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McDonald's Argentina SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of McDonald's Argentina


The management of McDonald's Argentina faces a communications crisis: A controversial TV program urges consumers to stop visiting McDonald's stores and refrain from eating McPollo (McChicken) burgers following an official announcement that potentially harmful bacteria had been found in these chicken products. Although the McDonald's management believes that the information is probably unfounded, it is 100% committed to doing the right thing. This case looks at how companies may find themselves victims of unexpected events. In the name of a political cause or for "convenient personal" reasons, smart but unscrupulous customers may challenge leading corporations and the trust that other consumers had put in their hands. Corporate damage can be significant. Consequently, communicating effectively in times of crisis is absolutely key. The objective is to learn best practices for crisis management, how companies can prepare themselves to limit the potential damage, how to act and react and what are the "dos and don'ts" when facing this kind of situation.

Authors :: Dominique Turpin

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Marketing, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "McDonald's Argentina" written by Dominique Turpin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mcdonald's Argentina facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in McDonald's Argentina case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Organizational Development.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the McDonald's Argentina casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of McDonald's Argentina


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in McDonald's Argentina case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mcdonald's Argentina, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mcdonald's Argentina operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of McDonald's Argentina can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in McDonald's Argentina case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mcdonald's Argentina
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mcdonald's Argentina




Strengths McDonald's Argentina | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Mcdonald's Argentina in McDonald's Argentina Harvard Business Review case study are -

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Mcdonald's Argentina in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the McDonald's Argentina Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Mcdonald's Argentina are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field

– Mcdonald's Argentina is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Mcdonald's Argentina in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Training and development

– Mcdonald's Argentina has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in McDonald's Argentina Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Mcdonald's Argentina has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study McDonald's Argentina - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Diverse revenue streams

– Mcdonald's Argentina is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in McDonald's Argentina case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Learning organization

- Mcdonald's Argentina is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Mcdonald's Argentina is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in McDonald's Argentina Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Organizational Resilience of Mcdonald's Argentina

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mcdonald's Argentina does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

High brand equity

– Mcdonald's Argentina has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mcdonald's Argentina to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mcdonald's Argentina digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mcdonald's Argentina has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry

– McDonald's Argentina firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mcdonald's Argentina to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mcdonald's Argentina to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.



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Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses McDonald's Argentina | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of McDonald's Argentina are -

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mcdonald's Argentina needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Mcdonald's Argentina supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - McDonald's Argentina, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mcdonald's Argentina vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Mcdonald's Argentina has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Mcdonald's Argentina, firm in the HBR case study McDonald's Argentina needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As McDonald's Argentina HBR case study mentions - Mcdonald's Argentina takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study McDonald's Argentina, it seems that the employees of Mcdonald's Argentina don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Mcdonald's Argentina has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

Need for greater diversity

– Mcdonald's Argentina has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Lack of clear differentiation of Mcdonald's Argentina products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mcdonald's Argentina needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study McDonald's Argentina, in the dynamic environment Mcdonald's Argentina has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mcdonald's Argentina has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study McDonald's Argentina, is just above the industry average. Mcdonald's Argentina needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.




Opportunities McDonald's Argentina | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study McDonald's Argentina are -

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Mcdonald's Argentina to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mcdonald's Argentina in the consumer business. Now Mcdonald's Argentina can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mcdonald's Argentina to increase its market reach. Mcdonald's Argentina will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mcdonald's Argentina can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Mcdonald's Argentina has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mcdonald's Argentina to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the McDonald's Argentina case study. Mcdonald's Argentina can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Mcdonald's Argentina can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mcdonald's Argentina to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Developing new processes and practices

– Mcdonald's Argentina can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mcdonald's Argentina is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. McDonald's Argentina case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mcdonald's Argentina can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Mcdonald's Argentina can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Mcdonald's Argentina can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Mcdonald's Argentina has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study McDonald's Argentina - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mcdonald's Argentina to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Manufacturing automation

– Mcdonald's Argentina can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.




Threats McDonald's Argentina External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study McDonald's Argentina are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study McDonald's Argentina, Mcdonald's Argentina may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mcdonald's Argentina with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Mcdonald's Argentina demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

Regulatory challenges

– Mcdonald's Argentina needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mcdonald's Argentina in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Mcdonald's Argentina needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Mcdonald's Argentina in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Mcdonald's Argentina has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mcdonald's Argentina needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Mcdonald's Argentina will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mcdonald's Argentina can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Mcdonald's Argentina business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of McDonald's Argentina Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study McDonald's Argentina needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study McDonald's Argentina is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study McDonald's Argentina is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of McDonald's Argentina is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Mcdonald's Argentina needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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