Case C: Sustaining Mcdonald’senvironmental Success
Case C: Sustaining McDonald’sEnvironmental Success
Susan Svoboda, Manager of the Corporate Environmental Management Program, University of Michigan, prepared this case under the guidance of Stuart Hart, Director of the Corporate Environmental Management Program and Assistant Professor of Corporate Strategy and Organizational Behavior atthe Michigan Business School, as the basis for class discussion rather than toillustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.
By the spring of 1993, Michael Quinlan, McDonald’s CEO, felt quite confident about his company’s environmental performance. A partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) had won McDonald’s praise from its customers, and its efforts at waste reduction, combined with its well-publicized switch from polystyrene “clamshells” to paper-based sandwich wraps, had repositioned it as a leader in protecting the environment. However, in April 1993 another nonprofit environmental group, The Beyond Beef Coalition, targeted McDonald’s in a campaign to reduce beef consumption. This time the environmental complaints launched against McDonald’s did not criticize ancillary aspects of their business but, rather, focused on their primary products and growth markets. Quinlan did not want this campaign to diminish the reputation the company had solidified through the EDF partnership.
McDonald’s Operating Strategy
Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s Corporation, based his empire on the fundamental principles of Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value (Q.S.C.& V.). The company, which started in 1948 as a single drivein restaurant in San Bernardino, California, grew to become the largest food-service organization in the world. By June 1993, McDonald’s ran 2,576 company owned stores, 9,451 franchises and 1,362 joint ventures in 65 countries.1 In the U.S. alone, more than 18 million people visited a McDonald’s each day.2 See Exhibit 1 for a summary of McDonald’s financials.
Susan Svoboda, Manager of the Corporate Environmental Management Program, University of Michigan, prepared this case under the guidance of Stuart Hart, Director of the Corporate Environmental Management Program and Assistant Professor of Corporate Strategy and Organizational Behavior atthe Michigan Business School, as the basis for class discussion rather than toillustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.
By the spring of 1993, Michael Quinlan, McDonald’s CEO, felt quite confident about his company’s environmental performance. A partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) had won McDonald’s praise from its customers, and its efforts at waste reduction, combined with its well-publicized switch from polystyrene “clamshells” to paper-based sandwich wraps, had repositioned it as a leader in protecting the environment. However, in April 1993 another nonprofit environmental group, The Beyond Beef Coalition, targeted McDonald’s in a campaign to reduce beef consumption. This time the environmental complaints launched against McDonald’s did not criticize ancillary aspects of their business but, rather, focused on their primary products and growth markets. Quinlan did not want this campaign to diminish the reputation the company had solidified through the EDF partnership.
McDonald’s Operating Strategy
Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s Corporation, based his empire on the fundamental principles of Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value (Q.S.C.& V.). The company, which started in 1948 as a single drivein restaurant in San Bernardino, California, grew to become the largest food-service organization in the world. By June 1993, McDonald’s ran 2,576 company owned stores, 9,451 franchises and 1,362 joint ventures in 65 countries.1 In the U.S. alone, more than 18 million people visited a McDonald’s each day.2 See Exhibit 1 for a summary of McDonald’s financials.