Organizational Strategies: Importance and Implementation

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Leadership and Change Management
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Introduction
Regardless of the products or services provided by an organization to its customers,
strategies are very essential to a firm. In regard to monitoring as well as assessing the global
marketing environment, firms are only able to develop their marketing plan by identifying the
opportunities that they can pursue including the threats to be avoided. Doing so allows
organizations to remain abreast of the current business trends along with keeping surveillance on
the competition. Any comprehensive analysis related to this will be help minimize the risk of
failure including assisting in decision-making, and international strategic planning. An effective
strategic management results in a remarkable level of customer loyalty increased profits from
organizational sales, brand positioning, and a stable market. McDonald's is among the prominent
food chains globally. The corporation’s sales along with the market share have been on the rise
regardless of some concerns that are being raised against the organization. Since 2001, the
corporation has been recording low profits. Although the company was recording an increase in
turnover, it was experiencing a continuous decrease in operating profits and profit margins. The
paper responds to questions related to strategy, including reflecting on the “plan to win” strategy
that McDonald's is employing to develop as well as sustain its competitive advantage.
Question 1
The “Plan to Win” strategy adopted by McDonald's has allowed it has increased sales and
growth beyond the industry’s average. The strategy is comprised of a matrix of place, price,
people, promotion, and product. The “Plan to Win” strategy perceives improvement in all
McDonald’s operations (Smarketing - Sales & Marketing Cocktail, 2019). The strategy’s main

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goal is to maintain the organization’s unique power, develop its market share, and add benefits
from the experience.
The test of a winning strategy can be applied in evaluating the merits of a given strategy
over another as well as gauge the strategy’s effectiveness. The tests include:
a. The goodness of fit test: An effective strategy is matched to a company’s internal and
external factors, aspirations, and capabilities.
b. The competitive advantage test: The strategy should result in a sustainable competitive
advantage (Forbes.com, 2019). A strategy that builds a bigger competitive edge proves to
be effective and powerful.
c. The performance test: The strategy should be able to boost an organization’s
performance. The two main performance improvements that indicate the effectiveness of
the strategy are gains in the company’s profitability including the long-term business
strength as well as competitive position (Global Business Consultants, 2019).
Question 2
The strategy-making, strategy-execution comprises of five managerial tasks.
a. Developing vision and mission: The first question that managers seek to address is what
the organization is trying to do and become.
b. Setting the objective: Objectives are important because they convert managerial
statements related to an organization’s mission and direction into performance targets
(Reast, Maon, Lindgreen and Vanhamme, 2013, pp.142). Setting objectives includes
establishing challenge and performance targets that need stretch and disciplined efforts.

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c. Formulating a strategy: Developing a strategy brings into effect the primary managerial
problem of how the targeted results will be achieved, in light with a company’s situation
and prospects. Objectives are the final results that are to be achieved while strategy is the
“means’ of attaining them.
d. Strategy implementation and execution: The function comprises of what is needed to
make sure that the strategy works as well as to attain the targeted performance within the
deadline (Wells, Rozenblum, Park, Dunn and Bates, 2014, pp.219). It involves
identifying what is supposed to be done to ensure the strategy is on schedule, executing it
effectively, and producing good results.
e. Evaluate performance, review new developments, and initiate corrective adjustments:
The task involves altering the long-term direction, redefining business, narrowing or
broadening the vision of the company’s future due to new circumstances.
Question 3
The mission statement is a declaration of what an organization does daily. Essentially, it
defines an organization’s daily activities of the tasks they perform, and every employee to an
organization contributes to that mission (Estanek, James and Norton, 2013, pp.6). However, a
vision statement is a clear and definitive statement that defines what a company wants to
accomplish, and how the world will change once the mission is accomplished.
The characteristics of an ideal mission statement include:
a. It should be short
b. It is unique to the business