Burger King Loosens Up
Summary
Burger King is the second largest fast food restaurant chain in the world behind McDonald's. Bought in 1967 by the Pillsbury Company, Burger King has tried many different advertising schemes to pass McDonalds. Moreover, Burger King went through eight presidents and six chairmen in hopes of catching the industry leader throughout the 70's. By the mid-80's Burger King and Pillsbury were having culture problems. Pillsbury believed in a more conservative work environment well, Burger King elected to use a loose highflying approach to their work place. However this would change when British Grand Metropolitan bought the two. Burger King was forced to become a more conservative and "button-down" like Pillsbury. Work hours became intense, a dress code was strictly enforced and top management remained separate from their subordinates, making it difficult to communicate with them.
This would all change in 1992 however, when Hurricane Andrew destroyed Burger king's main offices. As workers tried to put back the peace's of their lives, Burger King was understanding and became lenient with their employees. They allowed their employees to dress any way they wanted and allowed them flexible hours. Barriers were brought down between top management and their subordinates. The hurricane changed the way business was done dramatically, but work was still being done.
CEO Jim Adamson felt that the attitude of the workers and the environment was better after the hurricane. Therefore, Burger King's new building was decorated in hamburger tones, middle-level workers were given the best views, and there were no doors put on any offices allowing communication to remain open between all employees. "In addition, Adamson developed a six part strategic plan code named Operation Phoenix". The plan is designed to improve menus, operations, facilities, value strategies, marketing and operations. At the same time their goals are to open up more international units and bring back past successful advertisements like "have it your way".
Relative Chapters (3,10, 13, and 15)
Chapter 3 deals with the organization's environment and how the company must adapt and overcome the environmental problems it has faced. The case deals mainly with corporate culture; Burger King changed from a mechanistic to a more organic s...
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... the company $250 million. In addition, he gave operators a bigger say over which menu items they will push with local ad dollars. Despite all of the changes Burger King remains the No. 2 burger chain in the world. Moreover, they only have 6.1% of the fast-food sales, a far cry from McDonalds 83%. Although, they are a far second, the changes in Burger King have worked. The company has posted a 28% increase in operating profits, to $77 million, for the year ended September 30, 1994. Helping performance was the sale of 211 company-owned stores during the year to franchisees, which garnered $64 million. The continued performance improvement has impressed lenders, who have committed to issuing more than $500 million in loans and credit deals to franchisees for capital investment (Nation's Restaurant News). All this has made Burger King executives happy, but Burger King did experience another set back as James B. Adamson resigned in 1995. Robert C. Lowes former CEO of Grand Met's European food sector replaced him. Lowes is a capable replacement, but this continual change in top management continuos to hurt Burger Kings attempts to be the number one hamburger chain in the world.
The United States was coming out of the Depression in 1938. Business began to flourish and prosper again and families had more money for leisure time and recreation. J. F. McCullough, owner of the Homemade Ice Cream Company in Illinois, experimented in the soft serve ice cream at the right time. He thought that ice cream tasted better when it was served fresh and not frozen.
The restaurant business is a challenging industry and if a company has a strategy that works for them as well as their employees, it should stay the course and tweak as needed.
Also in 1961, Kroc opened Hamburger University in the basement of a McDonald’s restaurant, in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. By 1963, McDonald’s was selling a million hamburgers a day. The company went public in 1965. In 1967 the opened their first international restaurant in Canada. In 1971, McDonald’s restaurants opened in Europe and Australia.
Burger King adds value through the good quality products served. What the customers perceives is what the customer gets and sometimes more than what the custome...
When it comes to fast food restaurants like Mcdonald 's and Burger King, people tend to wonder if they 're more similar or different. Each restaurant has qualities that separate them from another, but yet there are also many ways they 're similar, too. These two restaurants have been around forever and do a very big business around the world. Their greasy burgers, fries, ice cream, etc., are tasty treats to many americans that they can 't go a day without. They 're so focused on the food that they probably aren 't wondering what I am, what are the similarities and differences between Mcdonald 's and Burger King?
