McDonald's Introduction/History/CEO

Introduction:

McDonald's fast food restaurant is one of the largest franchises in the United States as well as aboard. Their top menu items include: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, McNuggets, and French fries. They are also known for one of their popular desserts: the apple pie and their breakfast sandwich: the Egg McMuffin.

There are more than 32,000 McDonald's restaurants serving in 117 countries. More than 75% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent owners.

McDonald's has several ethical and social responsibility policies in place throughout their solely owned and franchised companies. These policies include placing the customer experience at the core of what they do, committing to their employees by nurturing their talent and rewarding their achievements, maintaining high standards regarding the conduct for business, and giving back to the communities in which they are established. All of these values are infiltrated through all levels of the company, which keeps McDonald's thriving as a successful fast food chain restaurant.

Risk management is imperative to McDonald's. They have a risk assessment tool that they use to determine the country risk: which pertains to the specific country/region they are located in; industry risk: pertains to supplies produce; and facility risk: which is a combination of both country and risk groundwork. These factors are all part of the risk assessment tool that is used in each of their companies to help them with risk management.

Security features in McDonald's includes their security camera systems within the facilities to continuously monitor all activity in and around the restaurants to ensure the safety for the workers as well as customers. McDonald's use these security cameras also in regards to workers compensation claims or liability lawsuit claims from consumers. McDonald's also monitors their computer software systems with an ACS system that monitors the technicogical factors of their business.

History:

McDonald's originally started as a small hamburger stand in Bernardino, California, owned by Dick and Mac McDonald. With determination to enhance their business Dick and Mac closed their business for three months and re-opened December 1948 as a self-service drive-in restaurant, serving only nine items: hamburger, cheeseburger, potato chips, milk, coffee, and slices of pie. (http://www.marketlineinfo.com/)

In 1954 Ray Kroc, a Multimixer salesman, visits McDonald's and learns that the McDonald's brothers are looking to go nationwide. Kroc then pursues his interest in the hamburger business and signs a franchise agreement with Dick and Mac McDonald opening his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15, 1955. (http://www.mcdonalds.com/) From that moment on McDonald's has continued to grow and thrive as the well-known successful fast food restaurant that we know today.

The CEO:

McDonald's current Chief Executive Officer is James Skinner. Skinner started his career in McDonald's as a restaurant manager trainee in 1971 located in Carpenterville, Illinois. He continued 'climbing the ladder' within the company and held several other management and leadership positions.

In 2004 Skinner became the CEO of McDonald's. He was acknowledged by Dow Jones/Marketwatch in 2007 by winning the "2007 Executive of the Year" and was named one of "America's Best CEOs" by Institutional Investors magazine. In addition to these acknowledgements, Skinner was named "2009 CEO of the year" by Chief Executive magazine due to unanimous vote by other leading CEOs.