MCDONALD'S Making Strategic Choices Strategic choice centre strategy formulation helps align company competitive edge. If choices made, a thinking strategy. However, forget limits range strategic choices lack resources, capabilities, internal external organizational issues.

McDonald: Strategy

What recent strategic choices have been made by the top folks at your organization that help the company to be more competitive?

In the wake of the negative publicity generated by Morgan Spurlock's documentary Supersize Me, many prophesized the decline of McDonald's. Coupled with the American obesity crisis and calls to regulate fast food, it seemed unlikely that the company could retain its image as a wholesome, All-American company. However, McDonald's fortunes quickly rebounded after a slump in 2003. The company halted its rapid expansion and "instead focused on improving the food, service, atmosphere and marketing at its existing outlets: (Adamy 2009). The company's bottom line improved, partially in thanks to the recent recession. Americans who used to dine at 'comfort food' establishments like Applebee's downscaled their dining to McDonald's. In fact, "McDonald's Corp. has been one of the world's most successful big companies during this...

Its new menu options like its specialty coffee drinks are designed to compete with Starbucks at a lower price point and to reflect the diversity of America "The result has been a broader menu that features items ranging from salads topped with poblano peppers to a Southern-style chicken biscuit served at breakfast, and restaurants adorned with leather seats and flat-screen television sets" (Adamy 2009). Better food and lower prices with more restaurant-like dining ambiance have been drawing consumers back to dine at McDonald's.
Can you categorize these choices as following any of Porter's four generic strategies? Explain.

To keep costs and prices low, McDonald's has been trying to create as lean an organization as possible, "pruning gas-guzzling cars from the company fleet, pressing media buyers to negotiate lower advertising rates and putting the brakes on building new outlets on street corners where nearby development shows signs of weakness" (Adamy 2009). McDonald's thus could be characterized as pursuing a cost leadership strategy, particularly in terms of its…