Burger King, Have It Your Way

Burger King has a long tradition of being a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, dating back to the early 1950's. Burger King's concept of franchising to expand its operations has propelled its' status along with its financial state among the elite corporations such as the popular McDonalds Corporation. According to its website, Burger King operates off of four core competencies: Commitment to Food, Commitment to People, Care for the Environment, and Corporate Governance. Not only does Burger King offer customized menu choices catered toward their individual diets, but with attributes of nutrition, quality, value and great taste. With its commitment to its shareholders, Burger King offers the common person the opportunity to be an owner through its franchise program; helps them to achieve their goals by offering a sound educational package that empowers its employees to advance in their careers. This carries over to corporate governance where policies govern ethical principles and specific issues employees will face on a regular basis. Using the top down approach to promote an ethical culture of respect and values, employees and stakeholders emulate the same principles in order to ensure compliance with laws as well as openness and accountability.

These core values are a part of the global strategy that the CEO has vision for the success of his company. His main global strategy is to focus on the company's transformation and what he believes is the advantage of conducting global business. His global strategy is to cross over into international countries, bringing with it the

concept of franchising; allowing the common man in any country to become a self-employed entrepreneur.

This concept of entrepreneurship has carried over to Burger King's coordinated effort in its value chain to add more value to the company and expand its operations overseas. Its focus is to bring the world's largest flame-broiled fast food restaurant chain to over 78 countries and U.S. territories worldwide and it needs entrepreneurs to join this journey. "Why? Because we back every franchisee with more than 57 years of innovation and achievements and a proven business model. We are the right brand with the right formula for success and we're performing at the top of our industry...We support every franchisee by offering world class support services, including training, operations, and marketing." (http://www.bk.com/en/us/company-info/franchise/index.html) With Burger King's commitment to its franchisees, the way it cooks its hamburgers flame-broiled rather than grilling and the options it offers customers as to how they want their burgers, marks provides a great advantage over it competitors overseas.

Burger King's decision to expand at a later time than its competitors has its advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is the cost savings of conducting research and surveys to determine if there is a market for your product. If you offer a similar product but with a different brand or quality, and that potential competitor is already positioned and is successful, then your company won't incur any cost to enter into that market. The disadvantage to coming in late is the potential of the market not having enough room for more than one similar product. Or there may be only

be a few adequate suppliers. For instance, there may be only one slaughterhouse, and the owners may be unwilling to work with more than one customer." (Daniels, 2011, pg. 467).

Another situation is dealing with entering another county that Burger King will have advantages and disadvantages against the local companies