Developing a balanced scorecard for McDonald's Corporation

¶ … Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is special strategic performance management framework that enables organizations to effectively manage as well as measure the process of strategy delivery (Kaplan & Norton,1992). The concept was proposed by Robert Kaplan and his counterpart David Norton as has so far been voted as one of the most important business ideas of the last couple of decades.The idea involves the application of four generic viewpoints/perspectives that covers the major focus areas of the organization.In this paper, we develop the strategic objectives for McDonald's in the format of a balanced scorecard. The strategic objectives are important as measures for attaining the corporation's vision and mission.

An overview of McDonald's Corporation

From the moment of its inception as well as the opening of its very first store in San Bernardino, California, McDonald's has upheld a vision of quality products, service as well as innovation. McDonald' has worked tirelessly to differentiate itself as well as adjust to the contemporary market conditions which are fast-paced. The employment of the balanced scorecard can make the company whether the turbulent and highly competitive market environment. Through the Balanced Scorecard, the company can continuously improve as well as build its mission and vision while improving customer and employee satisfaction, internal business operations as well as its financial position. The company need to differentiate itself as a consequence of the competition in the fast-food industry. The competition is probably the biggest obstacle that the company faces.The company's main competitors include Burger King, Wendy's, Subway Taco Bell and KFC. Even though stores such as Subway, Taco Bell and KFC don't deal in similar line of products with McDonald's, they do provide a competitive rate of cost reduction. Health counsciousness has taken root in consumers and they therefore tend to make healthier choices.

Balanced Scorecard Perspectives

Financial perspective

The financial perspective deals with the financial objectives of the organization and is important in allowing the managers in the tracking of the level of financial success as well as shareholder value. In this perspective the company needs to focus on sales as well as profitability. McDonald managers must identify the financial areas that need improvement. The company should therefore increase market share, speed its rate of production as well as delivery times in order to maximize its productivity. In regard to sales, the company should focus on cost leadership, consistency as well as efficiency.

Customer perspective

In regard to customer perspective, McDonald must focus on several areas that include the number of new customers, speed of delivery, quality of service as well as retention of the existing clients. The happy clients would then go a long way in telling their friends and families.

Internal-business process perspective

In regard to the internal-business process perspective, the company should focus on the efficient order-delivery system that has a sharp focus on time. Globalization as well as production in regard to its operations must also be considered. The company must ensure that efficiency, productivity and consistency are center-stage in its operations. From this perspective, the company can focus on globalization, order-delivery time (Dentch,2009) and production.

Conclusion

The Balanced Scorecard is a very important tool for ensuring that organizations are aligned to their strategic missions. McDonald's must therefore ensure that it monitors its progress as well as adapt to the changing market scenarios by developing better and update strategic objectives using the balanced scorecard.