Discussion
The term innovation dates from the 16th Century and is derived from the Latin word innovatus which implies to renew or alter. In contemporary business environment, innovation is fundamental and is highly essential for the survival of the organization with the persistently evolving technologies as well as market dynamics in order to ensure that stasis or inertia are definite to result to in utmost obsolescence (Mahmood, Javied & Zafar, 2013). Forms of innovation primarily occurs as knowledge, expertise and experience which are applied in order to generate improved and advanced products and services, enhanced insights into competitive advantage and techniques of efficiently conducting businesses. Innovation further be manifested in modern organizational structures such as modular offices, flattened hierarchies, matrices and virtual teams (Shipton et al., 2005). Organizational innovation necessitates cultural orientation aligned to the anticipated developments, producing and evaluating ideas and leadership that is dedicated in supporting, executing as well as sustaining initiatives. The primary aim of the report is to promote a potential Innovation change of CRM innovation in Mc Donald’s to encourage change and developments in the organization. In addition to this, the paper will adapt the change management process in order to motivate its employees to the innovation process.
Brief Description of Mc Donald’s
Mc Donald’s is recognized as the world’s leading food service organization which primarily generates over $40 billion sales and operates around 30,000 restaurants in over 100 nations and six continents. The company comprises benefits which occur with scale and a well-established financial position (Corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2018). Mc Donald’s have unparalleled international infrastructure and competencies in the process of restaurant operations, real estate, retailing, advertising as well as franchising. Mc Donald’s Corporation essentially engages in the operation and franchise of Mc Donald’s restaurants and executes its business operations through US’s global lead markets, foundational markets and corporate. The US market segment tends to regulate in order to increase consumer level of awareness for its international mobile application as well as pay functionality and service delivery domain. The International Lead Markets segments primarily focus in the expansion of Mc Cafe coffee brand along with the ongoing implementation of EOTF (experience of the future) restaurants across the market segment (Corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2018). Mc Donald’s believes that the most constructive way to expand its business and further create value and standards for its wide ranging stakeholders by efficiently serving more customers at a rapid pace. This has led the company to efficiently focus on offering customers as per their choice and demands with an overall experience and value for their money which can attain the increasing rate of demands of customers.
The relationship between corporate intention and expectations and management practices is not typically straightforward. Cui & Wu, (2016) reveal that managers of the organization primarily indicate a commitment towards human resources which involves an interest in organizational welfare and non-commercial advantages. Such a commitment has been manifested through a culture of flexible work strategies, a tendency to effectively involve employee preference in decision-making process (Corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2018). One of the core responsibilities of HR manager engaged in the managerial position of Human Resource Department claims that as the company has been efficiently serving over 25 million people in the US each day, effectively leveraging appropriate CRM solution is identified as immensely crucial for the sustainability of the brand. The consumer satisfaction contact of Mc Donald’s has been increasingly enhancing their CRM innovation system (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). Mc Donald’s has been essentially seeking to develop as well as improve its customer satisfaction group and a mechanism which provided the company with real-time accessibility through highly flexible and inclusive reporting to the data which has been obtained from customers each day.
Brief Description of McDonald’s
The primary objectives of Mc Donald’s in promoting innovation in order to increase data capture with relation to consumer feedback and satisfaction and further provide both Mc Donald’s franchisee’s as well as its corporate management with real-time accessibility to customer data (Cui & Wu, 2016). Effective promotion of McDonald’s innovation system must be integrated at the organisation’s extensive and inexorable shifting restaurant database into a highly reliable CRM tool. The company will further acquire robust and actionable reporting competencies which will provide assessable customer gratification emerging from the national to franchise level. Through its effective CRM innovation, McDonalds will essentially emphasise on Astute Solutions to efficiently provide superior data capture, speedy issue resolution mechanism along with real time reporting while internalizing the company’s broad restaurant database into a centralised setting. Astute e-Power Centre, one of the prominent innovation tools primarily provide greater degree of flexibility as well as functionality to the company and will be core in aligning their surfacing industrial demands and requirements (Solutions, 2018). McDonald’s has distinguished an elevating trend in the Quick Service Restaurant Industry towards an appropriate and timely customer service. Thus inclining on the suitable technology solutions will be identified as proper expertise solution in enabling them to accomplish organisational goals and objectives (Merz, Zarantonello & Grappi, 2018). However with the adaptation of Astute Solutions, McDonald’s will found an associate who will facilitate it to afford innovativeness, creativity and technical expertise which they have necessitated and the service and support they demanded for (Solutions, 2018).
