The mission statement of McDonalds “is to be our customers' favorite place and way to eat. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which center on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers' experience.” Specific aspects of the mission statement communicate vital information of McDonalds aims and strategy. First, the mission statement includes being “our customers favorite place and way to eat”, this clearly communicates the product that McDonalds offers “food” and also its main aim which is “to be the customers favorite place and way to eat”, also allowing the people who read this understand what the company provides at once. This also communicates McDonalds purpose of existence, to serve food and be the favorite of customers. Next, the global strategy of McDonalds is introduced . “Plan to Win” and talks about the specific aspects which the plan centers on (people, products, place, price and promotion). The 5 p’s clearly communicates the aspects that this strategy focuses on and how McDonalds plan to achieve its previous objective which is to be the customers favorite place and way to eat. With the mission statement mentioning “Plan to Win”, it allows the employees to focus on the aspects of this plan (5p’s) and the employers to look back on “Plan to Win” when making decisions. E.g. making the atmosphere in McDonalds more lively by creating playgrounds (focuses on the people and place of the Plan to Win). When the mission statement mentions that “we are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers experience” it communicates how McDonalds is trying to improve and shows the companies dedication towards its consumers by mentioning “customer experience”.

The advantages of this statement is that it identifies the company in the first sentence by mentioning “food” and being “customers favorite place to eat”, also talking about its strategy and allows the staff and workers to clearly know what the company focuses on (5p’s), the statement also makes consumers feel more in touch with the company by mentioning them in the statement. The disadvantages of the statement is that it can be unrealistic, as “being customers favorite place and way to eat” is very challenging taking into account that everyone has different preferences and taste. Also, “being customers favorite place and way to eat” can be challenging to measure. If the mission statement is unrealistic, the company will not be able to drive itself towards success as employees may not believe in this statement, thus lacking incentive. Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of the mission statement of McDonalds, the advantages outweighs the flaws, as the statement is a clear representation of what McDonalds purpose is, how it plans to achieve it and that it’s always trying to improve.

Objectives are vital in managing the McDonalds Corporation. The objectives ensures that everyone (from flipping burgers to the CEO) in the company has a common goal that they can work towards and steers the company in the right direction, thus with a common goal to achieve that is believed by everyone, it will boost staff morale and bring the staff of McDonalds together as a team.  The objectives of McDonalds also serve as an incentive for employees to work hard if they believe the objectives. Furthermore, the appraisal of departments is also based on the objectives, making it very important as it serves as the report card of McDonalds and allows the company to decide its next moves and their progress so far. E.g. when they are assessing the finance department, they may refer back to the objective of providing good return to its shareholders. Lastly, when McDonalds are making huge decisions, they always have to refer back to their objectives to see if the step they are about to take aligns with the objectives, making the role of objectives tremendously important.

McDonalds, being a multinational corporation, sets objectives for themselves in hopes of achieving them through strategies and tactics. The objectives of McDonalds are to serve good food in a friendly and fun environment, to be a socially responsible company, to provide good return to its shareholders and to provide its customers with food of a high standard, quick service and value for money. There are tons of strategies implemented by McDonalds to reach these objectives, all focusing around the 5p’s (People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion) as mentioned in their mission statement. Such as advertising their product to make it seem more high quality than it really is, building playgrounds in restaurant areas, building hospitals for children etc. The tactics of McDonald’s include temporarily decreasing the price of their burgers, creating new forms of product, using celebrities to advertise their products,hosting birthday parties for the less fortunate children etc.

The objectives set by Mcdonalds are all medium to long term targets and cannot be reached instantly, also quite difficult to measure. The phrasing of the objectives also make it seem futuristic with the words “to” and “to be”. It also defines the purpose of McDonalds and what it’s product is, only mentioning “food” in its objectives. These objectives are also quite broad in terms of what it stands for. Whereas the strategies of McDonalds are easily measurable and also quite specific in terms of its plan of action, such as building a hospital and playgrounds in restaurants and are clearly stepping stones to achieve the objectives. E.g. Building playgrounds to serve good food in a fun environment and building hospitals to be a socially responsible company. The tactics are evidently short termed decisions and actions to temporarily boost McDonalds profit and these tactics by McDonalds are also very specific comparing to objectives and strategies. E.g. “Using celebrities to advertise their products” is more specific than “serve good food in a friendly and fun environment”. Unlike objectives and strategies, tactics set by McDonalds are all small scale and does not define the purpose of McDonalds and the reason for its existence.

If McDonalds were to fit in one of the two categories, it would definitely fit in the private sector. As McDonalds is owned by individuals and shareholders. Like most organizations in the private sector, McDonalds is definitely profit oriented,with 30,000 restaurants worldwide in more than 100 countries including franchise stores, it's main goal is to earn money off the service it provides.

McDonalds is also constraint by labour law within Hong Kong. As there are maximum working hours for days and weeks for specific age cohorts, these employees can only work a specific amount of time in the day, forcing McDonalds to hire more employees to even out day and night shifts. Furthermore, wage is a huge constraint as labour laws dictate companies on how much an employees must earn, no matter his/her rank in the company, therefore all workers will earn above a specific amount in McDonalds. The labour law also states that children under 15 are prohibited to work in all industrial undertakings. Thus, the HR department in McDonalds will have to be really careful in selecting its employees and deciding how MANY employees they can undertake.

McDonalds, being a prestigious restaurant chain with tons of franchise stores in Hong Kong, will have constraints from food safety regulations set by the Hong Kong government. The production, processing, distribution, retail, packaging and labelling of food are all governed by a mass of laws, regulations, codes of practice and guidance. For example in the "Coloring Matter in Food Regulations" established by the "Centre for Food Safety Government Organization" it states that "no food intended for sale for human consumption shall contain any added colouring matter which is not a permitted colouring matter". This is a constraint for McDonalds as they try to market their burgers as fresh and colorful. Bright colors can definitely help McDonalds market its products and make their products more attractive and irresistible, thus attracting more consumers. But this law will force McDonalds to only use coloring in that is legal. Thus, they may not be able to fully utilize coloring chemicals to market and shape their product as they want.
There is also a law that states all employees who are intended to participate in the food business take a hygiene course to protect consumers health and safety. This is a barrier for McDonalds as this is very costly and time consuming, employees may not work straight away and have to earn his/her qualifications first.