Read the following case and answer the questions.

Currently in "bad times", McDonald's ability to create value for its stakeholders (e.g., customers, shareholders and employees) during the difficult times of the global recession that began roughly in early 2008 and continued through 2009 It is really impressive. As an indicator of the quality of their performance, consider the fact that during 2008 McDonald's and Walmart were the only two companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average that ended the year with a profit.

With one of the most recognized brands in the world, as of mid-2009 McDonald's was found operating approximately 32,000 restaurants in 118 countries. The largest fast food chain restaurant in the world, McDonald's sales revenue was $70.7 billion in 2008, up from $64.1 billion the previous year. The chain serves more than 58 million customers daily. McDonald's dominates the quick-service restaurant industry in the United States, where its revenue is several times larger than Burger King and Wendy's, its closest competitors.

This impressive performance of McDonald's as the first decade of the twenty-first century has now come to an end and this suggests that the company is not effectively implementing its strategy. (Strategy is defined as an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions designed to exploit core competencies and gain competitive advantage.) However, McDonald's image was much less positive in 2003. In that year, some Analysts concluded that McDonald's "appeared obsolete" having failed to recognize changes in its customers' interests and needs.

The fact that the company reported its first-ever quarterly loss in 2003 and its stock price declined from approximately $48 per share to $13 per share, suggested that McDonald's was becoming less competitive. However, by mid-2009 things had changed dramatically for McDonald's. Its shares were trading at around $60.

How was this radical change achieved?

After examining the deteriorating situation of their firm in 2003, McDonald's strategic leaders decided to change their strategy at the corporate level and take different actions to implement their strategy at the business level. From a business-level strategy perspective, McDonald's has decided to focus on product innovations and upgrades of its existing properties rather than continuing to rapidly expand the number of units, while relying almost exclusively on the core products it had sold for years. many years as the source of its sales income. From a corporate level perspective (corporate level strategies), McDonald's has decided to be less diversified. To achieve this goal, the firm divested its interests in the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant concept and the chain and the Boston market where it sold its minority stake in Preta Manger as well.

Operationally, McDonald's is beginning to listen carefully to its customers, who demand value for money and convenience, as well as healthy products. One analyst describes McDonald's response to what it was hearing from its customers this way: "McDonald's eliminated the supersize option, which offers more premium salads and chicken sandwiches, and has offered greater value options. It also initiated a better training for employees, extending service hours and redesigned stores to attract younger consumers.

However, as McDonald's experiences in the 2000s indicate, business success is never guaranteed. The likelihood of a company's long-term success is indeterminate when strategic leaders constantly evaluate the appropriateness of their firm's strategies as well as the actions taken to implement them.

Keeping this in mind, McDonald's established to continuously offer innovative food products to customers and created McDonald's in almost all locations in the United States in 2009. McDonald's coffee drinks create value for customers by giving them high-quality drinks. at prices that are often lower than those of competitors such as Starbucks. A Southern-style chicken sandwich was also added to the signature chicken offerings. The company continues to improve its existing stores and in anticipation of a recovering global economy.

Strategic leaders appear to be committed to making decisions today to increase the likelihood that the firm will be more successful in the future as it was in the final years of the first decade of the 21st century.

Questions

2. Do you think McDonald's was successful during 2008 and 2009? Why?
4. What was this success due to?
6. What companies did McDonald's surpass and how did it surpass them?
8. At what level of strategy did McDonald's decide to change and why? Substantiate and explain each of the strategy levels that changed and what each of them consisted of.

• Provide a minimum of 2 pages. It must include at least 2 academic sources, formatted and cited in accordance with current APA regulations.