Dark Ages for the Golden Arches A Predictive Analysis of McDonald’s Corporation’s Global Growth Through Newly Accessed Markets

Abstract

After 60 years of unparalleled growth and unopposed domination in the global fast-food industry, McDonald’s may have reached its turning point. As the company’s saturation of the industry becomes more apparent, so too does the stagnation of its growth (and, in some cases, acceleration of its losses) around the world. The question remains as to whether or not McDonald’s is simply experiencing inevitable turbulence in its lifetime of incredible international expansion; on the one hand, the company continues infiltrating markets it finds promising and earning near-record revenues. On the other hand, McDonald’s has suffered from a combination of customers’ increased aversion to fastfood, competitors’ rapid growth in global markets and recurring scandals linked to tainted food through the company’s supply chain. Needless to say, these issues severely hinder further growth and raise concerns for the company’s future. This analysis of McDonalds’ financial health, placed in the context of both its wildly prolific history and infamous ubiquity today will determine if these concerns are well-founded. By rigorously studying McDonald’s Corporation’s financial results over the past 15 years, gaining a deep understanding of the company’s performance in major regions across the world and performing brief case studies of newly accessed markets in Kazakhstan and Vietnam, we will present a predictive model of the Golden Arches’ growth around the globe. Synthesizing thorough quantitative interpretation of McDonalds’ finances with deep qualitative understanding of its ideologies and history will bring us closer than ever to answering the increasingly consequential question: have the Golden Arches officially lost their luster?