OverviewThe over 118 countries.KFCKentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is one

Topic: BusinessLeadership
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Last updated: June 17, 2019

OverviewThe objective of the report is to convey the information gathered about strategies and plans used by Mcdonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). This report starts out with a brief introduction allocated to each of the company. Initially, we begin by explaining the planning strategies used by Mcdonald’s and KFC and then compare the plans against each other. After that, we briefly explained the importance of planning for both the companies. Following that, we explained and compared the leadership behaviour of both company’s CEO and the types of power he uses to influence others and the organisational results. We then described the 5 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for both the companies and suggested how the CEO can further motivate his people. Lastly, we defined the managerial roles played by the CEOs and did a final comparison based on these roles.

IntroductionMcDonald’sMcDonald’s was a neighbourhood restaurant founded by Ray Kroc. What made it stood out was the effectiveness of their operation. Their concise menu allowed them to focus on quality and fast service. The restaurant provides food items that are of consistently high quality and have a uniform method of preparing them.

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Today, McDonald’s has flourished to more than 34,000 restaurants in over 118 countries.KFCKentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is one of the leading fast food chains of today specializing in chicken founded by Colonel Harland Sanders. KFC’s menu has evolved from its Original Recipe fried chicken and side dishes. KFC is the world’s second largest restaurant by sales, and the world’s most popular chicken brand. Today, more than a billion of the Colonel’s “finger lickin’ good” chicken dinners are served yearly in more than 80 countries.PlanningSingle-Use Plans:Single use plans are activities that occurs once and not repetitive.

McDonald’sMcDonalds’s single use plans are the character-based happy meal and toys that come along with the meal. For example, the ‘Minions’ Happy Meal and ‘Minionized’ Restaurant that was available for a limited time. McDonald’s revamped specific outlets to ‘Minion’ & yellow-coloured themed restaurants.  They also had Minion-inspired menu items in selected countries. Examples include the banana cone that was sold in Singapore and the Go-GURT® Low-Fat Strawberry-Banana Yogurt in America . It started from July 3rd till the end of August.

Thus, these character-based happy meals and toys are part of McDonalds’s single use plans.KFC:KFC Malaysia wanted to start off a campaign based on the spirit of being united together as a nation, over its bucket of fried chicken. The campaign’s name was “KFC Bucket Sessions.” The objective of this campaign was to show how relationships could be forged between 2 strangers over a bucket of chicken.

KFC recognises that meal times spent with loved ones and others get more heart warming and friendly instead of being alone. It added, “Food can be the best ice-breaker that captures life’s precious moments especially as we share stories, listen and connect to one another while having a meal together.” This plan was used during the upcoming National Day and Malaysia Day. Comparison:The similarities between McDonald’s and KFC’s single-use plans is that both focuses more on unique food products. For McDonald’s, it was the Minion movie that lead to the plan for character-based happy meals and toys, while for KFC it was the upcoming National Day that inspired them to come up with the Bucket Sessions.

The differences between them is that McDonald’s focuses more on attracting customers through the use of minions, making them buy the happy meal for the toys. Whereas KFC focuses more on attracting customers through showing close relationships between consumers of their fried chicken. Directional Plans:They are flexible plans with broader goals and a general guideline. McDonald’sMcDonald’s have different types of menus, marketing and local business management when it comes to catering different countries. For example, in Asia Pacific, McDonald’s concentrates more on convenience and value of the food for the people. As these people usually have tight packed schedules. Hence, the menus of different products have to be varied from United States. Where else for the European market, they focus more on premium selections and affordable offerings.

Therefore, having different types of menus and various types of marketing strategies for different countries shows that this is part of McDonald’s directional plans.KFCFor the past 14 years,  KFC sales stagnated and locations rapidly shuttered in the US. KFC has lost more than 1,200 restaurants in the US. To solve this issue, in 2016, KFC underwent a “re colonization”, “re-creating” its menu, remodeling restaurants and retraining employees across US. The sales are now rising after “recreating” its menu. Hence, this plans show that they have broad and flexible goals that KFC set as a general guideline for its employees to follow. This led to KFC in the right direction, increasing its sales.Comparison: They are both different in the purpose of their directional plan.

