Within this chapter, the reader is given background information about the company McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat and in its extent McDonald’s Nederland and the McDonald’s Corporation.
2.1 Worldwide Fast-Food Industry
Fast food is defined by the Oxford Dictionary, as: “Easily prepared processed food served in snack bars and restaurants as a quick meal or to be taken away”. Even though this industry has been negatively reviewed in the media the past years, it is a still growing market. A study from NRC.nl found that: “Fast food signs the irreversible changes of the times. A large proportion of people eat more often on the road and alone. In the Netherlands almost 40% of households are single households. Who lives alone, rarely cooks every night, but eat out or take something for the microwave. And possibly this is also applicable for busy couples/families. In that sense fast food is a logical development in the world of mobile individuals. ”
The figure below, can be found in the BrandZ Top 100 Report from 2015. This report reveals the most valuable global brands since 2005.
As seen in the figure, McDonald’s is by far the largest fast food chain. However, its brand value has been decreasing from 2014 to 2015 by 5%. McDonald’s still owns about 41.7% of the global market share.
2.2 The McDonald’s Corporation
Almost everyone in the world knows McDonald’s, the world’s leading global food service retailer. McDonald’s has about 36,000 restaurants spread over 121 countries. Originally, McDonald’s started out in 1940 as a small hamburger stand located in Bernardino (California). That small restaurant was owned by Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1954 Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines (Illinois), after signing a franchise agreement with Dick and Mac McDonald. Eventually, it was Ray Kroc who founded the McDonald’s Corporation. Therefore, Ray Kroc is seen as the real founder of McDonald’s.
Ray Kroc had a vision: 'Think global, act local', he saw the importance of the deep connection between McDonald’s and their direct environment. Nowadays this vision is still the basic philosophy of McDonald’s. Franchisees make up a large part of the organisation, about 80% of McDonald’s restaurants are owned and managed by these Franchisees. These (often) local business people, for example, are committed to local associations or sponsoring local sport clubs. And of course they act as a major employer in their region.
As all other companies, McDonald’s has its own mission statement, which is:
To be our customer’s favourite place and way to eat.
McDonald’s has various work procedures, most of them regarding the preparation of food. Because of these procedures, McDonald’s is able to guarantee the quality of its products. These procedures are based on four pillars:
• Quality
• Service
• Cristal clarity
• Value for your money
2.3 McDonald’s the Netherlands
McDonald’s has headquarters in 121 countries, also in the Netherlands. These local headquarters know about the ins and outs of their surroundings. Therefore, they are able to “Think globally, and act locally”. For example, the McKroket, is only available in the Netherlands. The Dutch headquarters is located at Paasheuvelweg 14 in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, were about 100 people are working together to develop the policy and strategy of McDonald's and to guarantee the best quality and service. They do this in various departments, such as Human Resources, Marketing, Communications, Operations, Finance, IT, Development, Real Estate and Supply Chain. McDonald’s the Netherlands develops and designs all new campaigns, which are then executed in all 246 restaurants across the Netherlands.
As stated on their website, McDonald’s the Netherlands has a training centre where employees can be trained. They started the McDonald’s Academy in 2009, this unique training program is specifically set up for McDonald’s employees. Young employees can gain a nationally recognized MBO diploma while working. Also, they have two different management training courses: BSM (Basic Shift Management), and ASM (Advanced Shift Management). These two courses need to be completed by management trainees, in order to promote them to shift managers. After completing the courses and passing all three MOC’s (Management Observation Checklists) the management trainees have proved that they are capable of being a manager within McDonald’s. As proof for completing the courses and passing the three MOC’s the management trainees receive their shift licence and will be promoted to shift manager.
2.4 The Franchiser
As stated before McDonald’s has 246 restaurants in the Netherlands. About 80% (196) of the restaurants are owned by franchisees. This thesis will be focused on one franchise-owned restaurant: McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstaat, which is situated in the equally named street in the centre of Haarlem, the Netherlands.
The Franchiser of McDonald’s de Grote Houtstraat is Mr. R. de Gruyter. Mr. de Gruyter owns three private companies, which are listed below.
Company Restaurants Owned since
RoRest B.V. McDonald’s Santpoort-Noord
Vlietweg 16
2071 KW Santpoort-Noord July 1995
HoutRest B.V. McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat
Grote Houtstraat 75
2011 SG Haarlem October 2015
SchalkRest B.V. McDonald’s Rivieraplein
Rivieraplein 9
2037 AS Haarlem October 2015
Since McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat and McDonald’s have been previously owned by other franchisers, there is currently a lot of differences in working procedures. Therefore, the management teams of the three restaurants are busy to reconciling the work procedures in all restaurants. This requires a lot of meetings, training and negotiating within and across management teams. The benefit of reconciling restaurant is that all managers and employees are able to work within the other restaurants as well. So, when it is necessary, management and employees can be redeployed flexible.
McDonald’s Santpoort-Noord McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat McDonald’s Rivieraplein
2.5 McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat
Being in the centre of Haarlem, McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat has a lot of passers-by coming in for a quick bite. In terms of operations this means that many customers come inside and place relatively small orders. Meaning, McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat has to deal with large numbers of small orders.
As can be seen on the organisational chart (Appendix 7.1), the management team of McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat, has one supervisor, 1 restaurant manager, 2 shift managers, and 5 management trainees. Then there are 3 crewtrainers, who are responsible for the training of the 54 employees working in the McDonald’s Haarlem Grote Houtstraat.