Intercultural management: Mc Donald's case

The Mcdonald's company is a multinational firm well known in the world. The main activity of the company is to sell food quickly, what we call fast food. Nowadays, it has more than 30,000 franchises under the Mcdonald's brand, located in more than 120 countries. Born in the United States after the crisis of 1929, it is just in the 50s that the company has considerably developed its activity in the domestic market, thanks to the arrival of the millionaire Ray Kroc. Then, since the seventies, the firm launches its restaurants and its famous logo all around the world, while starting with the big cities of the Western world. Today, Mcdonald's is one of the most known brands in the world, with Wall Mart, Google and Facebook among others (It is important to underline the fact that in 1996, Macdonald’s has dethrone Coca-Cola.).
This firm is the perfect example of an international success.

In spite of some economic slumps, it continues to have excellent turnovers and its exponential growth. Indeed, the international character of Mcdonald's is flagrant because more than a half of its global turnover is made abroad and today, for one restaurant which opens in the United States, four are opened overseas (per day). Commonly, a restaurant opens each three hours in the world. Obviously, the famous brand knew to make profit from the democratization and expansion of the American culture, because of its origins first, and then because Mcdonald is one of the symbol who has made that. But it is also the logic and the global organization of the company which allowed this great success. Indeed, the standard model of this company (the system which concerns the Mcdonald's restaurant such as one that we can find in the United States) is easily exportable and we can establish restaurants everywhere easily in spite of the cultural differences.

[...] We can see in this case that McDonald’s must adapt all its policy in function of the country they are. It is not because it is a great multinational that they are above the law. The French legal system gives reason to the employees. The main risk for them and here specifically, is to lose potential clients, as if there are numerous restaurants. However, it could be important to underline the fact that it was the only strike in France, because this one caused important damages to the firm. [...]

[...] We can say that McDonald’s is a great success, because of its notoriety, its finances, and the fact that they are located in numerous countries. However, anyone can imagine that this success story was not really easy for the group. They have suffered from numerous criticisms, made by various organizations of consumers. In fact, they were accused to produce junk food, with affordable prices ; accused to be responsible for the problem of obesity in developed countries, and the list is long. [...]

[...] It is a kind of response in all the accusations A specific case concerning a cultural problem: the strike in a restaurant in France In France, there are numerous laws which protect the employee. We are the country where there is the most of strikes in the world. The French culture is very specific in terms of work, compared to other countries. We have many examples of firms which have problems because of that. Here is the example of a McDonald’s restaurant in Paris. [...]