growth strategies at McDonald's and Wal-Mart.

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McDonald's is the world best known brand name in the fast food industry with over 30,000 stores worldwide. Opened by brothers Dick and Maurice McDonald in 1937, the restaurant has been successful since the start. From a production line of most common food to concentration on burgers, the franchising system of McDonald's works its magic in expanding domestically and internationally. Having a stable partnership with Wal-mart and Disney and a large franchising network, and an improving business strategy, McDonald's works its way to build a sustainable competitive advantage in order to stay on the top of global fast-food industry.

Mission

"To leverage the unique talents, strengths and assets of our diversity in order to be the World's best quick service restaurant experience."

Values of McDonalds
"At McDonald's, we are committed to listening to our customers and to being open and direct about the facts surrounding our people, our food, and our restaurants"
(Corporate website of Mcdonalds)

SWOT Analysis

Here we will analyze the affect of societal forces and to see what trends are like to affect the McDonalds in a brief manner.

Economic Forces

One has monitor the economic trends like GDP trends, Interest rates, Money supply, Inflation rates, Unemployment levels, Disposable income. Currently in USA there is recession but in other parts of world there is growth especially in Asian countries. Globalization has also increased the opportunities. The mature product in US can be at introductory stage in US. For example GM AVEO is a mature product in US, but in India it is at growth stage. Moreover globalization leads to the creation of the Universal Customer, one who expects the same quality of products and services regardless of where he is located in the world.
This does not mean one customer, one world, one brand or one positioning platform. What it means is that thanks to McDonald's, the expectation of a customer from Nirula's ( an Indian resturant chain) is considerably higher today. Similarly, thanks to LG and Samsung, the expectations from BPL are different today. The expectation of a Nirula's customer in Delhi is far closer to the expectation of a fast food customer in New York. A convergence of expectations is happening globally. And as barriers fall further, technology advances rapidly, customers talk more to each other on the back of a robust telecom network, the ranks of the Universal Customers will only swell. To meet the challenge of simultaneously reducing cost and enhancing customer value requires a radically different approach to the way the business responds to marketplace demand.

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Technological Forces
Impact of Internet, Portable Information Devices, Electronic networking, smart mobile robots, and increase in the speed of microprocessors will have tremendous impact on business. There has been tremendous impact of e-Business on the typical businesses. The information is exchanged much more quickly than any other thing which is helping the organizations to make more quick and accurate decisions. E business has removed geographical and time restrictions for the organizations. It also helps in following:
? Recording and analyzing strategic management records : processing these strategic management records into industry trends reports, market share reports, mission statements, and portfolio models
? Use of all the above to implement and control the businesses.

Thus they are more connected and knowledge seeking to improve the processes, quality, technology and overall customer delight. Due to e business there is much more agility to improve and also to respond to the needs of the customers, vendors, government and to society at large. It is also reducing the costs and making supply chain more efficient.

? Political Legal regulations

As a large company McDonalds will find it tough to handle regulations. One should also be aware of foreign trade regulations, attitude towards foreign companies as it is a multinational company.

Societal Trends:
The factors like lifestyle changes age distribution of population, life expectancies etc. Demographic factors such as:
o population size and distribution
o age distribution
o education levels
o income levels
o ethnic origins
o religious affiliations
* Attitudes towards:
o materialism, capitalism, free enterprise
o individualism, role of family, role of government, collectivism
o role of church and religion
...