Introduction

The company that is chosen for this essay is known to be one of the most renowned fast-food
companies in the world, McDonald's. McDonald's company is an American fast-food
company that was formed in the 1940s as a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The
company was founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald (Wiki, 2021). The corporation
started as a domestic company and later ventured into the global marketplace after becoming
well known domestically which then became one of the most famous multinational fast-food
chains to ever exist. At first, to begin with, McDonald's started their business as a hamburger
stand, which was later developed into a franchise. Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the
company as a franchise agent in 1955 and went on to buy the McDonald brothers' franchise
(McDonald's - Wikipedia, 2021). Today, McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast-food chain
by revenue, with over 69 million customers served daily in over 100 countries and 37,855
locations as of 2018. McDonald's is best known for their hamburgers, french fries and
cheeseburgers, but they also provide chicken items, a breakfast menu, soft drinks, wraps,
milkshakes and desserts. Later, after further establishment in different countries, the company
has introduced fish, salads, smoothies, and fruit to its menu in response to shifting consumer
tastes and a negative criticism over the unhealthiness of their meals. McDonald's, with 1.7
million employees, is the world's second-largest private employer, according to two reports
published in 2018 (McDonald's - Wikipedia, 2021). McDonald's, like other businesses, has
had its ups and downs. Despite these setbacks, the company has grown to become one of the
world's most successful fast-food franchises. It's fascinating to learn how McDonald's
maintains their dominance.
         “How McDonald’s had developed over time and adapted to different cultures"
Adaptation to different cultures in different countries and innovation is considered as the
prime factors for the success of McDonald's. The company develops a wide range of services
and goods to meet the needs of a diversified consumer market, basing its offerings on
consumer demographics, local and economic considerations, and so on. For example, In the
1960s, McDonald's introduced a speedy and low-cost menu to appeal to women entering the
workforce and the growing teenage population. In addition to that, McDonald's avoid serving
non-halal food items in Muslim countries such as Malaysia, which is considered as a cultural
need in such countries and its people. They had quite successfully adapted to this culture and
so is the reason for the company's worldwide popularity. Moreover, the company improved
their corporate image by implementing the "quick and convenient" approach and changing
the product listing to reflect current food market trends. McDonald's refurbished their
restaurants to create a more cohesive, up-to-date setting with a more natural dining vibe. The
notion was backed by the addition of natural and healthful items such as vegetables, fruits,
and salads (daytranslations, 2019). Despite being a fast-food restaurant that primarily sells
beef hamburgers and French fries, it is astonishing that the international food brand has been
embraced in numerous countries. This international success was possible due to many
reasons, one of the most important one being their adaptation strategy. Localization is a good
analogy for the strategy. McDonald's adjusts to the needs of customers as dictated by the
cultures of specific regions using this method. Moreover, there are many different strategies
used from being a local company to establishing in the global marketplace. For instance,
McDonald's spends most of its budget in the United States, the home country. In its home
nation, where it has the largest audience, the corporation conducts many new product trials
and innovations. In the United States, where McDonald's creates roughly 250 advertisements
a year, the company's advertising is primarily geared toward youngsters. However, compared
to that, the company's ad campaigns are hugely different in Japan. In Japan, the
advertisements are both focused on adults as well as young children and include some
features that are unique to the culture of the country. McDonald's can customise its menu and
business strategies to fit each culture. When they produce new menu items, they demonstrate
that they respect cultural differences and follow the country's policies by developing extra
items for their menu.

Part 1

In this time of globalization, it shows that there are many sorts of restrictions given in the
path of the organizations to expand their business internationally instead of being in the
domestic marketplace. This has been proven that the changing from domestic to international
business has given the organization a great opportunity to make a greater revenue and larger
share in the market. Besides all these opportunities, it does bring great challenges to work on
for the companies. This is because the traits and forces of the international market or global
market are quite more complex than the traits of the domestic market.

As it is known that different countries have their types of cultures which have a profound
impact on the pattern of the overall consumption such as buying behaviours and the motive of
purchasing of every individual, for which when an organization decides to expand its
business internationally or in global market then the organization will have to take into
account several factors that can either be related to a certain local market or the global forces
that apply universally to the entire global market.

When it comes to the food and restaurant industries, this pattern becomes more pronounced.
This is because consumers all over the world eat a variety of food products. This is due not
only to the local physical conditions and natural climate, but also to history, faith, and beliefs.

