Case study-McDonald's and Hindu Culture.doc
Background.
McDonald 's doing global business and their restaurants around the world. By 2003, the company had 30,000 restaurants in 121 countries.
In the late 1990s, McDonald 's entered in India. Although India is poor nation, there are 150 to 200 million prosperous middle class population was attracted McDonald 's. However, there are unique challenges for McDonald 's. For thousands of years, India 's Hindu culture has revered the cow and do not eat the meat of the scared cow, also there are some 140 million Muslims in India, and Muslims don 't eat pork.
To respect and adapt Indian culture, McDonald 's created an Indian version of burgers which are made from mutton and chicken. All foods are segregated vegetarian and nonvegetarian, due to many Hindus are vegetarians.
Issue Statement.
In 2001, three Indian businessmen living in Seattle are all vegetarians and two who were Hindus, they sued McDonald 's for "fraudulently concealing the existence of beef in McDonald 's French fries! Through some argument between Mac and Indian people, finally Mac admitted that it used a "minuscule" amount of beef extract in the oil. McDonald 's settled the suit for $10 million and issued an apology.
However, news blaze abroad, Hindu nationalists onto the streets in Delhi, where they vandalized one McDonald 's restaurant, causing $45,000 of damage; shouted slogans outside of another; picketed the company 's headquarters; and called on India 's prime minister to close McDonald 's 27 stores in the country.
McDonald 's Indian franchise holders quickly issued denials that they used oil that contained beef extract, and Hindu extremists submit McDonald 's oil to laboratory tests to see if they could detect beef extract.
Problem Analysis and Justification
* The main problem of the case is religion issue. Hindu culture has very strong belief because it has remained unbroken and largely unchanged for at least five thousand years.
McDonald 's doing global business and their restaurants around the world. By 2003, the company had 30,000 restaurants in 121 countries.
In the late 1990s, McDonald 's entered in India. Although India is poor nation, there are 150 to 200 million prosperous middle class population was attracted McDonald 's. However, there are unique challenges for McDonald 's. For thousands of years, India 's Hindu culture has revered the cow and do not eat the meat of the scared cow, also there are some 140 million Muslims in India, and Muslims don 't eat pork.
To respect and adapt Indian culture, McDonald 's created an Indian version of burgers which are made from mutton and chicken. All foods are segregated vegetarian and nonvegetarian, due to many Hindus are vegetarians.
Issue Statement.
In 2001, three Indian businessmen living in Seattle are all vegetarians and two who were Hindus, they sued McDonald 's for "fraudulently concealing the existence of beef in McDonald 's French fries! Through some argument between Mac and Indian people, finally Mac admitted that it used a "minuscule" amount of beef extract in the oil. McDonald 's settled the suit for $10 million and issued an apology.
However, news blaze abroad, Hindu nationalists onto the streets in Delhi, where they vandalized one McDonald 's restaurant, causing $45,000 of damage; shouted slogans outside of another; picketed the company 's headquarters; and called on India 's prime minister to close McDonald 's 27 stores in the country.
McDonald 's Indian franchise holders quickly issued denials that they used oil that contained beef extract, and Hindu extremists submit McDonald 's oil to laboratory tests to see if they could detect beef extract.
Problem Analysis and Justification
* The main problem of the case is religion issue. Hindu culture has very strong belief because it has remained unbroken and largely unchanged for at least five thousand years.
References: Charles W.L. Hill (2005), International Business, 5th edn, McGraw-Hill, New York. David A. & Stephen P (2005), Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8th edn, John Wiley & sons, Inc. NJ. Kotler & Armstrong (2004), Principles of marketing, 10th edn, Pearson Education International, New Jersey.