KFC devised a plan to uplift their sales through “recreating” and “re modelling” their restaurants and menus.While McDonald’s devised a plan to cater different types of countries by having various menus, marketing and community involvement. Strategic Plans:It is an overview of steps that are created with the goals that affects the entire organization. McDonald’sFor McDonald’s it is the “Plan to Win” strategy. This concept explains the objective and goal for McDonald’s to be the best fast food restaurant chain. Thus, McDonald’s tends to go for the quality instead of  quantity. It has decided to attain this by implementing the 5 P’s of marketing – People, Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

One of their strategic goals through this planning is to place the customer’s experience at the core of what they do. Through this, they show their appreciation to its customers by delivering high quality food and superior service. Therefore proving that the “Plan to Win” plan is a strategic plan.KFCKFC’s mission statement is to maximise profitability, improve shareholder’s value and deliver gradual growth every year. Their vision is to be the leading integrated food services group in the ASEAN region delivering regular and constant quality products and also to prioritize their customers. They plan to construct an organisation build to excellence to succeed. Moreover, KFC wants to create and build superior quality for their customers. Therefore, they offer customers with quality food, great value and customer focused teams.

Comparison:      Both of the plans focuses on the quality of their products. They both want to give a superior quality of their product, which makes their plan more focused towards the value they give in to their food. This can be seen in McDonald’s where they offer their customers with high quality food. This can also be seen in KFC where they want to deliver consistent quality products.

Importance of Planning:McDonald’sMcDonald’s is an open system where it interacts with their external dynamic environment and are influenced by that environment. Factors of external dynamic environment includes the target customers-which is the most important environment factor-suppliers, competitors like Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and 4 Fingers. There are a lot of unpredictable events that happen in a Dynamic environment for example, the suppliers and financial institutions going bankrupt overnight. Without responding to changes in the environment effectively, McDonald’s would lose profits and brand reputation gained.

KFCPlanning is important as it links market opportunities with business strengths and provides direction to attain set goals. Enabling them to successfully progress towards the set of objectives. KFC uses a strategic plan that looks ahead over a five-year period, with updates on the plan yearly. The plan sets targets and direction for the company’s business, and contribute to the planning process from the bottom-up through their annual business plans. Their five-year plan covers all important areas in the business like financial growth, markets, services, customers and staff development, with a specific business objective for each of these areas.

LeadingLeadership Behavior:McDonalds’sMcDonald’s current CEO, Steve Easterbrook, adopted the selling style from Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model. Selling style is where the leader provides more information and direction. Steve Easterbrook is said to be a ‘man-manager’ and an excellent leader who looks after both his people and the production of McDonald’s food products. He pays attention to his staff members too as he rewards all of them uniquely. For example, staff working at the cashier can be rewarded with extra lunch or dinner time if they hit a certain target of being productive. This explains how the company motivates its employees to do better and how Steve develops the selling style as he provides both directive and supportive behaviour to his company.

KFCKFC’s CEO, Roger Eaton follows a participative style. Participative style is where the leader and the subordinates shares their views and opinions in decision making process. This can be seen in Roger Eaton where he provides group of interactive sessions and open conversations.

This is to enhance open communication and give employees the opportunity to express concerns and their ideas. Comparison:Steve Easterbrook, CEO of Mcdonald’s, adopts the selling style. Steve believes in managing the people in his company by using both directive and supportive behaviour.

He displays his supportive behaviour towards his employees by motivating them to further increase their self-confidence level. In addition to this, he also shows directive behaviour by paying attention to his employees and make sure they carry out tasks correctly and under supervision. Roger Eaton on the other hand adopts a participative style. He entrusts tasks to his employees and involves them in decision-making process for KFC and encourages them to delegate other employees to get things done instead of him supervising everyone all the time. Types of power and how he uses it to influence other/organisation’s resultsPower is the ability to influence others. There are 5 sources of power for leaders which is legitimate ,coercive, reward, expert and referent power. McDonald’s CEO, Steve EasterbrookHe is well-known as the charismatic leader.

Charismatic leader usually uses the referent power. Referent power leaders are recognized for their enthusiasm towards driving the organisation towards the success.One of his former subordinate Richard Robinson, who was the former chief of marketing at McDonald’s, stated that he is all rounder and a man-manager. He also stated, that he is very passionate about both the customers and the crew that serves them. He leads the organization with a front counter style and is very much familiar with how the restaurant works in and out. Richard also mentioned that Steve is someone the organization can depend on to do the right thing.  This shows how Steve used his referent power to influence the McDonald’s employees to move further and achieve more than their limits.

