Since the "Made for you" production process has been tested and assured to be a workable process for McDonald's this should be implemented on a storewide basis despite the huge upfront expenses to be incurred by the company. These upfront expenses will be compensated by the huge returns and improvements in quality of customer service that come from the company's use of this new production system Hall, Rosenthal, & Wade, 1993.This will enable McDonald's to accommodate customized orders as a source of sustained competitive advantage as well as to reduce the service wait time to bring McDonald's to be a chief organization in terms of speed of service to consumers. This "Made for you" production system will also enable McDonald's to serve their consumers with greater flexibility by creating a standardized production system which ensures efficiency and consistency across all McDonald's branches.

Consumer targeting strategies

McDonald's target clients have been adults and the youth who the company has made significant to their product range. However, over the years, it has emerged that other younger consumers are beginning to appreciate McDonald's products from the early ages of 9 to 10 years. Thus it is recommended that McDonald's introduces play pens for children of these ages and even for the younger ones in order to create a larger target audience. McDonald's will also benefit from this by being able to accommodate families in their stores thus considerably increasing their target market.

Reevaluation of the company's strategic choices

In order for McDonald's to make good strategic choices, the company must come up with clear cut definitions of how they intend to create competitive advantage, target consumers, objectives, mission and vision. McDonald's already has most of these items figured out, however, the company needs to generate a broader expression of the organization's aspirations in order to identify the critical tasks which it needs to implement in order to achieve these choices. One of the major strategic choices is the inclusion of the younger population as a target audience for McDonald's in order to draw in a larger target audience. Secondly, as argued by Stalk, Evans, and Shulman (1992)

, McDonald's objectives, vision, mission and critical tasks will need to be reevaluated in order to...

The company benefits from its rich history which the company has had over the years and which have greatly supported the company's growth. The company has also faced changes in consumer taste which they have failed to accommodate by allowing greater flexibility to consumers through allowing them to place customized orders without having to wait for too long. The system that McDonald's had been using for many years allowed for customized orders though these customers had to wait for longer than the customers who requested regular orders.
McDonald's has also had to battle with negative publicity from health rights advocates and consumer activists who have tried to portray the company in a negative image as the leading cause of obesity, diabetes, and heart attacks in the country. The company has, however, worked hard to turn this bad image round to become a good image and this has enabled the company to remain competitive and profitable even during the economic recession.

By the company focusing on their core competencies which are the quality and speed of their service alongside their friendly pricing, the company can be able to gain competitive advantage. These core competencies should be the major focus of the company's strategic choices and critical tasks and will also guide the creation of the company's vision, mission, goals and objectives all which will guide the company towards success.

References

Hall, G., Rosenthal, J., & Wade, J. (1993). How to make reengineering really work. Harvard Business Review, November-December, 119-131.

Hammer, M., & Stanton, S. (1999). How process enterprises really work. Harvard Business Review, November-December, 108-120.

Prahalad, C.K., & Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review, 79-91.

Stalk, G., Evans, P., & Shulman, L.E. (1992). Competing on capabilities: The new rules…