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McDONALD’S
1.
Some historians trace the origin of the hamburger to Russia.
Supposedly, the sailors brought a dish made up of raw ground beef and
hot spices to the port of Hamburg, where the recipe was altered, cooked,
popularised, and given its name. Hamburgers eventually went from
Hamburg to England then to North America. If this historical account is
accurate, then when McDonald's opened its first Moscow establishment
in 1990, the hamburger's round-trip journey was complete.
The process of the Russian entry for McDonald's was a long one.
George A. Cohon, president of McDonald's Canadian subsidiary, first
contact with Soviet officials during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Then
began lengthy negotiations, during which Cohon travelled to Moscow
about once every three weeks. The protocol agreement came about
shortly after the former USSR enacted legislation to permit joint ventures
with Western firms in 1987. Thereafter the progress was swift. In the
meantime, McDonald's opened restaurants in Hungary and Yugoslavia,
which provided some operating experience in communist countries.
These moves were highly compatible with McDonald's growth
strategy. By the mid- 1980s the company was growing more rapidly
outside the United Stales than within. In essence, the U.S. market for
McDonald's had become nearly saturated. The figures seem like
hyperbole: McDonald's controlled almost 20 percent of the fast-food
market. It accounted for 32 percent of all hamburgers and 26 cent of all
french-fry sales by U.S. commercial restaurants. The company was the
world's 1argest owner of retail real estate, and accounted for about 5
percent of all Coca-Cola sales in the United States. It was, estimated that
7 percent of the entire U.S. work force one time worked for McDonald's,
and that McDonald's was the first employer for one out of every fifteen
US workers. Slightly more than half of the U.S. population lived within a
three-minute drive to a McDonald's unit. The company had to look
abroad, and by 1987 McDonald's restaurants were located in 51 countries
in far-flung locations so that communist countries seemed the logical next
frontier.
2.
McDonald's Russian joint venture is between its Canadian
subsidiary and the Moscow City Council. McDonald's has a 49 percent
interest, maximum then allowed by local law. In effect, the
representatives of McDonald’s and the Moscow City Council must come
совпадать; стоящий; осмотрительный; произвольный; трудный;
поддерживать; попытка; принуждение; граница; проследить;
корректировать; после смерти; держать связь; осматривать;
массовый уход; столкновение; неизбежный; суровый; решительный;
признавать; преследовать; бросить; преждевременно; размышлять;
воспитывать.
2. Topics for discussion:
1. Why is the timeline so important?
2. What does it mean: “to keep in mind the customer scenario”?
3. Why is the information so crucial?
4. What’s wrong about concealing bad news?
5. What do you think about the competitiveness?
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