McDonald's: Regional Strategic Management and Global Leadership

This report examines the influence of regional strategic management on McDonald's, a leading fast-food chain. It begins with an introduction and literature review, defining regional strategic management and its importance. The research aims to determine the concept of regional strategic management, identify its impact on McDonald's performance, and analyze regional expansion strategies for global leadership. The report explores McDonald's operational management, including design of goods and services, location strategy, job design, quality management, layout design, and inventory management. It highlights the importance of adapting to regional preferences, such as offering vegetarian options in India. The report also discusses the benefits of regional strategic management, such as capturing new markets and building brand presence. The report concludes with recommendations and an action plan, emphasizing the need for strategic adaptability and cultural sensitivity in global business expansion.

Corporate Strategy and
Governance

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Literature review..............................................................................................................................2
Concept of regional strategic management.................................................................................2
Importance of regional strategic management over the performance of McDonald's................4
Regional expansion strategies that McDonald's can adopt for global leadership.......................5
Discussion on primary and secondary research...............................................................................6
Critical review of the research of the research.................................................................................8
Recommendation and action plan..................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

Title: Influence of regional strategic management on global business.
Introduction
McDonald is one of the leading brands of fast food, it has the largest chains of restaurant
across the globe. Since, its establishment, the company is provided a flexible customer service
and this has enhanced the image of the company as compared to other firms (Frynas and Mellahi,
2015). Attaining such success is only being possible through strategic thinking because it
provides company with a leverage to think beyond their product and service for remaining in the
market for a longer period of time. This research will put an insight on the impact of regional
strategy used by the McDonald company for managing the performance of the company.
Research aim
The main aim of present research is to examine the impact of regional strategy of
McDonald's Fast Food.
Research objectives
 To determine the concept of regional strategic management.
 To identify the importance of regional strategic management over the performance of
McDonald's.
 To examine the regional expansion strategies that McDonald's can adopt for global leadership.
Research questions
 What is the concept of regional strategic management?
 What is the importance of regional strategic management over the performance of McDonald's?
 What are the regional expansion strategies that McDonald's can adopt for global leadership?
Rationale of research
Current research is based on examine the impact of regional strategy of McDonald's Fast
Food. This research provides vast information to investigator that may improve personal and
professional growth. In relation to this, skills and abilities of researcher in personal and
professional aspect. With the help of this, researcher can collect detailed information on the basis
of particular topic and area (Lasserre, 2017). In professional context, investigator acquire
knowledge and also enhance researcher skills that assist in undertaking future study in an
effective manner and also get positive outcomes.
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Literature review
Concept of regional strategic management
According to the views of Barnes (2018), the operation management helps in increasing
position of company. An example of this is McDonalds which is one of the largest fast food
restaurants across the world and it is concluded that this is having effective operational
management system. It enables to manage the decisions of operations management. These
represent different strategic areas of the business operations. There is need to coordinate and
manage optimal productivity and performance so that targets can be attained. For any form, it is
essential to have an effective strategic management process and system. Global business of
McDonalds entails wide variety of strategic requirements and needs for the operational
management. Supply chain and strategic HRM are related to each other and they are involved in
developing the new and effective ways of functioning. A regional expansion strategy is defined
as an essential factor for growth of company. This helps a company in establishing presence of
entering into new and international market. It is essential for a company to choose effective and
strong strategy by examining both region which a company is considering to move in and
experience of the company. There is need to manage the effectiveness of the strategy so that
McDonalds is able to attract more customers. Operational management system has to be efficient
so that company can make profits and money.
The home base strategy is one which is associated with starting international expansion. These
are involved in serving foreign markets at home base and allocate research and development.
The portfolio strategy consists of setting up and acquiring of different operations which are
involved within home region and reporting is done directly to the home base. The main
advantage of this approach is that it includes faster growth for non home regions and there is
significant position which generates lot of cash as well as opportunities for averaging out of
economic shocks.
Operations management plays a major role as it is a basic and most important function of
an organisation. This consists of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling all
the resource to produce quality products and services for the company.
