BUS104 Management Case Study: Analyzing McDonald's Australia

This case study provides a summary of McDonald's organizational history, highlighting its global presence and Australian success. It delves into the company's purpose, values, and organizational structure, emphasizing the importance of people in achieving its objectives. The role of CEO Andrew Gregory is examined through the lens of the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The analysis extends to Gregory's technical and conceptual skills in fostering customer service, innovation, and sustainability. The case study also explores the management roles Gregory plays in different scenarios, such as weekly conferences and new product assessments. Finally, it discusses the lessons other managers can learn from McDonald's approach and the differences between being a CEO at McDonald's Australia versus a non-profit organization. Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers for students.

Provide a Summary of McDonald's Organizational History
McDonald’s Corporation has a chain of restaurants that are distributed across the world. The
company has as many as 36000 restaurants distributed across 119 countries, globally. On a
daily basis, the company has more than 69 million customers from every part of the world.
The different additions to McDonald’s like the McCafes and many others, follow the same
working pattern and rules like the restaurants of McDonald’s. But the different branches of
McDonald’s in different countries are offered with full freedom to innovate and make a
customer happy. The first Australian restaurant of McDonald’s was opened in the year 1971.
Since then the number of employees of McDonald’s increased significantly and in recent
times the number of employees that are working for McDonald’s is close to 90000 distributed
across 900 McDonald’s restaurants and cafes, serving 1.7 million customers on a daily basis.
Reports suggest that the annual sales at McDonald’s are more than $ 4 billion. The company
runs many of the McDonald’s restaurants and cafes. There are almost 80% of franchise
businesses that are operated by individual executives or women. On average, a McDonald's
restaurant is managed by at least 100 employees. It is understood that McDonald's Australian
branch is quite popular and successful in McDonald's history. McDonald’s Australia has
introduced the concept of nutritional labeling and this move has been copied by McDonald's
operations in other parts of the world.
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As an organization, what is the purpose of McDonald’s, what are the
company values, how is the organization structured, and what
importance do people play in helping the organization meet its
purpose?
McDonald’s is a popular organization that has served customers for decades. The
main purpose of the organization is highlighted in its mission statement, which is to become
people’s favorite place to eat and drink. Therefore the main purpose of the organization is to
serve people with the best quality services to attain loyal customers and repeat purchase.
For the effective functioning of McDonald’s, there are certain values which are
followed in the organization. All the different values practiced in the organization are built
around their customers and employees, therefore, the main value of the organization is to
offer great customer experience and the other one is to provide their workforce with the
opportunities to excel and become future leaders. Also, the organization believes in
continuously improving and fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities by giving back to
the community (Robbins., Coulter. and Bergman., 2017).
The organizational structure of McDonald’s was revamped in the year 2015 and since
then, the organization has adapted the divisional organizational structure. Therefore,
according to the divisional organizational structure, the business organization is broken down
into various components, which are allotted with different responsibilities depending upon
the requirements of the organization. Thus, the organizational structure of McDonald’s is
divided into components, which include global hierarchy, performance-based divisions, and
function-based groups (Thompson, 2019).
Be it the people inside the organization McDonald’s or outside it, both of them help
the organization in fulfilling their organizational objective, as both of them share an
interrelated relationship. The workforce at McDonald’s works hard to provide great customer
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experience and the customers of McDonald’s provide with valuable feedback and repeat
sales, which fulfills the organization’s objectives.
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As the CEO of McDonald’s Australia, what is Andrew Gregory’s role?
Using the four functions of management as a guide, what activities
does he need to undertake in managing the Australian operation of
McDonald’s? How would this differ for an assistant manager at a
McDonald’s restaurant?
Andrew Gregory has taken the position of Chief Executive Officer and therefore, he
has a major role to play in the organization’s functioning. Some of the key roles of Andrew
include managing public affairs, supply chain management, business planning, marketing,
and other operations. Apart from these, he also has to play an effective role of a leader that
helps in improving the management at McDonald’s. Along, with increasing the level of
innovation in the organization (Norman, 2019).
The four functions of management are planning or decision-making, organizing,
leading and controlling. According to the current circumstances, it is very important for
Andrew Gregory to make appropriate decisions which help the organization to excel above
all the challenges imposed by the different competitors in the market (Johnson, 2019).
Therefore, it is crucial that Andrew should develop a plan which is built with intense
planning and help the organization in attaining competitive advantage. The other aspect
which needs attention is the new projects like “the Corner” and “Customer learning labs”.
Andrew has to provide a huge launch for both these innovative projects, and thus, he has to
lead his team in the right direction with correct management. The last responsibility which is
the need of the hour is controlling the damage, therefore, it is crucial that he should identify
the various reasons behind the price slump in the US and ensure to address the same issue in
Australia if they are present here (McDonald, 2010).
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The assistant manager at a McDonald’s restaurant will have to play a different role, as
he has the main responsibility of providing create the customer experience. Therefore, he has
to follow the vision of Andrew and help him in attaining the organization’s objectives.
