McDonald¿s and Subway. A critical comparison of their organisational structures and fit to the chosen corporate strategy

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Essen, course: Strategic Corporate Management, language: English, abstract: This assignment is answering the task to "compare the organisational structure of two direct competitors in an industry of your choice. To what extent and how does the chosen organisational structure reflect the specific corporate strategy of these companies? Discuss the respective structures critically". The assignment is comparing McDonald's and Subway, the two main competitors in the fast food industry. The chosen companies are the two market leaders in the fast food industry. Since Hill and Jones point out that a corporate strategy formulation comes first followed by designing the organisational structure, the following sections will describe the corporate strategies of both companies first. Later on, it will be evaluated critically what kind of organisational structure each of the competitors are built on and which one has the better fit with regard to their strategy. In the end, concluding remarks and an outlook will be provided.
The organisational structure of any company can be understood as a vehicle that depicts the activities and connections of various divisions, business units and functions of that company. It helps managers to comprehend and to control the flow of activities. The organisational structure is highly important to be established appropriately because it presets the paths on which a company can create value and ultimately determines the efficiency of the value chain. There are various problems that can come up especially in large companies like a lack of coordination, information distortion and motivational problems. The weaknesses of a organisational structure are to be kept in mind when setting up a corporate strategy or else the structure needs to undergo changes in order to follow the strategy. The fit between a chosen corporate strategy and the structure of an organisation has an important influence on how smooth the different organs of a companys can work together to fulfil the corporates objectives.