McDonald's is the largest fast food chain operating all over the world, serving various fast food
outlet. The operation management of McDonald's planned strategies, coordinate with
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management and take strategic decision, which increases their productivity and enhance the
performance.
McDonald's operates globally and for that their operation management needs to have
strategic HR and supply chain management as it needs to give a tough competition to their
competitors like KFC, Subway etc (Barnes 2018). For this McDonald's have 6 decision areas
where they need to apply these strategies and policy which maximise their revenue and
productivity and make it a top brand serving throughout the world which are illustrated below:
Design of Goods and services: in this area McDonald's aim is to make the product unique as well
as affordable as compared to their competitor, so that consumer can avail it and meet with their
expectations. They design it in such a way which seems worthy to the price paid and the quantity
received. They reduce the size of the product which is more affordable and satisfies customer
cravings.
 Location strategy: in this decision area of operation management McDonald's set up their
location where it can reach and attract more customers. Mostly, it operates near to malls,
porch areas where crowd is more so that it can reach to more customers. McDonald's has
their mobile application, delivery facility to reach more ad maximize its revenue.
 Job Design and Human resource: the objective of McDonald's is to provide product and
services which meets the demand of the customer. For the same, it is necessary to train
employees, develop skills which is required to production line. Human resources team
need to make strategic policy, train their employees well develop necessary skills so as to
increase revenue (Reid and Sanders, 2019).
 Quality management: providing good quality to customer is priority of McDonald's so as
to maintain consistency this they focus on operating strategies which focuses on
minimize product cost and increase product quality for high productivity. Product quality
consistency helps to satisfy consumer expectations and it helps in building and
maintaining a brand image in the competitive market.
 Layout design and strategy: McDonald's operation management emphasis more to
increase the size and occupy more space to operate in restaurants instead of focusing on
comfort. Its strategy is to provide vast area so that lots of customer can enjoy the meal
rather than waiting for their turns in queues for their orders or for payment.
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 Inventory management: McDonald's operation strategy is to minimize the cost of
inventory. Company involves so many local intermediaries and distributors, sell
ingredients to McDonald's coordinate with each other and they come together to manage
their inventory.
McDonalds use different strategy through which they can help in increasing the gross
sales. It needs to boost it creativity skills and ability by which new ideas in come through their
mind. There is need to use the analysis techniques which can help in there to get the knowledge.
It tries to deliver its services at each and every sector by which variety of companies are
following their marketing strategies. For the specific region there is need to have some of the
analysis which can use the company to make the strategy in accordance to increase the sales of
the company. Regional strategic management is the one which is able to make the strategy for
the specific location which can help in to increase the demand of this brand product. McDonalds,
is able to use as the strategy which can help the business to grow in that specific region. It is
concluded that strategic management is needed within a firm for success of any firm.
Importance of regional strategic management over the performance of McDonald's
According to Audretsch, (2015), This can be defining as that kind of strategies which is used
by business firm in order to expand its business in new and internationalism market. This helps
in performer task in effective way and expanding business of firm in order to meet business
objectives. There are different factors in this which have to be cover by business organization.
As, there are different factor which have to be use by business firm in order to perform task in
effective way in international market. There are different benefits which can be use by business
organisation such as MacDonald in order to perform business function and manage roles in
effective way. These are related to improvement in performance of business firm and various
growth options of business firm. This is because it helps in improving business option by going
to other level. This also helps in performing business activates and managing tools according to
needs. Here, firm can explore its business and perform task according to it. One more importance
of this to business firm is that it helps in using new resources. As, MacDonald’s can implement
its business function and perform task by using resources of business firm. This is because by
expanding business operation firm can use resources of other area where it is going to expand its
business operation. This also provide wide range of products which help in meeting needs. This
can be seen form the function of MacDonald's. Here, firm is using local products and flavours
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while expending its business. This helps in meeting needs of business firm and performing task
in effective way. One of the main advantage of regional strategic management is to capture new
market and at the same time also improve the possibilities of establishing its positive brand
presence. With the assistance of this company can easily invite more and more customers into
new market that beneficial in attaining competitive success. This will lead in successful
achieving business function and performing task according to direction. This all will directly
help firm in performing business function and meeting needs of business as it aids in covering all
those function which are performed in order to attract customer in new market. Under this firm
will use to provide training to employees and helps them in understanding business function.
