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.