McDonald's is a successful company that operates in many countries. McDonald's is a low-

When we speak about the disparities that McDonald's will face between domestic and foreign
activities, we can say that the customers in both regions will have entirely different buying
habits. This may be influenced by the local environment, history, and religion. To compete in
the international market, the organisation must tailor its menu to local tastes. If it struggles to
do that, it would almost certainly fail in the foreign market. For example, since the majority
of Indians are Hindus and do not consume beef products due to religious beliefs, McDonald's
chose to exclude beef items from its menu in India. Similarly, Muslims do not consume pork
products due to religious beliefs, so the corporation agreed to discontinue these products in
Muslim countries.

Similarly, goods that are very competitive in the domestic market may not be popular at all in
the foreign market because consumers' tastes and desires vary. Any external forces, such as
supply chain problems, raw material availability and pricing, and so on, may have a
significant effect on the company's overall operationality and profitability in the international
market. As a result, the firm must first understand a variety of aspects about its clients and the
region it is entering before they are expanding its operations there.

Part 2

For a company to be able to adapt to different international markets, it is very necessary to

Aside from introducing new meals according to the countries' preferences and traditions to
suit local tastes, it has been extremely crucial for McDonald's to set marketing strategies that
are convenient for each market in relation to the cultural dimensions and values of every one
of them. In case there was a failure or misconception while advertising the business in other
countries, McDonald's could get a bad reputation and therefore fail to retain their local
customers, making big losses for the company's economy. An example of that is what
happened in China in 2013 where McDonald's stopped increasing in revenue as their main
focus in that country had been emphasizing comfort and quality, but people started seeing
that food as bad quality and unhealthy, which was one of the reasons why McDonald's sold
the company's operations in the Chinese market to CITIC Group and decided to change their
name in 2017, going from Maidanglao to Jingongmen in order to give the business an
aesthetic lift and increase sales again (Tone, 2021).

In the case of Japan, which counts with 2,975 restaurants among the whole country (2019)
which makes it the second country in the world with more McDonald's restaurant franchises,
it has an extremely different culture compared to the United States, the origin country of the
company, and people consume smaller quantities and have unalike gastronomic cuisine. Also,
as they may have opposite cultural aspects, the marketing outlook has been a matter to take
into account.
 
An example of a marketing cross-cultural issue for McDonald's is the need for a variety of
websites that reflect the cultural aspects of every country. As Japan scores high on long-term
orientation and uncertainty avoidance, but the individualism level is low, according to
Hofstede's Theory, it is important that the design of their site for customers in Japan
emphasizes these results in cultural dimensions. For that reason, family values and teamwork
are a must when advertising McDonald's values in Japan which would boost the audiences'
responses to the company. Therefore, not showing these values in the company's website, and
making the site complicated to navigate, had increased the negative perception of locals in
terms of reputation.

There is a very distinct difference between the east and the west ideas such as their values,
religions and social norms. McDonald's has awareness, and they understand other cultures
which have been a beneficial factor in the expansion and development of the rise of the
McDonald food chain. McDonald's understanding of different cultures of the middle east, far
east and Europe have helped them to become a leader in the industry they are in however
before Mc Donald became so successful they encountered some issues.

There are cross-cultural managerial issues that are important in one country but not in another
country. The issue arises when the Manager of McDonald in England has a habit of working
very closely with the shop staff and these staffs are seen by the junior staff as a part of the
team. This is because of their culture in England where everyone is being treated equally. The
term is called an egalitarian culture in the hierarchy where societies believe or favour equality
of some kinds. In this theory, people should be treated the same or they should be treated as
equals. This egalitarian culture of an egalitarian company is a business that highlights the
importance of having an egalitarian structure for its workforce. This shows that the workers
of all levels in the hierarchy level will enjoy the same organizational status, same benefits and
have the same respect (Hartman, n.d.).

