Tma 03
Part 1
I decided to carry out a PEST/STEEPL analysis on MacDonald’s, the fast food chain. Although in their own Mission and Value statement they describe themselves as a franchise business. The STEP analysis proved to be relatively easy, in some was it is similar to SWOT, in that once a start has been made it is difficult to stop. I used a copy of their 2011 Annual Report as the basis for the analysis, this did make things difficult in term of economic factors as the report was mainly financial information and based towards shareholders use. The best I could come up with was exchange rate fluctuations which affect the business being the global enterprise it is, also income affecting customers. Too little and they stop eating out, more than expected and they may change dining habits for something upmarket. Exchange rates could also have slotted into political factors alongside the mandatory health and safety, taxation and employment laws, which affect all businesses. Sociological factors also had the usual suspects of demographics, closeness to customers to restaurants and also type of customer in terms of socio-economic groupings and their lifestyle. McDonald’s place more value on this than I suspect their customers do. Customers view McDonald’s more as convenience rather than a dining out experience. I also included in this category Ronald McDonald Charities and, at least in the U.K. sponsorship of grassroots football through the Football Association. McDonald’s in branch ordering system is fully computerised (technological factor) and presumably linked up to their Head Office in which ever country they operate. Therefore allowing for instant reordering of products and sight of best selling products as well. Where I experienced problems was in extending the STEP into STEEPL. McDonald’s lack of concern for the environment was previously well documented and much bad publicity forced them into re-think. Unfortunately there was very little about their
I decided to carry out a PEST/STEEPL analysis on MacDonald’s, the fast food chain. Although in their own Mission and Value statement they describe themselves as a franchise business. The STEP analysis proved to be relatively easy, in some was it is similar to SWOT, in that once a start has been made it is difficult to stop. I used a copy of their 2011 Annual Report as the basis for the analysis, this did make things difficult in term of economic factors as the report was mainly financial information and based towards shareholders use. The best I could come up with was exchange rate fluctuations which affect the business being the global enterprise it is, also income affecting customers. Too little and they stop eating out, more than expected and they may change dining habits for something upmarket. Exchange rates could also have slotted into political factors alongside the mandatory health and safety, taxation and employment laws, which affect all businesses. Sociological factors also had the usual suspects of demographics, closeness to customers to restaurants and also type of customer in terms of socio-economic groupings and their lifestyle. McDonald’s place more value on this than I suspect their customers do. Customers view McDonald’s more as convenience rather than a dining out experience. I also included in this category Ronald McDonald Charities and, at least in the U.K. sponsorship of grassroots football through the Football Association. McDonald’s in branch ordering system is fully computerised (technological factor) and presumably linked up to their Head Office in which ever country they operate. Therefore allowing for instant reordering of products and sight of best selling products as well. Where I experienced problems was in extending the STEP into STEEPL. McDonald’s lack of concern for the environment was previously well documented and much bad publicity forced them into re-think. Unfortunately there was very little about their
References: B301 Making Sense of Strategy –Block 3: The Strategy Toolkit. The Open University, First Published 2010.