KFC’s CEO, Roger EatonHis superior knowledge and expertise allows him to possess the expert power. With 30 years of experience in marketing and operations in this industry, he is able to lead through expert power as his subordinates feel that he has the expertise to lead them. Additionally, he possesses the reward power. He has the ability to reward them if they do well and holds great compassion while seeking to be of service to others. MotivationDescribe how the CEO used Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs: Physiological :It is the basic survival needs for human beings such as food, drink and shelter.

McDonald’sThey offer flexible work schedule that consists of various shift schedules. Part time employees can rotate their shift hours according to their preferred working hours. This ensures that employees have enough rest and sleep. KFCThey are provided with lunch and dinner during their break. Safety:It is the need for security of employment, health, property and assurance that they are met.

McDonald’sThey offer fringe benefits like life insurance, medical and retirement services. McDonald’s Profit Sharing and Savings Plan compromise of $401,000 that lets the employees save on a tax-deferred basis for their future. For employees that are qualifiable, McDonald’s adds a match on a portion of their savings as their primary retirement savings medium. This shows that McDonald’s are satisfying the safety needs through their fringe benefits.

KFCEmployees are offered health insurance such as medical and dental insurance. Managers also account for the safety needs of their employees by providing safe working conditions, secure compensation and job security. Social:It is the need for belonging, friendship, receiving and giving affection and love.McDonald’sA horizontal communication is practiced among the managers and employees. This allows workers to communicate without any restrictions. Also, supervisors acknowledge feedback from the employees which implies that employees do not fear their supervisors, so they can develop trust and have good interpersonal relationships. This offers employees to have belonging and affection showing that they are motivated through the social needs.KFCAt KFC, staff members work in teams all work together, communicate well, solve problems and create new ideas and learn new skills off each other.

Thus it helps to build relationships with one and other. They also give family friendly benefits such as enhanced maternity paternity salary pay, childcare vouchers. Hence, proving that the social needs are satisfied and motivated.Self-Esteem:It is the need to feel good about yourself, self-respect, achievement, self satisfaction.McDonald’sEmployees work in teams and every staff depends on each other. Every team member has a specific task to concentrate on. Hence, if one of them leaves their post or delays by taking a lot of time, the others get influenced and the entire team ends up neglecting the main objective of gaining profitable results.

Team work enable workers to be more in charge of their work. When these workers are more determined to carry out their tasks, they are able to achieve organisational goals and will have a sense of accomplishment which supports their self-esteem. KFCKFC takes care of its employees’ self-esteem needs by implementing awards such as the “Best Worker of The Month” and including promotions for its employees to show them that they are doing well, increasing their self-confidence in their workers. By working in teams, tasks can be fulfilled quickly and efficiently. For example, if an employee sees that another employee is dealing with several customers, they would help take orders to get customer served quickly.

It also improves confidence and self esteem. Self-Actualisation:It is the need to seek one’s full potential and growth.McDonald’sEmployees gets to participate in critical thinking processes in regards to business related issues. Self-development is offered to employees while working in McDonald’s through trainings. McDonald’s have their own University, Hamburger University, which trains the newbies to be able to work in McDonald’s.

Employees increase their self-confidence through such trainings at the university where they get the chance to level up their skills, attaining self-actualisation needs. Therefore, this is how employees are motivated through the self-actualisation needs.KFCManagers provide challenging work, inviting employees to participate in decision-making and giving them flexibility and independency in their jobs. KFC created a new program “#my plan” which enables employees to engage in self-reflection, self-evaluation and goal setting.

This helps them to understand skills acquired while working at KFC and recognise career opportunities both inside and outside the restaurant. Comparison:Physiological:McDonald’s focus on providing flexibility while KFC focus on providing food to its employees. McDonald’s provide their employees with flexible work schedules. KFC focus on providing food for their employees when they are working.Safety:Both McDonald’s and KFC provide fringe benefits such as medical and dental insurance in order to satisfy their employee’s safety needs. But the the difference between this two company is that McDonald are more long-sighted and focus on the future of their employees while KFC are more short-sighted and focus on providing better current safety needs for their employees.This can be seen where McDonald’s created a savings plan that allows their employees to save up a sum of money for their retirement. KFC’s ways are providing medical care that helps them with their current needs.

