McDonald's will succeed in growing as a consequence of its strategic choices. As a SWOT analysis of the company shows, McDonald's strengths are more significant than its weaknesses. Its primary strength is its brand, which is recognized all over the world, and its position at the head of its industry makes it a force to be reckoned with. The company's ability to determine what consumers want and need and adapt to that is a major strength, one that requires McDonald's to keep reinventing itself. McDonald's used to close in the evenings just after dinner, for example, but now almost 40% of McDonald's restaurants stay open round the clock, with a focus on between-meal and late-night options such as snack foods and fruit smoothies (Arndt, 2007, p. 64). In addition, McDonald's generates new products more aggressively than in the past, churning out new selections that are tried out in one market for several weeks to see how the sales, costs, and margins grow and how easy they are to prepare by the company's constantly-changing staff (Arndt, 2007, p. 64). Another strength is McDonald's strategies, such as the delivery service it now offers in crowded cities such as Shanghai. Not only does the company make more sales by catering to the traffic-challenged, time-constrained, and lazy, it saves itself some money at the same time, because delivered meals require no table clean-up at the restaurant (Arndt & Ghobrial, 2007, p. 36).
One of McDonald's strengths-its bold confidence in making changes to keep up with the times-is also one of its weaknesses, however. McDonald's was experiencing problems with its Ronald McDonald image, as well as mounting concern on the part of parents that McDonald's food was "junk food [that] was fueling an obesity epidemic in the U.S." (Kiley, 2006, p. 55). The company opted to upgrade its restaurants with a redesign and add new, healthier options to its menu. As Gogoi, Arndt, & Moiduddin (2<...