Final Strategic Recommendations Report for McDonalds - MAN301, 2017

This report presents a final strategic recommendations report for McDonalds, building upon a prior situational analysis. It focuses on the cost leadership strategy as the primary method for gaining a competitive edge and increasing market share within the fast-food industry. The report explores market size and trends, analyzes financial and corporate performance, and outlines various strategic options, including market fortification and segmentation. It details the implementation of the recommended cost leadership strategy, emphasizing the importance of creating customer value and assessing asset allocation. The report concludes with an overview of the key points and provides references for further study. The report also discusses the differentiation strategy, but this strategy is not effective for the market leaders. The report also includes the strategies through which performance of the company is control and monitored.

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Final Strategic recommendations report

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Executive Summary:
This paper defines the final recommended strategy for the McDonalds, and all these strategies
are based on the information provided by the first report and information available on the
internet. Final recommended Strategy for McDonalds in this paper is cost leadership strategy
because this is the only strategy which helps the leaders of the industry in getting the competitive
advantage and gain market share. This paper also discusses the differentiation strategy but this
strategy is not effective for the market leaders.

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Contents
Executive Summary:....................................................................................................................................2
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................4
Discussion:...................................................................................................................................................4
Market Size & Trends:.............................................................................................................................4
Financial and Corporate Performance:....................................................................................................5
Strategic Options:........................................................................................................................................6
Final Recommended Strategy:.....................................................................................................................7
Implementation of Final Strategy:...............................................................................................................8
Monitoring and Control of Future Performance:.........................................................................................9
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................................9
References:..................................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction:
Situational analysis is considered as the methods collection that are used by the managers of the
company for the purpose of analyzing the internal and external environment of the organization
for understanding the customers, abilities, and environment of the business. It is necessary to
analyze the internal and external environment of the company on continuous basis. As
environment witness number of changes and for dealing with these changes, organization
required effective strategies which can be framed after analyzing the environment only. It is
important for each and every company to maintain its strategies in effective manner because
these strategies can help the company in achieving its future goal.
This Report is the based on the first situational analysis report of the McDonalds, and contains
final strategic recommendations and specific steps which are important at business and corporate
level for implementing these recommended strategies. This report also includes the strategies
through which performance of the company is control and monitored. Lastly, this report is
concluded and this conclusion defines the key points of this report.
Discussion:
As stated in the original report, McDonalds opened its 1st restaurant in the Sydney suburb of
Yagoona, and presently almost 970 restaurants are operated in the Australia. This restaurant
gives employment to almost 100,000 or more people. This report includes the strategic
recommendation for different aspects, and all these aspects are stated below:
Market Size & Trends:
As stated in the first report, McDonals already holds the position of leaders in the fast food
industry, and this can be witnessed through the 24% market share holding by McDonalds in
2016. In the same year, the value of the company share has increased because of the innovation
done by the company in its menus and ingredients (McDonalds, 2018). For the purpose of
maintaining this market share, company can use following strategy:
Market fortification: this is the strategy in which leaders of the market make efforts to prevent
themselves from exploiting them. It is also considered as the multi branding strategy under

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which numbers of competing brands are introduced by the company for the purpose of tie up the
rare space of the distribution and also for restricting some amount competition. For
implementing this strategy, McDonalds can conduct below stated steps:
 Company can introduce new variety of drinks such as different types of coffee and other
beverages for restricting their competitors such as Starbucks.
 Company can also introduce some other brands such as full dine options and other
cuisines such as Chinese, Italian, etc (Educba, 2016).
Market Segmentation: McDonalds can also use this strategy for the purpose of increasing their
market share in the business. As there are number of leading companies which only target the
mass markets and neglect the small markets and this is the major mistake they made. In other
words, leading companies does not consider the small portion of the markets and believe that
these markets are too small that they cannot provide enough profits. This believe of the leading
companies are completely wrong, because small markets have potential to provide enough
profits to the companies (4Imprint, 2015). For implementing this strategy company can conduct
following steps:
 Identification of the target market by the company, and in context of McDonalds they can
identify the target market in different groups such as lower income, middle income, ad
higher income.
 Next step is the identification of the expectations of the target audience in which
company identify the expectations of the consumers in the target market.
 For ensuring the effective results, company can create subgroups in their target markets.
 Review the needs of the target audience.
 Market segment naming, and after that implementation of the market strategies (Tice,
2011).
Financial and Corporate Performance:
As stated by the first report, McDonalds corporate and financial performance can be analyzed
through the sales and revenue generated by the company. As per the analysis, last year double
profit is enjoyed by the company that is $364 million and instead of this company enjoys the

