(McDonald's) Corporate Social Responsibility

(McDonald's) Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an important aspect of businesses around the world. Most companies in the modern world try to give something back to the community. One of their values is based on Ray Kroc’s philosophy “we have an obligation to give back to the communities that have given us so much” (Small Business Notes 2009) but is it just a marketing strategy or a corporate philanthropy? Some companies like McDonald for example used their social responsibility to back them up when a scandal rises up in the community. McDonald’s vision is to achieve enduring and profitable growth. They hope to achieve that by using this so called “social responsibility”.

            Back in the old days McDonald’s have done a few CSR but their plan are not as elaborate as today. McDonald only have CSR deeds in the child sector back in the old days and none at all in a country but with each year passing by the demand of CSR is growing and the government keep emphasising CSR on these modern days business society.  The government even give leniency to the businesses such as lower tax (Hutchings n.d.). Government play an important role in the business world today. No matter how strong the company is they will still have to abide by the rules stated by the government. Today McDonald has over a hundred CSR program and benefits for the society including their workers.

Mclibel is recorded to be the longest court case in history. It’s about two humble citizen of UK taking on McDonald. They have been brought to court by McDonald because McDonald claims that these two couple have spread rumours and lies about their goods and services. The couple named Helen Steel and David Morris are part of the London Greenpeace group (mcspotlight 2005). They claimed that McDonald is lying to the public. They said that McDonald’s products are not healthy and instead it will make you obese. They also claim that McDonald abuse their workers and abuse the animal rights. The trial takes place in UK and it takes 2 and half years to complete. The verdict is a shock. McDonald ruled that they exploit children, produce misleading advertising and responsible for animal cruelty. (Armstrong 2005)      

            The ‘McLibel’ case is a major blow for McDonald. After the case McDonald has grown relentless about CSR and keeps pursuing it in a really aggressive manner. In 5 years time McDonald came up with a lot of programs that will benefit the community, their workers and last but not least the animals. McDonald has recently launched a new program called Employee scholarship. (Mcdonalds 2010) The program basically offers scholarships to employees that excel in their studies. For now the scholarship program only available to employees in the USA. This program shows us that McDonald care about their employees especially the young and inexperienced. The economy is going through tough times, this program will benefit a lot of employees especially the ones who suffer the most from the economy downturn. This program will give chance to those less fortunate. This is a really good step for McDonald to show the public that they care about their workers and proved that they’re changing from the time of the ‘Mclibel’ case.

            Animal cruelty is increasing because the consumer rate keeps increasing at an exponential rate. A lot of Fast Food Company has been targeted by animal activist because they keep buying cattle from farmers that raise their animals inhumanely. Just a few years ago McDonald have taken the initiative and started to decrease the amount of animal cruelty committed. McDonald now has a program called ‘Global Animal Welfare Guiding Principles’ (McDonalds 2010) . It is a strict guideline made by McDonalds for their entire supplier to follow. It shows that McDonald is concern about this about this and trying to improve this problem to appeal to the society.

            Environment is a growing concern in the world. All the major businesses in the world are now arguing about the environment. If the world keeps consuming the resources at this rate, the natural resources will only lasts for another century (Fowler 2004) McDonalds tries to respond to this growing problem by using recyclable packaging. (Skinner 2010) But McDonald doesn’t stop there. They are also trying to make their restaurants greener by separating their waste, for example the left over are taken and put in a place and later it will be recycled and used as a compos. (Fowler 2004)  All of these efforts are made by McDonalds to show the world that they are doing their part in making the world greener.

The biggest SCR operation for McDonald in Singapore is in the children sector. One of the programs called ‘McCare’ (MGMT 103 Business, Goverment and Society 2008). The program is basically about McDonald’s staff visiting different children hospital. They are trying to involve the staff into the community to raise awareness in the community and to create good image. The reason McDonald targets children is because children are the main consumer of their product and children is the “thinker” in the family since the parents always follow what the children wants. If you remember some of McDonald’s commercials in the TV you will notice that there are children in all of them.

McDonald is one of the biggest reasons in why the obesity rate around the world has increased in a rapid rate. McDonald’s product especially the ‘Cheese Burger’ is reported to have a really high salt and fat content. By consuming McDonald’s food for a month it increases the salt and cholesterol content in the blood and increases your weight at an exponential rate. (Spurlock 2004) Obesity is the biggest problem for children around the world. USA is still the fattest nation in the world with Australia in the second place (OECD 2010) and still increasing. Everyone in the world blames the fast food company especially McDonald. One of their competitors is Subway. They have taken an initiative and try to sell fast food that is healthy and contain a minimum amount of fat.

McDonald tries to tackle this new competitor with releasing nutritional facts about their product. They also release a statement to the media that they promise that they will decrease the amount of salt and fat in their meals (McDonalds 2008) they will reduce it to the standard national level. Even though McDonald made such a good preparation and execution of this plan, most of the community still didn’t believe it. They still believe that McDonalds is selling high fat content food and therefore some of the customer moved over to their competitors like KFC or Burger King because they believe their food is healthier than McDonalds. But McDonald still stays strong and keeps going with their plan of making a healthier menu. The results started to show and slowly these customers are coming back to them. At the end of the day perseverance will bear fruits sooner or later.

Cancer foundation around the world has been receiving attention from all sorts of parties including the governments, big enterprises and other famous people. Cancer foundation received the most attention around the world. Each country has their own. This is a free advertising chance for the businesses around the world to complete their CSR deeds. McDonald Extend their helping hand to the breast cancer foundation (find articles 2006) McDonald is trying to support this kind of foundation it’s not for good social status only but also an advertising reason. But they are not the only one benefited from this. The people in the foundation also benefited since they will receive a massive amount of charity money to take care of their ‘unlucky’ members. This is a mutual relationship both parties are benefited from this. More and more cancer foundation around the world receives this kind of attention and money. These kinds of foundations in the world today are the kind of free advertising element that all of businesses are looking for. It’s free and increases the social popularity in the community.  

           

            Overall McDonald has done a massive amount of CSR compared to their competitor like Burger King (Hungry Jacks in Australia), KFC or Taco Bell. Even though their true intention is for marketing purposes, that doesn’t mean the public doesn’t get any benefit from it. For example the breast cancer foundation they receive a lot of benefit from McDonald. They receive an inconsiderable amount of cash so they can help the members of the foundation. McDonald also extending their hand to the less fortunate children with the ‘McCare’ program. The people in the foundation or in the program is really great full of the support that McDonald have given them in return they pay McDonald back by saying good words about them to the community. Over all McDonald helping others with the expectation of getting something back like popularity or good status. At the end of the day money is still the driving force of businesses in the world. If their plan have no profit it will never be done in the first place.

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