Another strength is Burger King’s franchise development having 90% of its restaurants franchised. The franchise concept allowed the company to grow with minimal capital expenditure and receive royalties and fees. Burger King went above and beyond and created a new model of its restaurant to attract mo...
this time it also had a 4 % market share. Burger King's idea was to
Innovation is an important aspect of business today. It is important for companies to be innovative in order to stay competitive with their competitors. Innovation can come in different forms depends on the company’s objective. KFC, one of the most popular fast-food restaurants by the Yum! Brands, chooses to be innovative for their business model. Although, there is a huge amount of fast food chain available in the global market, KFC found the key to stand out from the intense competitive environment. By expanding the business to China, KFC learned unprecedented success by being different, not by being the same. The company’s business model is all about adapting to the local culture and understanding the needs of the Chinese market. Three main innovative strategies of KFC in China are localizing the menu, understanding the Chinese culture, and hiring local management.
Understanding the basic agreements and variable in the franchising process of a McDonald’s restaurant helps to shed light onto how the company has become such a global power in the food ser...
Now days , the customers so awareness of the fast food industries and its ingredients like no effected, no allergy, fresh, pure and others food which will be available on time in related area. Such sort of features are provided by burger fuel and the government policy of china is also welcoming to the foreign investor. It means the government policy is favorable for the foreign investor and franchisor. For instance, the competitors like burger kings, KFC are there in china. Therefore the burger fuel also enter into the Chinese market thorough the franchise and local partnership. Franchising is a rapidly increasing model for business expansion in the retail sectors like fast food industry and it is going to be making their own market in growing service sector of the Chinese economy in the years to come. The growth of modern retail trade has been the driving force behind it. The old age population are very low in china but the active population is very high at the age group 25-54 years is 47.2% (male 327,130,324/ female 313,029,536). Therefore, the target age group is18-35 years, employed and those people are eager to eat at outside. The burger fuel is also totally focus to
· Burger King Corp. that offers an array of value-priced offerings and makes kitchen and drive through upgrades
Much like a smile, the “Golden Arches” can be understood in any language. The McDonalds brand is the most well-known, internationally embraced fast food empire. McDonalds operates over 31,000 franchises throughout the world, with the United States leading the way with a whopping 13,381outlets as of May 2009 [1]. McDonalds has the fast food market cornered, offering an increasing variety of food of beverages, marketed to people of all ages to eat at any time of the day. However, being a corporate giant has its issues. McDonalds has faced a lot of criticism for its high-fat, high-sugar, potentially addictive menu. While the corporation is not likely to outright admit responsible for its actions, McDonalds has seen some changes to address some of the issues. Despite the flaws in the public elements of the brand, McDonalds has established an almost recession-proof economic base [2].
Beginning with one restaurant, Sonic has become the largest drive-in chain in the United States. While they are smaller than their competitors, they are still leading in sales growth, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Sonic restaurants saturate the southern U.S. This gives them the opportunity to expand to other area. However, Sonic is reluctant due to the colder climates and their basis as a drive-in restaurant. Sonic should look at adding or combining capabilities to it’s restaurants to increase competitiveness and make it easier for them to expand into other areas without limiting themselves.
Fierce and growing competition – big fast food companies like Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken are constantly competing with McDonalds for customers and trying to take the spot as the top fast food chain.
Burger King’s core competency is fast food restaurant franchises specializing in made to order, flame-broiled hamburger sandwiches, particularly the “Whopper”. Using the strategy of industrial organization to capture market share Burger King offers a similar product (hamburgers) in a different way (flame-broiled). This strategy of product differentiation is part of the firm conduct category that Burger King uses to set itself apart from its competitors. In order to compete with its fast food competitors Burger King accentuates its core competencies in its marketing and product strategies, thereby leveraging market share.