www.mcdonalds.co.uk http://uk.ask.com/question/what-are-the-aims-and-objectives-of-mcdonalds Bibliography http://www.dineshbakshi.com/igcse-business-studies/external-environment/revision-notes/65-legal-environment-factors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's

www.mcdonalds.co.uk

http://uk.ask.com/question/what-are-the-aims-and-objectives-of-mcdonalds