When people think of globally successful business endeavors, the McDonald’s company is likely to be the first one to cross one’s mind. Indeed, the rapid dissemination of McDonald’s franchises all over the world may be reasonably perceived as a manifestation of globalization because people from the polarly opposite socio-cultural background are familiar with the fast-food culture through the image of McDonald’s. Thus, in his essays, Watson addresses the idea of globalizing business ventures with the help of localization and transnationalism in the example of McDonald’s introduction in the East Asian market, a business segment highly different from the company’s headquarters (Watson 118). According to the author, the idea of transnationalism stands for the process of businesses and other initiatives going beyond national boundaries and including many locations to build a successful production model (Watson 36). However, apart from pooling effort in terms of manufacturing, the goal of transnational companies is to become a one-size-fits-all corporation type, the philosophy, and model of which can be easily adopted regardless of culture.
When speaking of East Asia, Watson (37) often refers to the idea of “dispersed production and centralized control,” implying the transnational company’s ability to delegate the means of production yet hold control over the brand image and operational patterns. However, as far as the McDonald’s is concerned, the model becomes more complex and demanding, as centralized control over the operations shifts towards options for localizing a product. Fundamentally, localization stands for the process of adopting the product the enters a local market according to customers’ habits and expectations.
When pondering McDonald’s perspective on localization, Watson presents an example of how the Beijing regional branch adopted five major localization strategies to adapt to the target market. These strategies included active participation in community affairs, reconsideration of the venue’s ambiance, creation of a family atmosphere relevant to the customer, the value of customer-employee personal interaction, and focus on children. Initially, some of these aspects may be found in the original ideas behind McDonald’s creation, but it is the motivation behind these ideas that makes them different. For example, family is a commonly perceived image of American fast-food consumers. However, while the American motivation for eating fast food is mostly economic, in Beijing, the family ambiance is more about going somewhere to have an intimate and warming conversation while eating.
At the same time, the food served at McDonald’s plays a supporting role in the company’s integration in the market, as people are driven by the culturally sensitive brand that is not willing to impose its culture on anyone outside the US border. Hence, such an ability to draw the line between the initial producer and the product’s current consumption leads to the so-called “deterritorialization” (Watson 35). This phenomenon is somehow an asset to the company, as decentralization allows for an agile framework in terms of localizing and rebranding the product.
Considering the information above, one of the most outstanding aspects of McDonald’s operating in Beijing is the company’s ability to delegate the observation of the target demographic along with the assessment of current operations for the sake of flexibility. Indeed, when looking at the corporate culture of McDonald’s, it seems that the standardized production and customer service procedures leave little to no place for innovativeness and agility. However, as a food restaurant, McDonald’s managed to quickly acknowledge the fact that their chain is never about cuisine in the first place. As a result, it successfully invested money and effort in making McDonald’s a safe space for communication.
Work Cited
Watson, James L. (Editor). Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia (Second Edition). Stanford University Press, 2006.