Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction

This is a Darden case study.From the early 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century, multinational corporations (MNCs) had increasingly participated in the reduction of poverty as part of their business strategies. Such participation reflected an increasing awareness of the widening gap between rich and poor across the globe. McDonald's Corporation, despite myriad criticisms directed at it about dead-end jobs and the detrimental effects of fast food, had defied norms, however. The company used a combination of promotion-from-within strategy and benchmark employee training programs to develop an abundant pool of human capital. The company was deeply committed to its employees who "started as crew" rising through the ranks, receiving the necessary training at its Hamburger University. This case details the rise of McDonald's, its particular culture, and its emphasis on and pride in the "stared as crew" element, and illustrates these elements with stories of various employees who rose through the ranks to management and executive positions.

Authors :: Pat Werhane, Regina Wolfe, Laura Pincus Hartman, Justin Sheehan

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Ethics, Human resource management, Leadership, Motivating people, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction" written by Pat Werhane, Regina Wolfe, Laura Pincus Hartman, Justin Sheehan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Crew Mcdonald's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Human resource management, Leadership, Motivating people and Organizational Development.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Crew Mcdonald's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Crew Mcdonald's 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Crew Mcdonald's
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 Crew Mcdonald's

---

Strengths Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Crew Mcdonald's in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction Harvard Business Review case study are -

Superior customer experience

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

Organizational Resilience of Crew Mcdonald's

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

Analytics focus

– Crew Mcdonald's is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Pat Werhane, Regina Wolfe, Laura Pincus Hartman, Justin Sheehan can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Crew Mcdonald's in the sector have low bargaining power. Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Crew Mcdonald's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Crew Mcdonald's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Crew Mcdonald's 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Crew Mcdonald's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Learning organization

- Crew Mcdonald's 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 Crew Mcdonald's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Diverse revenue streams

– Crew Mcdonald's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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.

Training and development

– Crew Mcdonald's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Crew Mcdonald's has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Crew Mcdonald's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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.

---

---

Weaknesses Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Crew Mcdonald's has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Crew Mcdonald's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Crew Mcdonald's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Crew Mcdonald's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Crew Mcdonald's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Crew Mcdonald's 's lucrative customers.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Pat Werhane, Regina Wolfe, Laura Pincus Hartman, Justin Sheehan suggests that, Crew Mcdonald's is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Crew Mcdonald's 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Crew Mcdonald's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Crew Mcdonald's is planning to shift buying processes online.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction, in the dynamic environment Crew Mcdonald's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Crew Mcdonald's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Lack of clear differentiation of Crew Mcdonald's products

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

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Crew Mcdonald's has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

---

Opportunities Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction | 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction are -

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Crew Mcdonald's to increase its market reach. Crew Mcdonald's 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Crew Mcdonald's 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Crew Mcdonald's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Crew Mcdonald's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Crew Mcdonald's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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. Crew Mcdonald's 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. Crew Mcdonald's 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. Crew Mcdonald's 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Crew Mcdonald's to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Crew Mcdonald's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Crew Mcdonald's 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Crew Mcdonald's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Crew Mcdonald's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Buying journey improvements

– Crew Mcdonald's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Loyalty marketing

– Crew Mcdonald's has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Creating value in data economy

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

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Crew Mcdonald's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

---

Threats Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Crew Mcdonald's 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.

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.

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. Crew Mcdonald's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Environmental challenges

– Crew Mcdonald's needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Crew Mcdonald's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Crew Mcdonald's 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.

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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Crew Mcdonald's is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction, Crew Mcdonald's 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 .

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. Crew Mcdonald's 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Crew Mcdonald's can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction .

Increasing wage structure of Crew Mcdonald's

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Crew Mcdonald's.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Crew Mcdonald's.

Regulatory challenges

– Crew Mcdonald's 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.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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 Started as Crew (C): McDonald's Strategy for Corporate Success and Poverty Reduction 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 Crew Mcdonald's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---