In the McDonald's external environment, some trends are likely to greatly impact the ability of the company to achieve the sustainability of competitive advantage. One of these trends is described through the recession that characterized the economy during the period between the years 2008 and 2009. The implication of this trend to the financial performance and competitiveness of McDonald is a considerable reduction in its revenues and profits. This is because a reduced power of spending usually accompanies economic recessions among customers. For instance, few people would opt to spend their money on grocery that eating out. Also, those who chose to eat out will tend seeking additional value and quality from the foodstuffs they are willing to buy. The provision of such quality and value may appear quite challenging to McDonald especially during the time of economic recession. Other trends in McDonald's external environment that that is highly likely to influence to influence its ability to sustain its competitive advantage include its struggles with regulatory health concerns, high and ever-increasing costs of supplies as well as the emergence of a bevy of stronger competitors in the industry.
The positioning of McDonald concerning its major competitors involves some different dimensions. For instance, there is the dimension of ensuring that McDonald as a company pursues the approach of getting involved in a head-to-head competition with some of its fierce competitors such as Wendy's, Taco Bell and Burger King on the coffee front. Moreover, McDonald is trying to position itself appropriately to leverage on its three key target segments namely mothers, young adults, and children. For instance, mothers often consider McDonald as a convenient channel through which they can access quick and affordable meals for their children and family members. Young adults who are single and work as professionals with incomes that are above average are among the frequent customer at McDonald's. To a larger extent, McDonald's is disadvantageously positioned concerning some of its major competitors. This is because of a series of food scandals such as lack of transparency that has previously dented the image of the company. Furthermore, the company has significantly lost it appealing nature and attractiveness to most millennial that initially formed one of its critical target segments owing to its poor ratings in the previous years (Hatami, Prince, & Uster, 2013).
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The business strategy employed by McDonald's is competitive advantage focused on cost and uniqueness where it aims at building its differentiation technique around the provision of exceptional product and services to its customers. This strategy is considerably effective, but it is largely dependent on the ability of McDonald's to attract a large customer base as well as maintaining the affordability of its prices. The international strategy employed by McDonald's involved expansion into the global market through the diversification of its menu to incorporate meals preferred by a broader customer base. This strategy is effective in the sense that it plays a crucial role in increasing the presence of McDonald's in the international market thereby raining its revenues and profit margins. To achieve his strategic plan effectively, there are different ways through which Easterbrook may adapt to the organization's structure of McDonald's. One of these ways may involve efforts towards revamping its organization structure both domestically and internationally with the objective and mandate of working towards streamlining the diversification of its menu as observed by Djordjevic (2014).
Furthermore, it would be necessary for Easterbrook to focus on reclaiming the lost glossy and the initial appealing image of McDonald's since this will significantly facilitate the implementation and achievements of the items in his strategic plan. The effective adaptation of the organization structure of McDonald will also require Easterbrook to inspire the management and other workers to work on redirecting the company towards execution, creativity, and innovation. This will allow the organization structure of the company to place more emphasis on featuring higher-quality and healthier foods as well as the promotion of a uniquely redesigned experience to its customers. The other critical measures that should be taken by Easterbrook towards ensuring that he comes up with an appropriate and functional implementation structure for his strategic plan would involve enhancing efficiency if the company's organizational structure. In that regard, the adaptation of the organization structure would lead to an increase in the accessibility of a broader market base.
As Easterbrook pursues different channels and ways of implementing his strategic plan, there will be certain important roles for consideration among the ones often execute by strategic leaders. One of these roles is that of supervision that requires him to closely monitor the daily operations of various departments within the company's organization structure charged with the responsibility of implementing different items in his strategic plan as observed by Hatami, Prince and Uster (2013). The other important role of a strategic leader would involve sampling the feedbacks received from the customers and seeking the cooperation of the company's management team to figure out ways and techniques of addressing them satisfactorily. As a leader, Easterbrook would be expected to engage in teamwork with other leaders in the company to develop different approaches of addressing some challenges that may act as impediments to the implementation of his strategic plan. This is because it takes a team working together to identify and find an amicable solution to crises such as poor quality ratings that have been received by McDonald's in the previous years.
References
Djordjevic, B. (2014). The Nature of Strategic Management. Archives Of Business Research ,
2 (4), 28-39. doi: 10.14738/abr.24.178
Hatami, H., Prince, S., & Uster, M. (2013). Sales Growth Through Strategic Leadership.
Leader To Leader , 2013 (68), 57-63. doi: 10.1002/ltl.20076
