Detailed E-Business Analysis of McDonald's Corporation Report

This report provides an in-depth e-business analysis of McDonald's Corporation, a leading fast-food brand. It examines their digital strategies, including the adoption of innovative technologies to improve customer interactions, delivery services, and overall customer experience. The report discusses digital transformation trends in the food and beverage industry, highlighting how McDonald's leverages technology for efficiency, health and safety standards, and cost control. It analyzes McDonald's business model, focusing on franchisees, employees, and suppliers, and how they create value for customers through product diversification and adherence to health and safety standards. The report also covers brand and customer experience, organizational culture, data management practices, and innovations such as McDelivery and coffee sustainability. The analysis emphasizes McDonald's use of data-driven decision-making and its commitment to innovation to maintain a competitive edge in the global food and beverage industry.

Running head: E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
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1E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
Introduction
In the present age of rapid globalization, business organizations across the world are
seeking to improve the scope of their activities and functions through strategies that aim at
the efficient utilization of resources available to them. In this respect, it can be observed that
one of the most significant objectives of strategy formulation in business organization pertain
to advancements and innovation in technology used for the manufacture and distribution
purposes. The concept of digital strategy forms an important aspect of electronic business
activities or e-commerce (Kane et al. 2015). This concept entails the improvement and
enhancement of current business activities of an organization to ultimately utilize the
competitive advantages present in the market (Bayona-Saez et al. 2017). The essay will
further discuss the business activities of McDonald’s Corporation with respect to an
orientation towards digital strategies for improving their productivity and profitability.
Discussion
Analysis of McDonald’s Corporation
McDonald’s Corporation is recognized as one of the most popular fast food brands in
the world. The company is a major player in the food and beverage industry and was founded
in the year 1940 (Inglis and Gimlin 2015). McDonald’s Corporation is primarily based in
America but conducts its business activities and operations in several countries in North and
South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania, thereby making their products and
services throughout all the major cities of the world (Corporate.mcdonalds.com 2020). The
business model of the organization is based on three basic elements, namely the franchisees,
employees and suppliers (Corporate.mcdonalds.com 2020). The franchisees help in
upholding the spirit and commitment towards entrepreneurship while the suppliers aid in the
maintenance of a high standard of safety and quality of the products. The employees of the

2E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
organization facilitate the rapid growth of McDonald’s through the world. McDonald’s
Corporation has engaged in the adoption and transformation of technology for the purpose of
improving the scope of their current business activities. The use of innovative technology in
the company pertains to the improvement of customer interactions, improving efficiency in
delivery services and elevating the experience of the customers at the restaurants.
Digital Transformation Trends in the Food and Beverage Industry
The exponential growth of digital transformation in the business activities and
function of global organizations is owing to several benefits like improvement of employee
performance and enhancement of customer satisfaction. The adoption of digital
transformation has also been observed in the food and beverage industry, with the help of
which the organizations of the industry have been able to develop and strategize sustainable
and resource efficient means of production, thereby meeting the requirements of the
customers as well as upholding the health and safety standards (Arcese et al. 2015). The use
of digital transformation and innovative technology has been used in the food and beverage
industry in order to improve the overall business performance of the organizations and obtain
a competitive advantage in the market.
Digital transformation is used in the food and beverage industry for the purpose of
maintaining the standards of health and safety in the products manufactured by the business
organizations and companies. With the use of innovative technology, the ingredients and
safety of the raw materials used to manufacture and food products and drinks can be checked
and regulated. Furthermore, technological innovations can also be utilized in order to make
the tracking and delivery system of the food and beverage products more efficient (Han
2014). The customers’ ability to track their orders will help in the enhancement of customer
satisfaction. Furthermore, the restaurants’ ability to track the orders made by the customers
will help in the solving of customer complaints and improve the experience of the customers.

3E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
Compliance with the food safety and health standards established in different countries where
the organizations operate are an important aspect of conducting successful business activities
in the food and beverage industry (Nayak and Waterson 2017). The use of advanced and
innovative technology helps in such compliance with the food health and safety standards set
by the likes of the Food and Drug Administration. Digital transformation additionally helps
the organizations in the food and beverage industry to control the costs of their production,
distribution and marketing. For example, the use of online mediums like websites and mobile
applications for engaging with the customers and marketing purposes helps in reducing the
costs of advertisement and maintenance of public relations.
Digital Strategy Recommendations
Business Model
The business model of McDonald’s Corporation involves the working of three
important elements. These elements are identified to be the franchisees, employees and the
suppliers (Corporate.mcdonalds.com 2020). The franchisees of the organization are spread
across numerous countries, covering a majority of the cities in the world. These franchisees
work as independent units of entrepreneurship by upholding the values and culture of the
organization. In this regard, it can be said that the franchisees form a collection of small
business. There are more than 36,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States of
America alone (Corporate.mcdonalds.com 2020). The employees of the restaurants strive to
provide an optimum quality of service and assistance to the customers, thereby aiding in
upholding the positive brand image of the organization and maximize customer satisfaction
and loyalty. The suppliers are also responsible for keeping up the high quality of health and
safety standards.

