Principles of Management
FALA11 Sec D
Christopher Megwa

SWOT Analysis of the McDonald’s Corporation The McDonald’s restaurant was a brainchild of Richard and Maurice McDonald, brothers who operated and opened the first store in 1948 in San Bernardino, California. Though they are considered to be the founders of McDonald’s, the corporation was really started by Ray Kroc, a businessman who had sold milkshake machines. The McDonald’s Corporation was incorporated in 1955 by Ray Kroc and it wasn’t until 1961 when Kroc buys out the McDonald bothers for 2.7 million dollars and few more years later, McDonald’s goes public in 1965 at $22.50 per share. Currently, the mission statement for the McDonald’s Corporation reads as follows: “McDonald’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.” One strength McDonald’s has is its locations around the globe. This is considered to be strength because this gives them the ability to handle the ups and downs of the economy which are localized by country. This is also a distinctive competence because they continuously operate effectively when there isn’t enough money people can still afford food items on their menu and comfort themselves knowing they’ve saved money. Another strength McDonalds’s has is its ability of efficient assembly line style of food preparation. This is strength because they have been able to duplicate this process so that other franchises can replicate the same success at many restaurants. Also, this process is extremely efficient for getting the food out. A weakness that McDonald’s has is that they have an extremely high turnover rate with personnel. This is a really bad weakness because money is going to be continuously spent with training new personnel. What they can do to minimize this problem is to offer better benefits or tenure-incentives for workers. A second weakness McDonald’s has is that they’ve yet to gain ground in the organic food market. This is considered a weakness because the trend for most Americans is to shy away from processed foods and lean towards clean, organic foods. What they can do to remedy this weakness is to attempt new organic foods in certain markets and see how it fairs. McDonald’s first opportunity they have is that the opportunity to expand their menu from just hamburgers. The can expand and offer different items such as breakfast, chicken items, different types of ice cream, and beverages. Venturing in this opportunity would open up the possibility of new customers and increasing profitable revenue. A second opportunity they have is that they could provide a more upscale dining experience. Doing this would target a more upscale, wealthy group of individuals to help better the image that McDonald’s has at the moment in many cities and communities around the world. McDonald’s first threat is that they have major competitors that compete in the same food market and service market. This is clearly a threat because they have to constantly keep up with pricing, items, and many other things to compete in the same markets as Burger King, Wendy’s, and other QSR restaurants. The second threat is the threat of contamination of foods. This could really affect the organization because a contamination of the food supply would seriously hurt serving options and clearly hurt possible profitable revenues as well. McDonald’s, in order to capitalize on opportunities, needs to ensure that they attempt and try new foods items as mentioned before. Granted, though they have the capital to do so, some franchises may feel the immediate pain as opposed to the whole corporation. But to not venture and change some constants about the restaurant would mean that they remain in neutral, which isn’t terrible, but it also isn’t progress. For them to neutralize its threats, they need to be able to stay ahead of the competition at all times. They can’t be allowed to fall behind in any race with other similar restaurants because most people may view their attempts as not being innovating.