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modest sales growth. Following are the financial and corporate performance strategies which can
be used by the company for improving their performance:
Creating value for customers- creating values in the customers loves is considered as most
effective and appropriate strategy for ensuring the growth and profitability in the business. In
case, business fails to add value in the life’s of the customers then it is not possible for the
business to survive in the market (Mayberry, 2014). Following are the steps through which
company can create value for its customers:
 First company understand and identify the factors which driven the value for the
customers and for this purpose McDonalds can conduct survey among the customers.
 Second step in this context includes the understanding of the value proposition, which
means how much value is created by the product or service.
 Third step includes the identification of the customers and segments through which
company can create more value in the life of the consumers in context of their
competitors.
 Fourth step includes the creation of the win-win price in which company ensures that
customers will receive their value and on similar side improves the financial performance
of the company.
 Last step includes the focus of investments on the most valuable customers, which means
company must allocate the sales team, marketing dollars, and R&D investments in
disproportionate manner towards those customers to who company can serve in best
manner and those who will provide best value to the customers (Start & Stewart, 2014).
Assess your asset allocation and ensue the style drift: McDonalds must conduct at least one
annual analysis of the asset allocation, because changes can be occurred in the asset allocation
due to the different reasons. Allocation of assets is considered as important decision and it
directly affects the profitability of the company. Therefore, it is necessary for the company to
identify the important areas and prioritize them in context of the asset allocation (Avallone,
2016).

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Strategic Options:
Strategic options are considered as the creative alternative action oriented reply to the external
circumstances from which organization deals. Strategic options mainly take the advantages of
facts and actors, trends, opportunities and threat related to the external environment. it must be
noted that, strategic option are identified after assessing the institution and for this assessment it
is necessary to consider the basic objectives of the organization (MDF, n.d.). The tool related to
strategic options help the McDonalds in identifying and making the initial picture of alternative
strategic options or perspectives. Following are the available strategic options for the
McDonalds:
Cost leadership: cost of the organization is the most important factor in context of the strategic
importance, and this factor is reflected in number of the portfolio or matrix models. This Strategy
mainly focuses on reducing the cost of the organization at each and every stage of the value
chain. This strategy allowed the firm to earn more return on their investments. For attaining the
cost leaderships, it is important for the company to ensure curve-driven reductions in cost at the
early stage of the product life cycle. For ensuring the long term working of the cost leadership
strategy, organizations must focus on the volume also, which means products introduced by the
company must be introduced in the wider market (Lostlagoon, n.d.). In those industries, where
scale economies are important, market share will considered as the key objective. In lieu of
growth share matrix, Cost leadership is considered as the option for the Stars and Cash cows. In
such industries, it is important to utilize the capacity up to its maximum extent. This can be
understood through case law, McDonalds must cover the whole country for increasing the
customer numbers, and increase in the customer numbers is very much important for the purpose
of increasing the utilization and for bringing down the average costs. Cost leadership can only be
achieved by single form in the industry, and this is little difficult but the best strategy for the
McDonalds. However, fact related to the reduced return at the time when volume of the products
offered by the organization reached at the certain level, and then it reduce the difference between
the costs between the leaders of the industry. At the time when particular level has been reached
organizations cannot get more cost advantage (Tanwar, 2013).
Differentiation strategy: Differentiation strategy is considered as that strategy which relied on
the creation of the product or service which have some unique characteristics and that

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characteristics are not easily replicated by the competitors. It is possible to achieve the perceived
differentiation such as with the help of branding. The most common tactic for differentiating the
small suppliers from the big supplier is the high quality product. Similarly to the cost driven
strategy, this strategy is also applied on all the stages of the value chain and also on the constant
basis. However, a quality product can also fail in case company fails to ensure the proper
delivery and installation, or if distribution of the product is done only through the stores which
are located in the down market areas. For the purpose of creating the value, cost differentiation
of the product must be less than the amount which is expected by the premium buyers to pay for
the differentiated product. Differentiation is considered as the strategic option for the followers
instead of the market leaders. This can be understood through example, if a product is considered
as the problem child, the organization could invest to fastening up with the leader. This strategy
is considered as the risky strategy than investing for the purpose of differentiating the product for
two reasons. First reason deals with the cost advantage enjoyed by the market leader, and this
will result in the more difficult things for the followers to meet the position of the leader. Second
reason states that differentiation strategy does not result in the direct challenge to the market
leader and therefore it decrease the chances of the damaging competitive response, such as
cutting prices.
Final Recommended Strategy:
In the present case, McDonalds can opts cost leadership strategy because this is the most
effective strategy which can be used by the leaders of the country. Cost leadership is concept
which is introduced by the Michael porter, and this concept confirms and manages the
competitive advantage. Cost leadership is considered as the lowest cost of the operation in the
industry. Cost leadership is the content which deals with the company efficiency, size, scale, etc.
This strategy mainly aims to utilize the scale of production of the organization, and this strategy
has wider scope and focus on other economies such as good strategy related to the purchasing,
producing the highly standardized products, and ensure the use of modern and current
technologies. Recently, there are number of companies which chosen this strategic mix for the
purpose of achieving the market leadership. These mixed patterns of the Cost leadership
simultaneously consider its effects such as best services to the customers and product leadership
(Economic Times, n.d.).

