Hamburger University is the worldwide management training center owned by McDonald. Headquartered in Oak Brooks, Illinois, the Center is designed to exclusively instruct McDonald’s Personnel or employees under McDonald’s independent franchises. Emphasis is paid on aspects of McDonald’s business. Overall, all training programs have one fundamental ingredient; they seek to expose employees to McDonald’s basic operations.
The university was started in 1961 making it one of the first corporate universities in the world. This represented a significant shift from traditional business practice whereby training departments were created to equip employees with the requisite skills and knowledge. Corporate universities have tremendously grown in stature and number since that time (Landau, 2000) . Today, the university has a faculty of thirty resident professors and courses are taught in multiple languages to respond to McDonald’s international needs. It has also opened branches in London, Tokyo, Munich, Shanghai, Sydney and campuses across multiple parts of the United States (Walters, 2015) . Through these branches, McDonald’s ensures that its global workforce, more so its management team, is adequately trained in its operational methods.
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The training program at Hamburg has gained international recognition with entry into the university being touted to be more difficult than even that of Harvard. By the turn of the century, over 65,000 managers had graduated with degrees from the prestigious Hamburger University. Its curriculum is also accredited by the ACE making its training recognizable beyond the organization (Yuece, 2012) . McDonald’s has also helped leverage these training programs through partnerships with universities and colleges.
The training program at Hamburger University is as rigorous as any other university program with its aim being the production of a workforce that can offer outstanding and quality service, engage in aggressive sales and ensure optimum profits. To attain this objective, all training programs seek to communicate the value of each employee in his or her specific station and to the overall McDonald system. Classes are just made about the grilling of juicy burgers or the preparation of McDonald’s fries. Successful completion of a degree in Hamburgerology demands at least 2000 training hours in such disciplines as leadership, business growth, customer appreciation and operations (Meister, 1998) . In fact, the credits earned at the university can be used to earn an associate bachelor’s degree from over 1600 universities and colleges.
As a leadership training institution, the university continues to act as a reference point. Part of this leadership role is in the adoption of recent technologies that can help individual stations remain effective and ensure efficiency. For instance, in cities that have acute water challenges, McDonald’s shops try and adopt new techniques of water conservation. For instance, toilets are installed with dual flush valves that help cut down on water consumption by up to five times compared to conventional models. Another example is electronic equipment that is powered by energy systems thus promoting optimal performance. LED lamps are used to cut down on power consumption and increase their lifetime. Furniture used at various McDonald’s stores is made from local materials to cut down on cost while ensuring stores retain their appeal to domestic populations that are largely the target of McDonald’s. All these aspects of leadership are taught at Hamburger University. A perfect example here is the embrace of electronic tablets to substitute printed material in McDonald Brazil, saving roughly about 100,000 paper sheets annually (Walters, 2015) . This initiative, itself a product of hamburger university training, has brought about efficiency while significantly cutting down cost.
Strengths
It is not difficult to see why the training model of having a corporate university such as that of McDonald has gained such wide prominence. First, there has been the traditional program of universities and other training institutions churning graduates that do not meet market demands. They are trained in such general thematic areas that they cannot fit the specific needs of an organization. Universities have turned student training into dry academic exercises that have little or no relevance for the job market. Furthermore, market demands are constantly evolving, and universities may not evolve at a similar pace. This necessities additional training or prolonged periods of employees catching up with organizational demands. The importance of a well-qualified workforce need not be gainsaid. Companies strive to keep abreast with market changes largely brought about by rapid technological transformation. Only a competently qualified workforce can study trends and attempt to be on par. Furthermore, in today’s global economy which has unprecedented levels of competition, companies have to deal with neighbors across the street that offer similar products with the same comparable advantages. In such an environment, companies differentiate themselves through the quality of service that their employees render. A corporate university ensures that an organization develops the specific skill-set it requires in line with its own needs and market forces through the application of multiple strategies that transcend classroom training and get into practical and virtual classroom training (Yuece, 2012) . It is also able to more effectively shape goals like the creation of company culture.
Second, organizations like McDonald's require a huge pool of employees that need to be sourced globally. The company cannot rely on a single employee pool to serve its global demand else it will face accusations of discriminating the local population. However, skills are not evenly distributed across the world thus making it necessary to give more training attention to some world regions more than others. This is best undertaken through a corporate training organization that can harmonize skill sets. This also guarantees a constant follow of employees despite the disruptions in the job market.
