Based in Oak Brook, Illinois, McDonald¡¦s Corporation is a family-oriented fast-food restaurant company. Since 1950s, McDonald¡¦s has revolutionized the fast-food business and has become one of the best and most well-known restaurant in the world. It serves 46 million customers at more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries everyday.

In 1948, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald ran a drive-in restaurant with limited menu in San Bernardino, California. In 1954, Ray Kroc, a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman, visited the restaurant and became amazed how great it was. He convinced the McDonald brothers to let him sell McDonald¡¦s franchises. Kroc opened his first McDonald¡¦s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955. The McDonald brothers sold the company to Kroc for $2.7 million in 1961.

Besides doing business, McDonald¡¦s did some charities to give back to the communities. In 1974 the company opened the first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main purpose of Ronald McDonald House was to provide temporary housing for families of critically ill children who needed to stay in hospitals. Today, Ronald McDonald House Charities operate more than 200 houses in 1

Due to some of the unhappy franchisees, McDonald¡¦s did make some changes with the organization¡¦s structure. At the end of 1999, company decided to reorganize its home office. As a result, some 500 positions were cut.

The major threat to McDonald¡¦s restaurants are their competitors such as Burger King, Wendy¡¦s, Hardees, Taco Bell, and KFC. For a long while, Burger King has been the strongest competitor.

From the original McDonald¡¦s restaurant operated by brothers Dick and Mac in San Bernardino, California in 1948, there were only nine items on the menu: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, three types of soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and pies. Soon French fries and milkshakes were added. In 1968 McDonald¡¦s restaurants began serving the Big Mac, a two-patty burger that became the company¡¦s flagship product and it was developed by Jim Delligatti who operated a dozen stores in Pittsburgh by the late 1960s. In 1973 McDonald¡¦s began serving breakfast. By the late 1980s, one-fourth of Americans who ate breakfast away from home did so at McDonald¡¦s. Also introduced in 1973, the Egg McMuffin was developed by franchisee Herb Peterson. In 1983 the company introduced Chicken McNuggets, bite-sized fried chicken morsels accompanied by dipping sauces. Within a few months, McDonald¡¦s ranked as the world¡¦s second largest retailer of chicken. Filet-O-Fish, another famous sandwich, was developed by franchisee Lou Groen. Moreover, McDonald¡¦s has attempted to accommodate increasing customer demand for healthier food. In 1986 McDonald¡¦s began offering nutritional information about the items on its menu. The company also began to offer lighter entrees, such as salads and frozen yogurt. (Website of McDonald¡¦s)

International expansion also became an important part of company¡¦s business strategy. McDonald¡¦s opened its first restaurant outside the United States in British Columbia, Canada 1967. In 1988 McDonald¡¦s operated 2600 stores outside the United States. By 1994 the company had 4700 international franchises. The first McDonald¡¦s in Moscow, Russia, served more than 30,000 customers on its first day of operations in 1990, setting the record for the most people served by one restaurant in a single day. In 1992, McDonald¡¦s opened a restaurant in Beijing, Chin

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