On the other hand, in India, their whole society is based on a class system called the caste
system where there is a hierarchical level for each member of the society. Even though this
system has been abolished in 1950, this system is still being used by the Hindus in India until
this day. Each Hindus has been categorized at birth and this can define what their place or
level is in the social hierarchy, what jobs they can be employed for and also whom they can
marry too. In India's McDonald's franchise, the manager will be in the office on-site, and he
will expect his subordinates which are the shop staff to be able to manage their day to day
running of the McDonald's franchise with the manager's continuous help. Based on this
business culture in their franchise this gives some kind of responsibility to the franchise staff
members, but this also makes them notice and be aware of their social place in the hierarchy.
This caste system differentiates between a lower and a higher class. The lower-class societies
are seldom given senior positions in a company like McDonald's despite them having
sufficient skills or having better education higher than the individuals in the higher class.
With the Caste system still being applied, this shows that India is a high-power distance
country as it ranks 77 on this dimension and it is higher than the world average of 59, this
indicates how serious Indians are appreciating a top-down structure and hierarchy for society
and in organizations. The theory that is applied is Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory,
which is a framework that is used to show the differences in different cultures across the
world and to show the ways that businesses in these cultures are done. In a business, setting
this framework is very important as this can help to assess the cultural impact on the
company (Corporate Finance Institute, 2015). Power distance in the Hofstede dimension
model is defined as the length to which lower-class members of the society within a country
are expected and they have to accept that the power of hierarchical level is distributed
unequally. Being a high-power distance country McDonald's might find it weird that the
hierarchy in the McDonald's franchise in India is a top to the down structure. This means that
the power is centralized and the manager in the organization requires the obedience of their
subordinates, each subordinate is then required to act based on what they are supposed to do.
The control in this society is very high and there is even psychological security included. Last
but not least the method of communication between the lower level and higher level in the
hierarchy is top-down and it is very directive which means feedback is never offered up the
hierarchy level unlike in the US (Hofstede Insights, n.d.).

Part 3
McDonald’s has been referred to as the "Cultural Marketer" because of its popular strategy of
adapting to the local culture of the countries it enters to gain traction in the market, this shows
that McDonald's chooses to use the Adapting Model cultural strategy. McDonald's has
tackled the issues in China and India by adopting the "Family" type of organizational culture,
since countries in South Asia tend to be particular about their cultural norms and values, they
also believe in inter-personal relationships within the work environment. "Company =
Family" McDonald's has managed to adapt to this by introducing products that target and
represent China and India's culture, introducing items not included in its universal menu
curated for the target market and to attract the market. For example, McDonald's in China
introduced fried eggs and Chinese pancakes in the company’s breakfast menu. In 2007, the
company further introduced a relatively new hot drink enriched with ginger and honey, which
are some of the products that are popular in Chinese food culture. In India, McDonald’s
social perspectives are based on building rapport and trust with the local customers through
the provision of products that respect their religion and traditions, India has a huge population
of vegetarians and McDonald's introduced products such as McVeggie Burger and McAloo
Tikki Burger among others to cater to this market McDonald’s also does not offer pork or
beef-based products. Its menu is more than 50 per cent vegetarian.
McDonald's has also chosen to use the same strategy in its advertising campaigns too,
targeting the local cultural values and representing itself as a local brand in India, China and
Japan all three. This form of advertising strategy has enabled McDonald's to safeguard its
entry into the Japanese market but Japan has different cultural values and believes in strict
hierarchal control for which McDonald's must adopt Controlling Model cultural strategy.

McDonald’s adopted the Family organisational culture while managing the Indian workforce,
it adopted the Polychronic corporate structure to adapt to the needs and tendencies of the
workforce in India, Hierarchal structure where there is more autocratic or paternalistic
planning and managers make decisions without consulting employees. Similar to Japan. As in
India, the authority figure in a family takes all the decisions. Keeping in mind that the Indian
workforce is competitive, McDonald's employs managers with a Competitive managerial
style where initiatives such as Employee of the month are taken to boost the employee’s
Morales and increase productivity with more recognition.
McDonald's also has chosen to pay importance to the Cultural Values of Asian countries by
implementing a Being action culture which also resolves the Indian Caste issue as mentioned
previously. It also employs the High-Context communication process in its management to
go along with the High-Context cultures of India, China and Japan and a Collectivism
Management structure to go along with the culture of Asian work environment where the
company is equivalent to a family.

Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that McDonald's had quite successfully changed over time in
terms of its development from starting as a domestic company to becoming the largest fast-
food company worldwide. Based on all the factors mentioned above, the company has earned
its fame for being able to adapt to the different cultures of the several countries they operate
in. The company was able to gain success in a very short amount of time also due to their
creativity and considerations for countries, the people (customers), and the culture they are
following. The key to their success can therefore be the fact that how fast they were able to
understand and respect the culture of their customers worldwide and innovating based on
such. Despite all the challenging time the company had faced, they were able to overcome
them by focusing on the demand and values of their customers. Hence, the company holds
the highest position in the fast-food market, dominating their competitors, and is most
demanded by people all over the world making them huge in terms of revenue and popularity.