Social:McDonald’s mainly focuses on relationship between managers and employees to build trust, communication and belongingness.While, KFC focuses on teamwork which builds relationship with each other. Self-Esteem:Both companies’s self-esteem are similar as they both focuses on teamwork. Both depend on the employees and work together to build confidence, self esteem and trust. Both boost employee’s self esteem by carrying out tasks together so it gets accomplished quicker. One difference is McDonald’s does not reward their employees while KFC does. KFC rewards employees with the “Best Worker of The Month” and promotes them, which helps to increase the employee’s self esteem.

Self-Actualisation:Unlike KFC, McDonald’s has a university built for staff training. They focus mainly on how to train their employees better. While KFC has programs which involves self evaluation and setting goals. This helps them understand and utilize their skills in and out of their workplace. The similarity between them is that they are both involved in decision making process.

Suggest how the CEO can motivate his employees even more effectively: McDonald’sTo motivate employees more effectively, the CEO should set smaller goals instead of goals that are high and unattainable.The CEO can have a weekly plan for the subordinates to achieve a specific target. Once the weekly targets have been met, the leader could reward the employees by giving them bonuses.

The employees would view these goals as achievable and they would work hard towards it.Another way is to show the employees the bigger view of the organization. Employees need to understand and view the organization as a whole. They will then understand that different parts of the organization are interdependent. They will also get to see their contribution fitting into the picture by giving them tasks and projects to work on. This will motivate the employees to do more and they will feel a sense of belonging to the organization.KFCKFC can recreate the office environment that the staff are working in. This helps to make the employees feel more motivated and inspired to work, increasing the efficiency and productivity of the work done.

Another way is by holding dedicated conferences or events. The employees can take part in these events to solve specific business issues. This helps them to feel more involved with the company’s decision making processes, allowing for more meaningful staff involvement in order to seek out their ideas and opinions which would help the company as a whole. Managerial RolesMcDonald’sInterpersonal:It includes relationships that a leader has to have with other subordinates within the organization and outside the organization. FigureheadIncludes roles that involve people, activities that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature.

Steve Easterbrook usually takes care of activities such as routine duties of legal or social nature like ribbon-cutting events or signing legal documents regarding the companyDecisional:It involves making decisions which is the most critical part of any managerial activity. Disturbance HandlerDuring the early 2000s, McDonald’s UK struggled with a regional sales drop. In 2006, Steve became CEO of McDonald’s U K.

In order to push the sales up, he closed some outlets, renovated other outlets and uplifted the number of franchisee-owned stores. This shows that he took corrective actions when the regional sales were dropping, proving that he performed the disturbance handler role. KFCInterpersonal:FigureheadRoger Eaton, CEO of KFC U.S., performs duties such as signing legal documents for the company. He displays crucial duties of the CEO like performing routine duties. He is the highest-ranking executive in the company, and shows key responsibilities such as making major corporate decisions, managing the general operations and resources of KFC. Decisional:Resource AllocatorRoger has the responsibilities of managing the daily operations and implementing plans according to company’s standards.

He determines the sales and profit goals that are required for that particular week. He ensures that his subordinates serve customers food hot and within a limited time. He also make sures that there is enough staff for the shift, sufficient stock of food and that the equipments are working properly. This shows that he allocates the organizational resources such as his subordinates to do tasks in order to achieve organizational goals. Comparison:  Steve Easterbrook, displays a figurehead role and a disseminator role, while Roger Eaton, displays the figurehead role and the resource allocator role.          Both display the Figurehead role as both of them are CEOs of their companies and perform crucial duties of what a figurehead of a company does. Tasks such as signing legal documents the be finalised and carrying out routine duties.

Both of them have the highest rank in their company which requires them to display conceptual and human skills.Steve also performs the role of the disturbance handler. When McDonald’s was experiencing a sales drop in the early 2000s, he did the necessary corrective actions to push the sales up again.                                                                                                       Roger on the other hand performs the role of resource allocator who determines how to use the organizational resources like the daily operations and implementing plans according to KFC’s standards. He is in charge of major decisions like deciding the profit goals that are needed to make sure that there is enough staff and employees.

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