This motivates employees towards business function and assist them in developing their
behaviour towards goals business firm. This can also have evaluated that business venture such
as MacDonald’s are using different sources and performing there are operations in appropriate
way. This helps business firm in meeting its objectives by performing at global level. This can
be evaluated that, there care different needs of regional strategic management over the
performance of business firm which help in meeting needs and performing business task in
appropriate way. This also helps in performing business function and motivating employees to
work according to it.
Regional expansion strategies that McDonald's can adopt for global leadership
According to Okumus and et. Al., (2019), regional strategies is very important part for any
business to survive and grow and internationally. These includes all those initiatives organization
can take to make that civilization/culture people comfortable and familiar with their products.
The adaption of this strategy is grounded on the assumption that every culture or civilization
accept easily all those products which are very familiar to them and which do not harm or betray
any of their cultural dogmas or principles. McDonald is fast food restaurant chain started their
business selling hamburgers in California. Currently McDonald holds its franchise world-wide.
McDonald is best known for its regional adaptability and dynamic steps taken as per industrial
needs and demand. For instance, north-west part of Indian culture which includes Gujarat,
Rajasthan and other such states are very known for its vegetarian and vegan population, keeping
this very fact into mind McDonald started its first full vegetarian meal outlet in Ahmedabad
Gujarat. Similarly, China is known for its meat eating population and that is why McDonald
focused very much into providing full non-vegetarians meals to Chinese population. So for
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regional expansion McDonald should follow some key processes which will help them to
understand, analyse and evaluate customer preferences they are targeting. For instance, loyalty
club card is one of the famous initiative taken by various companies to understand their target
customer preferences. Loyalty Card is something in which customer needs to answer various
questions related to their basic preferences to get allotment of card and after that they can redeem
various discounts on purchase of goods and services. Knowing customer preferences and doing
in-depth analysis of the regional market and customers culture create a base for their initiative of
changing or modifying product as per need. Also McDonald can look after economical condition
of regions they are targeting, for example If McDonald want to start their outlets in economically
weaker section then they must understand how much an average customer can invest on
purchasing burgers and how much profit they can make from that particular reason. Similarly, if
McDonald is targeting economically well settled regions they have consider more on luxury,
healthy and hygienic options which might be inexpensive but yet in preferences of target
customer of that region. McDonald can also target all those regions which are highly patriarchal
and hence by initiating some discount vouchers for women or by providing job opportunity to
them so that they can attain financial freedom will be an eye catching initiative could take by
McDonald. Also some countries with high GDP can also be targeted in sector different from fast
food chain. For instance, China which has very high GDP valuation and highly invest in general
merchandise are targeted by McDonald by launching McKids which is a retail store of clothing,
books, video games and toys appealing to Chinese children at a huge level. Following all those
different strategies based on the data collected from in-depth analysis of targeted region,
customer and market would give McDonald a head start in varied regions.
Discussion on primary and secondary research
It is one of the important section in undertaking research as it provides framework that assist
in gathering authentic data towards the specified topic and research area as well. With the help of
this part, researcher can evaluate the issues that present in the study and at the same time also
provide favourable outcomes within the study. For this, there are various methods and techniques
that researcher is used to acquire reliable and valid information that contributes in drawing a
meaningful conclusion at the end of the study. In this, researcher use Research onion for
gathering data and information over the specified topic. Basically, it includes different layers that
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researcher have used to acquiring data. These staged of research onion can be understood by
following different layers:
Research philosophy: It is related to the belief in which researcher gather data on the basis
of research topic and area as well. In this context, there are two type of research philosophies
such as interpretivism and positivism research philosophy (Karadag, 2015). As positivism
research philosophy is related with social phenomenon in which data is gather through
observation. Apart from this, interpretivism research philosophy is based on qualitative approach
that may assist providing detailed information towards the research topic. In order to undertaking
current investigation, researcher will select positivism research philosophy because it is related
with the quantitative research philosophy and at the same time also provide valid data. With the
assistance of this, investigator can easily draw a meaningful conclusion at the end of the study.
