McDonald’s mission statement and vision statement are a response to trends in the global food service industry environment. As the biggest fast-food restaurant chain in the world, the company considers its vision statement and mission statement as essential policy and strategic management tools to ensure continuous growth. The company’s corporate mission statement sets the purpose and related objectives of the restaurant business. In this case, McDonald’s mission statement establishes the company as an accessible and enjoyable food service destination. On the other hand, the firm’s corporate vision statement sets the long-term aims of the fast-food business. Pertinent to competitive rivalry, McDonald’s vision statement pushes the business organization to achieve growth and improvement. Considering major international fast-food competitors, like Burger King, Wendy’s, and Subway, as well as McCafé competitors, like Starbucks and Dunkin’, and smaller regional or local firms, it is essential that McDonald’s develop competencies to strategically manage the effects of competition and to achieve business goals based on the company’s mission and vision.
McDonald’s Purpose Statement. McDonald’s purpose is “to feed and foster communities.” This purpose statement indicates operations in the food service industry and social impact regarding community-related goals and objectives in implementing the company’s mission statement and vision statement. McDonald’s mission statement relates to this business purpose by focusing on positive dining experiences for everybody. Similarly, this company purpose is expressed in McDonald’s vision statement in terms of strategic goals involving delicious food for the global market. To achieve aims based on this business purpose, the company’s mission and vision are implemented effectively despite the tough competition shown in the Five Forces analysis of McDonald’s Corporation.
McDonald’s Mission Statement
McDonald’s mission is “to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.” This mission statement highlights the significance of customers and service quality in maintaining the company as a major option for consumers in their food and beverage purchase decisions. McDonald’s mission statement has the following main points:
- Delicious food and beverage
- Good experiences
- Accessibility
- Global market reach
In its mission statement, McDonald’s Corporation uses the word, “delicious,” to represent the desirability of its products, like fries and hamburger meals. Applicable to recipes used for menu items, this point of the corporate mission statement emphasizes effective product development as a success factor in attracting diners to the company’s food and beverage products, and in satisfying the business purpose statement. The second point is based on the term, “feel good moments,” included in McDonald’s mission statement. This point emphasizes positive dining experiences for customers. Such good experiences encourage customers to keep coming back to the company’s fast-food restaurants.
The mission statement’s third point focuses on the ease (accessibility, convenience, and affordability) of purchasing McDonald’s products. This ease factor contributes to consumers’ likelihood of buying the company’s foods and drinks. McDonald’s operations management strategy and productivity affect how the business satisfies such ease criterion. In the fourth point of the mission statement, “everyone” pertains to targeting the global food service market. This means that McDonald’s considers every person a target customer, similar to the emphasis on worldwide operations in the restaurant chain’s vision statement. This part of the company’s mission statement requires support from marketing strategies and tactics to capture customers in the international fast-food market. This strategic support is observable in McDonald’s marketing mix or 4P.
McDonald’s Vision Statement
McDonald’s vision is “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 vision statement sets strategic goals for continuous improvement in the restaurant business organization while aligning with the company’s purpose. The following are the main components of McDonald’s vision statement:
- Move with velocity to drive profitable growth
- Become an even better McDonald’s
- Serve more customers delicious food each day around the world
The first and third components of McDonald’s vision statement show that the business aims to grow and expand its operations. This strategic aim entails opening more restaurant locations and improving operational efficiency to optimize profit margins and profitability. With the phrase, “around the world,” the company’s vision statement indicates that the fast-food business targets the global market, similar to the global market reach emphasized in the mission statement. McDonald’s generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies support such international growth and expansion objective embodied in the company’s vision statement. The second component focuses on improving the restaurant business, although the company does not state the type of improvement in the corporate vision statement. However, McDonald’s may implement comprehensive business improvements in line with the vision statement, including product development, marketing, franchising, and human resource development. To satisfy this vision statement, the competitive advantages shown in the SWOT analysis of McDonald’s enable the growth and enhancement of the fast-food restaurant chain business and its multinational operations.
Recommendations for McDonald’s Mission & Vision
McDonald’s mission statement satisfies many of the criteria for developing the best mission statements. For example, the company includes product quality (delicious) and part of its business philosophy and self-concept (a provider of feel-good moments) in its mission statement. McDonald’s also includes information about its target consumers (everyone). However, details about the restaurant business stakeholders (employees and others), product characteristics, and the nature of business operations are not satisfactorily included. Even though the mission statement agrees well with the vision statement and the purpose statement, McDonald’s can improve this mission statement by including such information about stakeholders, products, and business operations. This recommendation aims to make it easier to implement the corporate mission statement in all areas of the fast-food business organization and its network of franchised and licensed locations.
McDonald’s vision statement is strong in satisfying the criteria for developing ideal vision statements. The food service company’s vision statement is clear, concise, focused on the future, and agrees with the business purpose. This future-oriented characteristic adds stability to the corporate vision statement, especially in terms of its applicability in the future operations of McDonald’s business. Also, the emphasis on becoming an even better business organization makes the vision statement challenging and inspiring, which are characteristics that help motivate employees to contribute more to further improve the restaurant company. These characteristics make McDonald’s vision statement satisfactory. Still, a suitable improvement would be to include information about how the company can make itself better, to inform the application of the mission statement, and to effectively guide current and future strategies and management approaches used in the food service firm.
References
- McDonald’s Corporation – Form 10-K.
- McDonald’s Corporation – Values in Action.
- McDonald’s Corporation – Who We Are.
- McDonald’s Reports Third Quarter 2024 Results.
- Watson, A., Perrigot, R., & Dada, O. (2024). The effects of green brand image on brand loyalty: The case of mainstream fast-food brands. Business Strategy and the Environment, 33(2), 806-819.
- Yang, K. (2024). Golden Arches across cultures: Understanding McDonald’s global and local consumer behavior. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences, 68, 85-91.