Third, corporate universities are more cost-effective compared to partnerships with other training institutions. This is more so the case for an organization like McDonald's that has thousands of employees making up its workforce. Furthermore, these universities can recruit non-employees in case the need arises to augment incomes or cater for the cost of running them.
Fourth, corporate universities are able to cater for the specific demands of the employees undergoing training by remaining sensitive to such factors as age. Many universities have today turned into preserves for the young with little conducive spaces for the older people. Surveys suggest that the older members of society have a revulsion towards going back to college since they perceive these to be domains for their children. This is more so the case for adults with no university education, and as such, they have to start at the most basic level. Corporate universities help overcome this as employees by and large consider these training programs as part of the ‘on-the-job training.’
Fifth, training at corporate university allows for interactions between McDonald’s managers from different parts of the world. This allows for sharing of experiences, and thus knowledge follows. Ideally, exchanged perspectives lead to the transfer of best practices even generation of new ideas that lead to better services and maintenance of a competitive edge.
Weaknesses
The corporate training program at McDonald’s has led the company to have one of the highest employee turnovers in the world. Competitors, aware of the prestigious training that employees get at McDonald’s Hamburger University, have embarked on a poaching exercise thus denying the company of the services of its well-trained workforce. Put briefly, the Hamburger training program has turned into a training ground, not for McDonald's but other companies more so competitors. This makes the company not to get full value for its investment of workers. Often the company has to raise salaries to ensure its most prestigious staff is not poached.
McDonald's has a presence in 119 countries and has over 33,000 restaurants. It is simply impossible for the university to serve all the managers in all these branches. Airlifting some of the staff to its main campus in Illinois is not just expensive but also leads to a reluctance by employees especially those with families. This makes it necessary for the company to make domestic arrangement in those countries that the university has no presence in order to train its staff thus going back to the problem the university was initially meant to cure.
In addition, huge training cost is based on continued growth. Market volatility may have far-reaching implications on company returns leading to massive losses. Finally, by creating its own training program, the university fails to allow room for interaction between its staff and the general public who constitute the target market. This denies space for valuable interactions with the intended market during training thus running the risk of training a workforce aloof to market demands.
Opportunities
Currently, McDonald's focuses on fries and burgers which are the company’s main source of revenue. Attempts are however being made to diversify its menu to include even local dishes. This presents an opportunity for the company to not just increase its revenue but also introduce new cuisines in other parts of the world just like Indian and French cuisines have in the past gained popularity beyond traditional areas of consumption. In undertaking such a project, Hamburger University will be intimately involved in preparing workers for the new emerging markets.
Second, given the popularity that the university has received over the years and the interest it receives, it can admit other persons outside their workforce to increase the university’s revenue and also levels of diversity amongst students (Landau, 2000) .
Third, as the world becomes more conscious of what it consumes, Hamburger University can be at the forefront in presenting to the world dishes that enhance nutrition and well-being. This can be primarily achieved through research into the nutritional and medicinal value of foods. This could go a long way in rehabilitating the company’s image as a supplier of unhealthy food. Finally, as the company aims at expanding to the emerging markets more so in the third world, it also presents an opportunity for the university to spread its wings beyond its current presence. This will make it a truly global university and contribute to the company’s overall image.
Threats
The training program offered by Hamburger University is in peril especially if the overall company fortunes decline. As people seek healthier foods beyond fries and burgers that are the primary product offered by the company, the future of the business and thus its training program falls into doubt. This is more so the case if the company does not adjust to evolving market demands for healthier food.
Competition remains a major threat to the company and the hamburger university. Many multinational companies, especially in the food industry are coming up with corporate universities that could easily displace Hamburger University and McDonald's by extension from the market (Yuece, 2012) . Economic uncertainties and recessions remain existential to the company and its training program. Uncertainties are a result of a myriad of factors including shifts in food purchase patterns brought about by such factors as demographic changes and health consciousness concerns. Political turmoil and anti-Americanism constitute other threats.
References
Landau, M. D. (2000). Corporate universities crack open their doors. The Journal of Business Strategy , 18-23.
Meister, J. (1998). Extending the short shelf life of knowledge. Training and Development , 52.
Walters, N. (2015). McDonald's Hamburger University can be harder to get into than Harvard and is even cooler than you'd imagine. Business Insider .
Yuece, I. (2012). SWOT Analysis of McDonald's and Derivation of Appropriate Strategies. GRIN Verlag .