Research approach: It is referring to the procedure that includes various steps from wider
assumption to gather information. In relation to this, there are two type of research approach
including inductive and deductive research approach. As inductive research is starts with
observation and end of study by providing positive results within the study. On the other side,
deductive research approach is related to beginning with hypothesis proposition and also end
with research outcomes. As per undertaking current investigation, deductive research will be
applied by investigator as it provides authentic as well as reliable understanding on the basis of
specified topic and area. By this, researcher can easily draw a valid conclusion within the study.
Research strategy: In undertaking research activities, it is related with the plan in which
researcher undertake a detailed investigation. Basically, it also includes proper planning and
implementing study in detailed way. As it includes various strategies such as surveys, focus
groups, observation, survey and many more. In order to undertake current investigation, survey
is an effective research strategy that may assist in collecting data and information from larger
population. By this, investigator can gather authentic information that may assist in drawing a
reliable outcome.
Research choice: At the time of undertaking research, there are various choices in-front of
investigator to acquire data and information on particular research area. In this context, there are
two type of research choices such as qualitative and quantitative research method. Both are
effective for collecting data but fir carry out current investigation (Baumgartner and Rauter,
2017). As qualitative methods based on obtaining first-hand information by using different
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sources such as observation, focus groups, and many more. Furthermore, quantitative method is
based on numerical data as it may assist in taking right decision. For this, researcher use
statistical method for analysis numerical data. As per present study, researcher will use
quantitative method in which researcher includes facts and figures to analyse data. In this,
investigator prepare a structured questionnaire to gather authentic information.
Sampling: It is significant for researcher to select right sample size for gathering authentic
information towards the specified research area. In this, it is an important procedure for selecting
sample size from the larger population to acquire reliable and authentic data. It is divided into
two techniques such as probabilistic and non-probabilistic (Hanson and et. Al., 2016). As per
current investigation, researcher will opt probabilistic sampling technique that used to select
sample size as per random basis. In this, people get equal chances to be selected for sharing their
view points. By using this method, investigator select 50 respondents as a sample size who have
enough knowledge about research topic and area.
Data collection methods: It is one of the important process of collecting as well as
measuring data towards the particular research topic and area as well. By using this procedure,
researcher can provide meaningful results. Basically, it is classified into two methods such as
primary and secondary method of data collection. As per undertaking current investigation both
methods will be applied by investigation as it helps in acquiring detailed and authentic results.
For collecting primary research, researcher prepare a structured questionnaire that includes close-
ended questions asked from selected respondents in order to understand their view points
(Engert, Rauter and Baumgartner, 2016). On the other side, a systematic literature review is also
carry out by investigator to acquire secondary method data. By using this method, investigator
can acquire detailed evaluation through which specified aims and objectives can be easily
attained.
Data analysis: It is also an important aspect that is related with analysing all the collected
data by using primate and secondary data. By using this, investigator can easily draw a valid and
meaningful results at the end of study. In order to undertake current study, thematic analysis will
be used to analyse collected data. In addition to this, MS-excel is also used to create graphs of
questions and theme to represent collected data and information.
Critical review of the research of the research
Primary research
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Q1) Do you have any idea about regional strategic management?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Does regional strategic management important for company in improvising their
performance at international market?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What are the importance of regional strategic management for McDonald’s?
a) Improve communications
b) Greater revenue
c) Lower cost of goods sold
d) Protection of domestic market
Q4) What is the impact of regional strategic management over the performance of
McDonalds?
a) Positive
b) Negative
c) Neutral
Q5) According to your view points, what are the different regional expansion strategies
company can apply to operate their business globally?
a) Home base strategy
b) Portfolio strategy
c) Hub strategy
d) Platform strategy
e) Mandate strategy
Q6) What are the different type of regionalism that help McDonald’s in attaining growth
the global market?
a) Sate regionalism
b) Inter-state regionalism
c) Intra-state regionalism
Q7) As per your view point, why McDonald’s go with regional expansion strategy at
market place?
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