McDonald’s Case Snapshot and Project Selection & Initiation
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McDonald’s Case Snapshot and Project Selection & Initiation
McDonald’s Case Snapshot
By setting up business in Europe, McDonald Inc., a US-based corporation, is adopting the business strategy of foreign market entry, which can be categorized under the broader category of focus strategy. A company that chooses to pursue the focus strategy recognizes the need to address the specific needs of the audience. The target market often has unique requirements and preferences, and failing to attend to these specialized demands leads the company to lose its competitive advantage. In specific, McDonald’s entry into the foreign market is supported by its strong brand name, and thus, the ability to establish franchises. The brand recognizes that to compete with local businesses, it has to create local dishes and sell them at competitive prices, or, in other words, establish a brand that resonates with the local population. A specific form of a franchise that McDonald’s seeks to leverage is the alliance project with a German producer of organic soft drinks. This form of entry underlines the plan of the company to penetrate the market by establishing effective business strategies with local companies.
McDonald’s European venture has a variety of stakeholders. One key stakeholder is McDonald’s Inc., who is the owner of the brand and the initiator of the project. This is the stakeholder that invests in the endeavor aiming to generate profit. Other internal stakeholders include franchisee organizations, such as the soft drinks producer, employees, and managers. These stakeholders are directly involved in the running of the new business. The project has external stakeholders that include government, suppliers, society, customers, and creditors. These stakeholders are not directly involved in running the project but are critical in determining whether the project will succeed or fail.
Project Selection & Initiation
The mission of Care International is to work to save lives and alleviate social injustices such as poverty. To achieve such an organizational goal, Care International and other similar organizations have to leverage both financial and nonfinancial options in their selection of projects that align with the strategy. The economical option represents the financial resources that are available for a set endeavor or project. For example, women’s and girls’ empowerment programs would require significant investment to support the dissemination of the intended message and expertise. Efforts to eliminate poverty, too, require the implementation of projects that seek to equip the vulnerable populations with necessary skills that make them valuable in the job market. However, for a project to align with the mission of Care international, it has to prove that net profit value (NPV) is not the overarching objective of the program since the desire for profitability would contradict the organizational focus of Care International. Considering nonfinancial options, humanitarian organizations opt to partner with an organization whose goal is to fulfill corporate social responsibility above all other intentions, such as strengthening brand image and reputation. Other nonfinancial elements include project nature, focus, risks, and management.
The most important tasks in the initial phase of the global project are the assessment of the available resources, the vulnerable community or demographic to attend to, and the activities to drive the mission of the organization. Identification of the resources is critical to defining the scope of the global project, for instance, inadequate resources can drive a humanitarian organization to focus on the supply of food and other basic necessities. In contrast, adequate resources can propagate the implementation of educational programs. Understanding the target demographic, community, or audience is critical to ensuring that all activities are culturally sensitive and acceptable.