1 Create a SWOT matrix for your company or one that you are

Strengths:

• As per Forbes, McDonald’s is the world’s biggest fast food chain according to sales revenue.
• It has operations worldwide – it has presence in more than hundred countries with more than 36,000 restaurants, as in 2016.
• It has a large variety of food items (such as burgers, sandwiches, chicken items, salads, desserts and others) often customized to the tastes and cultural/religious beliefs of customers of particular countries.
• It has strategic location of its outlets, often in crowded places or shopping malls or other important areas of the city.

• It operates often on franchisee mode especially in the foreign countries, which makes it easy to gain entry into the outside markets.

• It uses best quality ingredients for making its different food items.
• It has excellent process expertise.
• It is very much community-oriented.

Weaknesses:

• It usually incurs high training cost due to high attrition.
• It focuses less on organic food.
• Its majority food items fall in ‘junk food’ category.

Opportunities:

• It has big opportunities in the developing countries like India, China (these two countries have huge populations) and others.
• It is going for more franchisees in its offshore operations.
• It can enter into joint ventures too in certain countries to gain easy access.
• It is slowly including more healthy food (like salads) in its menu.

Threats:

• It is facing tough competition from other fast food chains, viz., KFC, Taco Bell, Domino’s Pizza and others.
• Customers are becoming more health conscious and are often avoiding fast food.
• Recessions in economy can often lead to decreased sales. e.g., there was a huge economic recession in Greece some years back.
• Changes in taxation system can lead to decreased sales due to increase in product prices. This is especially applicable for middle income customers.