A discussion of the ways Andrew Gregory’s technical, conceptual and
technical skills influence the manner in which he aims to maintain an
environment that encourages customer service, innovation, and
sustainability at McDonald’s Australia?
Andrew Gregory has been given the responsibility of handling the complete
McDonald’s Australia, as the Chief Executive Officer. Now, Australian McDonald’s has
contributed to the organization immensely to the global level. Thus, Andrew has to manage
the organization’s customer experience, sustainability, and innovation with certain technical
and conceptual skills (Grill, Ahlborg Jr and Wikström, 2014).
Andrew understands the requirement of the current organizations to include
innovation and become agile and thus, he has stressed over the concept of developing a more
responsive and transparent dining experience for the customers. Through this conceptual
approach, he is offering the customers with more personalized services which are innovative
and will provide immense customer experience. Along with this, he is addressing the needs of
the future, as for developing a transparent and responsive dining experience, technology will
be used. Therefore, with his conceptual and technical skills, Andrew is developing an
environment of innovation and sustainability, which will provide immense customer
experience (Baker et al., 2013).
With the same initiative, the “customer learning labs”, “the Corner” and “create your
taste” is being executed. Though the management will face certain trouble to adapt to this
new culture, with appropriate training and a bit of experience, the conceptual and technical
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skills introduced by Andrew will transform the working culture of McDonald’s for the better
(DK, 2019).
The management roles that Andrew Gregory would be playing when
he (a) has weekly conferences with his company management team at
the McDonald’s Australia; (b) when he assesses the feasibility of
adding a new product to the McDonald’s menu; and (c) when he keeps
employees focused on the company’s commitments to its customers?
As the chief executive officer of the organization, there are certain roles which
Andrew has to play according to different circumstances, but one aspect which will be
needed throughout is effective leadership, as it is the key to managing the functioning of an
organization.
During his weekly conference, with the management team of the McDonald’s
Australia, Andrew has to play the role of a visionary and a cheerleader. As the CEO, he has
to ensure that his goals are the main driving force of the team and thus, he should clearly
explain his vision to the team. Along with this, he will have to play the role of a cheerleader
by continuously pushing and motivating the entire team to work in collaboration, to fulfill the
different goals. As a cheerleader, it will also be his duty to ensure that the team is motivated
to increase the level of innovation in the organization (Shekshnia, 2018).
During the time of analyzing the feasibility of introducing a new product in the
restaurant’s menu, he will play the role of the last chip. The responsibility of the last chip is
to formulate the final decision by analyzing the external factors, the long term investment,
and the various uncertainties. Andrew needs massive toughness, integrity, and honesty, to
play the role of the last chip.
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And, he plays the role of a role model, when he is ensuring that his employees stay
focused and fulfill their various commitments to the organization. Along with the role of role
model, he will also have to play the role of a cheerleader, as it will be a lethal combination,
which will help in increasing the focus of the employees towards their responsibilities, with
the help of motivation (Zéghal and Maaloul, 2010).
What could other managers learn from Andrew Gregory and
McDonald's approach? What is the difference of being a CEO at
McDonald's Australia and any non-profit organization? If there are
any differences then what are they?
The organization McDonald’s is huge and can serve as a great learning experience for
current and future managers. Also, the managers can learn a great deal from Andrew Gregory
like his risk control approaches which he utilized during in Japan and Australia, his vision of
predicting the future trends and the importance of technology in innovation and customer
service. The managers can learn about the different strategies which McDonald’s has
implemented and used in the organization, to increase customer experience, like their
approach of continuous improvement.
There is a difference which is between a non-profit organization and a profit
organization. Therefore, obviously, there will be a difference between the CEO of
McDonald's and a non-profit organization. The main focus of the organization McDonald’s is
to earn a profit and that is the reason why it is known as a profit organization. Thus, the
driving force of the CEO of McDonald’s will be to earn profits, it is their primary goal. On
the other hand, in a non-profit organization, the main focus of the CEO is to serve and help
people in need by utilizing the funds given by different organizations, individuals, and
institutions (M. Viader and I. Espina, 2014). Due to this huge difference, they both have a
different set of responsibilities and duties. For instance, the CEO of McDonald’s has to
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perform the four functions of management which are, planning or decision making,
organizing, leading, and controlling. He has to spend a huge amount of time in conducting all
these functions, whereas the CEO of a non-profit organization can spend very less time as the
main functions of the organization is governed by the board of directors of the organization
(Ashe-Edmunds, 2018).
References
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business in society, 14(1), pp.1-14.
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McDonald, J. (2010). Records management and data management: closing the gap. Records
Management Journal, 20(1), pp.53-60.
Norman, L. (2019). What Are the Four Basic Functions That Make Up the Management
Process?. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/four-basic-functions-make-up-management-process-
23852.html [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019].
Robbins., Coulter. and Bergman. (2017). Management. 8th ed. Sydney: P. Ed Australia.
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Available at: https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/the-four-essential-roles-
of-a-ceo-8591 [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019].
Thompson, A. (2019). McDonald’s Organizational Structure & Its Characteristics - An
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http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-organizational-structure-analysis [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019].
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