C/B/351. A strategic Analysis of McDonalds Fast Food

This paper identifies the strategic issues that a firm faces as it seeks to generate and sustain competitive advantage. The paper analyses the environment in which McDonalds operates in order to analyse those issues and to identify how McDonalds has generated and sustained it competitive advantage. The paper has found that key strategic issues are how valued the firms product is by its customers, how intense the competition is faced by the firm and how well it can bargain with the different elements of the production chain. It has been found that McDonalds operates in an intensely competitive and adversarial environment but through strategies of strong management; well defined goals; close alliances with complementary firms; the implementation of a rigid operating system that has distilled into operating procedures and training manuals and increased use of technology to control the supply chain it can be seen that it remains successful.