During this first half of the semester, we have spent time on many topics, but one that is very important is a company\u2019s competitive priorities and how to stick to these or even improve them.\u00a0 From the start, we have used McDonald\u2019s as an example of a company that stays true to its competitive priority of consistent quality.\u00a0 Over the past few years, Steve Easterbrook, a McDonald\u2019s executive, has made many changes.\u00a0 The first was when we decided to get rid of the artificial preservatives in the McNuggets.\u00a0 This was a big change because McDonald\u2019s was experiencing a lot of backlash when stories came out about their nuggets, so this change was almost necessary.\u00a0 Since then, the food chain has also rolled out new chicken fingers after experiencing supply issues in the past.\u00a0 But this new change might be the biggest of them all.<\/p>\n
McDonald\u2019s is now selling fresh beef in its Quarter Pounders.\u00a0 For a company that has prided itself on its burger sales ever since it was created, this is a big shift.\u00a0 Lower quality, frozen meat used to be the staple of the burgers, but now McDonald\u2019s is clearly making a choice as a company to move towards higher quality.\u00a0 It started with the McNuggets and has now moved to the Quarter Pounders.\u00a0 While this switch in meat will not be an immediate process at all of the locations, McDonald\u2019s will slowly be serving these new burgers on a few select sandwiches.\u00a0 This switch in beef turns McDonald\u2019s into an even more direct competition with Wendy\u2019s, which prides itself on serving never frozen patties.<\/p>\n
With this change in meat, there also might be a change in competitive priority for McDonald\u2019s.\u00a0 Consistency and speed will always important for the company, but now Top Quality needs to be talked about a little bit more.\u00a0 This is a big step for McDonald\u2019s in increasing its food quality level.<\/p>\n
Switching to never frozen beef also might shift a few of the other competitive priorities for McDonald\u2019s.\u00a0 As the article talks about, suppliers had to make a large investment in order to make this switch which could in-turn potentially slightly raise cost of operations.\u00a0 This change does give McDonald\u2019s more flexibility due to a slightly wider variety of burgers offered.\u00a0 Lastly, the competitive priority of Time poses a potential problem.\u00a0 Some franchisees are worried that drive-thru line will be slowed down since these new burgers are being cooked fresh when they are ordered.\u00a0 McDonald\u2019s recognized this potential issue and made sure to pose solutions before the launch of the new patties.\u00a0 Other franchisees were worried about new processes and technology that came with the new patties, but some of the owners believe that this is just helping them stay ahead on the latest technology.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With this new release, do you see any other shifts in competitive priorities that McDonald\u2019s might be signaling?<\/p>\n
Do you think it was a good idea for McDonald\u2019s to make this shift to selling some fresh beef?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/business-news\/mcdonald-s-goes-frozen-fresh-its-quarter-pounder-burgers-n853986<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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