McDonald’s Mission Statement, Vision and Core Values - Detailed Analysis
One of the most beloved pioneers of the fast food industry, McDonald’s has successfully become a household name in a big part of the world. The firm has been around since 1955 and has reached levels of success which are tough to imitate. Although the company has made quite a few rivals over the years, it has managed to retain its place among the consumers and continuously seen booming sales. The McDonald’s mission statement, vision and values have played an important role in this and we are going to do a complete analysis of the same to show you how.
McDonald’s originally started out by selling hotdogs and it didn’t do very well. After a few failed attempts, it reopened with a new menu. They served burgers, fries, and milkshakes, stuff that the company is often a first choice for, even today. This makes sense, given that McDonald’s has stores in over 120 countries giving it the status of the largest restaurant service in the world. The company serves a large collection of custom menu items, some of which are available only in a given country.
Coming to the McDonald’s mission statement and values, the lines they’ve adopted are consumer oriented and is something that a big number of their own employees like and have dutifully adopted.
So what exactly is the McDonald’s mission statement? What does it mean to the firm and its customers? How has it affected the company? Find below a comprehensive McDonald’s mission statement analysis to answer your questions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
McDonalds - Company Overview
Here are a few facts about McDonald’s you can refer to:
| Company Name | McDonald’s Corporation |
| Founder(sO | Richard McDonald, Maurice McDonald |
| Founded in | 1955 |
| Company Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Present CEO(s) | Chris Kempczinski (4 Nov 2019–) |
| Company Type | Public |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Number of Employees | 200,000 (2020) |
| Annual Revenue | US$21.076 billion (2019) |
| Operating income | US$9.070 billion (2019) |
| Area of service | Available in 120 countries |
| Link to website | https://www.mcdonalds.com |
McDonald’s mission statement Analysis
The McDonald’s mission statement has been modified a few times over the years, but throughout these changes, the company has kept customers as the main focus.
As of 2021, McDonald’s summarises its mission statement as follows:
‘Our mission is to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.’
This mission statement, summarises the aims and values of McDonald’s and can be broken down into three separate elements:
1. Delicious
McDonald’s core offering is of course, the food, and the brand never fails to include this in the mission statement. The US menu itself has 11 distinct sections from beverages to burgers to desserts. Each of these serves a number of different items in various sizes.
The company has put special emphasis on making ‘delicious’ food and this is shown in the huge sales numbers as well as unpaid endorsements by famous celebrities. For example, Bill Gates has a gold card which makes him eligible for lifetime free meals. Usain Bolt also claims to have eaten around a 1000 chicken McNuggets (source).
Consider an earlier statement, ‘To be our customers’ favorite place and way to eat and drink.’ Here, too, the food has been the main focus point, as it should be. McDonald’s does not compromise on the ingredients or the quality of the food offered and it shows.
2. Feel-good moments
The second part of McDonald’s mission statement, creating feel-good moments, is something you’d find at every single outlet. As a company, McDonald’s puts a lot of stress on ensuring that the customers have a good experience.
Restaurants are designed to give optimal customer experience and are located strategically. The personalized service makes the customer feel special aiding McD's sales.
Treats such as the toys which come in Happy Meals, or the Ronald McDonald statue outside of the McDonald’s outlets all aid to this experience. The app is also well designed making it an overall ‘feel-good’ experience.
3. Easy for everyone
An important aspect in ensuring that the above two components are provided to the customer is making the services easily accessible. The restaurants, service timings and meal quality are all a part of this.
Having operations across so many countries with customers having different expectations of functioning, McDonald’s employs a hands-on, quality approach to satisfy the customer.
To make it even easier for customers to use McDonald’s services, in November 2020 amidst difficulties due to the global pandemic, the firm announced that it would be focusing on a 3D strategy. These 3 Ds are ‘Digital, Delivery and Drive Thru’.
The company has since put a lot of investment into strengthening the online ordering process, home delivery system and drive thru’s worldwide, a smart and necessary move to keep up with the changes.
McDonald’s vision
McDonald’s former vision statement was as follows:
‘To move with velocity to drive profitable growth and become an even better McDonald’s serving more customers delicious food each day around the world.’
This shows that the company has kept the customer experience in the forefront even in their corporate vision of how they want the company to grow.
The above vision statement is no longer found on the company’s website but has been integrated into both the mission statement as well as the core values.
McDonald’s Values
About its core values, McDonald’s (as of 2021) has to say: ‘The backbone of our Brand is, and always has been, a commitment to a set of core values that define who we are and how we run our business and restaurants.’
The 5 core values that the company highlights are as follows:
- Serve - As highlighted above, the company prioritizes its customers. This is the first element of the core values and further drives the point that for McDonald’s, customer satisfaction is the primary goal.
- Inclusion - We’ve already stated above, McDonald's has outlets in 120 countries. This itself goes to show that the company is pretty diverse and inclusive. There is no discrimination among customers or employees. At a corporate level, the company aims to increase minorities in leadership roles to at least 35% by the year 2025. The firm also seeks to add more women in its top ranks to and reach at least 45% by the same time.
- Integrity - McDonald’s is very particular about their standards of business conduct. Each employee is held accountable to their actions and is expected to do the right thing at all times. The uncompromised quality is a statement of the same.
- Community - The company has multiple community connection initiatives. One example is the Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®), which enables families to stay together near world-class care facilities when a child is diagnosed with life-threatening illness. They’ve also taken initiatives towards crisis response and avoiding food waste donation.
- Family - An important area of focus for the company is getting better together. The above RMHC example, which is their charity of choice, is particularly family focused. They have made arrangements for Houses, Family Rooms, and a mobile unit to support sick children and their families. Furthermore, throughout 2021, McDonald’s will donate two cents to Ronald McDonald House Charities for each Happy Meal sold at participating U.S. restaurants.
Conclusion - McDonald’s Mission Statement
As seen in the above sections, McDonald’s has formed its mission and core values around customer satisfaction. The employees have strived to make sure that their customers are happy and this has made it one of the favorite restaurant chains in the world.