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Price leadership is considered as the different concept in comparison of the cost leadership. t is
also possible that company may become the lowest cost producer in the industry, but still
company is not the cost leader in the industry. It might be possible that company have more than
average profitability in context of the price leadership. It must be noted that, cost leaders does
not compete on the basis of price and they are very effective in competition, and own the low
cost structure and management.
This strategy is the important part of marketing strategy, and this strategy is very effective for
increasing the share in market and also attracts the consumers. In this company’s management
team constantly make efforts for decreasing the cost I lieu of not only of the one product, but the
complete bunch of the products. It does not mean that the goods are produced by the company at
the inferior quality at cheap rates as compared to their competitors. If such practice is followed
by the company than it definitely result in the failure of the strategy. For the efficient result of
this strategy, company has to produce goods which are of acceptable quality and particular to a
set of customers at such price which is lower or competitive in nature as compared to other
companies which are producing the same product.
Implementation of Final Strategy:
Implementation of the final strategy is easy in case of McDonalds, because industry of café and
restaurants in Australia operates on the higher margin, and because of this it is easy for the
McDonalds to choose cost leadership marketing strategy. McDonalds is the restaurant which is
offering the basic food at the low price, and they ensure such structure of labor through which
they can recruit and train fresher’s instead of the trained cooks. This chain of restaurant based on
few members only because cost saving in different processes allowed the company to offer the
food at bargain prices (Gregory, 2017).
Monitoring and Control of Future Performance:
There are number of strategies which can be adopted by the McDonalds for the purpose of
controlling and monitoring the future performance of the company:

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Review of Plans: the most important technique and strategy through which performance of the
future can be managed and controlled is the review of plan on continuous basis. In other words,
management reviews their plans and makes flexible changes in the plan if required. This process
must be done on continuous basis (McQuerrey, n.d.).
Resource availability: for reviewing the process it is necessary for the company to arrange the
resources and analyze the market on continuous basis because make changes as per the result of
the analyzing.
Conclusion:
After considering the above facts, it is clear that cost leadership is the most effective and
efficient strategy for the McDonalds and it is the only strategy through which company can gain
more market share. This strategy allowed the firm to earn more return on their investments. For
attaining the cost leaderships, it is important for the company to ensure curve-driven reductions
in cost at the early stage of the product life cycle. For ensuring the long term working of the cost
leadership strategy, organizations must focus on the volume also, which means products
introduced by the company must be introduced in the wider market.

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References:
Educba, (2016). 4 Amazing Rules to Increase Market Share of a Product (Easy). Retrieved on 9th
June 2018 from: https://www.educba.com/how-to-increase-market-share-of-a-product/.
Tice, M. (2011). Five Ways Your Business Can Grab Market Share Today. Retrieved on 9th June
2018 from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220670.
Avallone, M. (2016). 4 Financial Strategies to Consider Before Year End. Retrieved on 9th
June 2018 from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markavallone/2016/10/01/4-financial-
strategies-to-consider-before-year-end/#67b3a13348db.
Mayberry, M. (2014). 4 Simple Strategies to Improve Your Business Success Rate. Retrieved on
9th June 2018 from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239706.
Start, K. & Stewart, B. (2018). 5 Steps to Creating More Customer Value. Retrieved on 9th June
2018 from: https://www.inc.com/karl-and-bill/5-steps-to-creating-more-customer-
value-.html.
Tanwar, R. (2013). Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies. IOSR Journal of Business and
Management (IOSR-JBM), Vol. 15(1), PP 11-17.
Economic Times. Definition of 'Cost Leadership'. Retrieved on 9th June 2018 from:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/cost-leadership.
Gregory, L. (2017). McDonald’s Generic Strategy & Intensive Growth Strategies. Retrieved on
9th June 2018 from: http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-generic-strategy-intensive-growth-
strategies.
McQuerrey, L. How to Monitor & Control Your Business Plan. Retrieved on 9th June 2018 from:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/monitor-control-business-plan-41401.html.
McDonalds, (2018), Our Story. Retrieved on 9th June 2018 from:
https://mcdonalds.com.au/about-maccas/maccas-story.
4Imprint, (2015). Market Segmentation. Retrieved on 9th June 2018 from:
https://info.4imprint.com/wp-content/uploads/1P-06-0315-Market-Segmentation-
BP1.pdf.
MDF. Strategic Options. Retrieved on 9th June 2018 from:
https://www.sportanddev.org/sites/default/files/downloads/strategic_options.pdf.
Lostlagoon. Generating strategic options. Retrieved on 9th June 2018 from:
http://lostlagoon.info/Planning/10.pdf.

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