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An analysis of target customers of the organizations shows that the tastes and
preferences of these customers vary according to their geographic location. In order to create
value for these customers, McDonald’s Corporation engages in diversification of the food
and beverage items sold to the customers depending on the favored flavors of different
locations in the world (Sharma 2016). Therefore, the method in which the organization
creates value for the customers involves the provision of a diverse range of products available
to the customers to choose from so that their individual needs and requirements are met.
The production process of the company follows the HACCP or Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Point to ensure compliance with health and safety standards
(Mcdonalds.com.hk 2020). Furthermore, the organization follows GMP or Good
Manufacturing Process through extensive and critical monitoring of each individual process
of manufacturing the food and beverage items in the different locations for the manufacturing
units are present (Mcdonalds.com.hk 2020). This strategy of GMP helps the company to
ensure high quality of the products and their hygiene.
Brand and Customer Experience
McDonald’s Corporation is one of the most popular globally recognized brands in the
food and beverage industry. The brand identity of the organization is mostly owing to the
wide range of food and beverage items available for the consumption of the target customers
as well as the maintenance of a high quality of health and safety standards. In this regard, it
can be said that McDonald’s Corporation has built its positive brand image and identity
across the world by catering to the needs and requirements of the customers and obtaining
maximum level of customer satisfaction (Xu 2014). Furthermore, the organization also
provides a superior quality of services to its customers in order to ensure positive customer
experience.

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McDonald’s Corporation has a separate team aimed at providing a positive customer
experience through an exceptional quality of services. Furthermore, the company is also
recognized for its method of reviewing the feedbacks from customers worldwide, in order to
make improvements in their products and services. Such kind of engagement with the
customers is established and maintained by the company through their physical stores as well
as through official accounts and pages on social media platforms (Rodrigues, Nikhil and
Jacob 2016). Each individual feedback from the customers on social media is responded to in
order to ensure optimum customer satisfaction. Additionally, changes in recipes according to
the changes in the tastes and preferences of the customers along with modernization of the
restaurants has also led to a steady improvement in consumer perceptions and experience.
The Chief Executive Officer of the company Steve Easterbrook has focused on digital
transformations in the restaurants in terms of delivery and other customer services, through
the incorporation of options for personalization of the menu. A mobile application for the
company has also been created to improve the convenience of the customers to order food
online.
Culture and Processes
The significance of organizational culture lies in its ability to influence the behavior
and attitude of the employees, thereby ultimately affecting the productivity and profitability
of the business functions and operations. The culture and values present in a business
organization are closely related in this respect. The organizational values of McDonald’s
Corporation focuses on responsible leadership, inclusiveness, progressiveness and local
integration (Corporate.mcdonalds.com 2020). In this regard, it can be noted that the
organizational culture at McDonald’s Corporation focuses on the efficiency and development
of its employees. The most significant features of the culture of the company include people-
centricity, learning of the individuals and the organization as a whole and diversity along

6E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
with inclusion. The advantage of having such an organizational culture is the ability of the
company to establish and maintain a high level of employee satisfaction thereby reducing the
employee turnover rate (Crane et al. 2019). Furthermore, employee satisfaction also enables
the organization to maintain the high standards of quality in terms of its products and
customer services.
The business processes of the organization are conducted by highly trained and skilled
employees who ensure the maintenance of high quality of health and safety standards along
with resource efficiency. These business processes are primarily focused on the aspects of
excellence of operations, delivery of services to the customers, hygiene in the production
processes and quality of the products sold to the customers. Periodic evaluations of the
operations systems and quality control management enable the organization to ensure
efficiency of the business processes.
Data Management
The global food retail service provided McDonalds Corporation necessitates the
organization to collect and retain useful data pertaining to customer feedback, preferences,
sales and expenditures. The regular customer traffic and consequent sales and profits of the
organization across each restaurant throughout the world need to be tracked by the
organization in order to successfully operate its business functions. For this purpose, the
organization incorporates big data management by organizing and analyzing huge volumes of
both structured and unstructured data with the help of several interdependent departments
within the organization like the operations, analytics, engineering, finance and information
technology (Young and Page 2014).
In this respect, it can be said that McDonald’s Corporation is highly information
oriented with a dominant data driven culture. The local restaurants across the world organize

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data regarding sales and customer feedback, which is ultimately sent to the executive leaders
for further evaluation and decision making purposes. The process of predictive analytics is
then used in order to process the data and information received from the local stores in order
to ensure efficiency of business functions or identify discrepancies in the processes (Chen
2018). The use of advanced technology along with highly skilled and trained employees plays
an important role in the data management process at McDonald’s Corporation.
Innovation
The highly competitive nature of the food and beverage industry requires the
organizations to strategize efficient means for obtaining high market shares and thereby a
competitive advantage over the rivals. McDonald’s Corporation being one of the leading
players in the global food and beverage industry has resorted to the use of innovative
technology in order to maintain sustainability and resource efficiency in the production
processes, along with meeting the requirements of the global target market.
The innovations in the business processes of McDonald’s Corporation include
McDelivery in collaboration with UberEats. This innovation has facilitated efficiency and
promptness of food delivery services to the customers. Another major innovation includes
coffee sustainability, through sustainable means of sourcing coffee for the McCafe, and
significantly reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases in its production processes (Hajjar
et al. 2019). McDonald’s has also engaged in the use of recyclable and compostable cups in
order to help in the reduction of pollution through disposal of plastic wastes
(Corporate.mcdonalds.com 2020). The self-service kiosk introduced by the company in its
restaurants is also driven by advanced technology that allows the customers to personalize
their orders according to their requirements without having to wait n long queues.

8E-BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
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