Cui & Wu, (2016) noted that Consumer Affairs and CRM have been distinguished as major functional elements to any large organisation like McDonald’s. As a result it has been immensely evident that Astute Solutions has resourcefully grasped the essential role of McDonald’s and have given adequate effort in order to attain the increasingly shifting means and demands of their principal customer through sustained innovation (Fidel, Schlesinger & Cervera, 2015). Following to the implementation of e-power centre in the customer satisfaction contact centre, McDonalds will undergo a decision-making process which will primarily emphasize on the deployment of contact centres supporting human resources, investor relations and operation system (Schaarschmidt & Kilian, 2014). The company has further will expand its usage to maintain the restaurant base in Canada. E-power centre of innovation will efficiently enable McDonald’s to track over 600 types of various customer dilemmas and provinces through issue codes (Christofi et al., 2015). It will also help to facilitate the organisation to capture other highly specific forms of information from the consumer arena in regards to the experiences and knowledge they have gained at McDonald’s restaurant nationwide and also in Canada. Gu, Schniederjans & Cao, (2015) noted that with around 20, 000 restaurants just in the United States, CRM innovation tool of E-Power Centre offers McDonald’s with the competence to integrate into the CRM systems. Such an amalgamation of databases enables company and its power to essentially evaluate the level of customer satisfaction resulting from a national law and down to individual restaurants (Solutions, 2018).
HR’s Role in Promoting Innovation in McDonald’s
There can be witnessed a need for CRM innovation change which McDonald’s should acknowledge as been anticipated to be beneficial and advantageous for the company in its prospective years. With the implementation of CRM innovation strategy McDonald’s in USA and enhance its activities by undergoing a wide-ranging investigation in advance and circumvent any forms of resistance from middle managers in following the change procedure (Burke, 2017). However in order to avoid any change resistance a change management strategy related to LEWIN’S 3 STAGE CHANGE PROCESS can be introduced within the organisation which will facilitate McDonald’s in adopting constructive transitions in its actions. The Lewin’s change management theory is recognised as a three step model which comprises of three vital steps such are UNFREEZING, CHANGING AND REFREEZING.
Lewin’s Change Management Model
Source: (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016)
- unfreezing-The step of unfreezing primarily focuses on the process where an employee distinguishes his old behaviour which might have the tendency to be unconstructive towards the growth of the organisation. McDonald’s under this stage should efficiently recognise its internal activities and further assess the areas of deficit and concern in regards to the products which are offered to with customer base (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). The HR managers of McDonald’s must further form a platform which would assist the employees of other departments in exterminating the patterns of the previous behaviour and goals purposed for the company. However in order to effectively established this step, proper analysis of employees working techniques must be conducted in order to spot certain areas which can originate hindrances towards the smooth execution of change management (Christofi et al., 2015).
- change- This step must be modified whereby the company should position individual employee to guide them to acquire enhanced behavioural patterns and work techniques. However there can be identified certain principles which must be efficiently followed by McDonalds in order to conduct effective change management procedure where the company should differentiate the innovation change that has been promoted in order to enhance the overall performance outcomes (Burke, 2017). Further to this, McDonald’s managers must develop the platform whereby employees must not attain any feeling of resistance towards the expected change management strategy and collaborate as well as manage as teams to conduct the change management that has been proposed (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016).
- Refreezing is identified as the last stage for change which signifies the techniques and strategies obtained by the employees that must be internalized in their actual work practice (Gu, Schniederjans & Cao, 2015). The stage of refreezing acknowledges employees who efficiently adapt the recently developed standards, strategies and behaviour obtained from the superior level during the process of change management. This process helps the employees to efficiently embrace new behavioural patterns rather than reverting to their previous behaviour and approaches (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). Thus it is highly fundamental that reinforcement must be successfully executed by McDonald’s for the support and incorporation of new standards and behaviour.
Conclusion
Thus to conclude certain set of recommendations can be proposed for the effective process of change management in Mc Donald’s. As changes are primarily stimulated by constant investigation and development executed by the company and R&D, there must be considered other means of promoting innovation and constructive ways of sustaining improvement of working practices in daily routine. Extensive combination of expertise and wide ranging work experience will aid to innovate improved ways of employing things (Gu, Schniederjans & Cao, 2015).
Mc Donald’s must consider its internal employee base’s competence in delivering expected outcome of innovation strategy with minimum reference from internally (Cui & Wu, 2016). Furthermore, all stakeholders must have comprehensive knowledge of the expected innovation change management.
References
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Christofi, M., Leonidou, E., Vrontis, D., Kitchen, P., & Papasolomou, I. (2015). Innovation and cause-related marketing success: a conceptual framework and propositions. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(5), 354-366.
Corporate.mcdonalds.com. (2018). Our Growth Strategy | McDonald’s. Retrieved from https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/about-us/our-growth-strategy.html
Cui, A. S., & Wu, F. (2016). Utilizing customer knowledge in innovation: antecedents and impact of customer involvement on new product performance. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 44(4), 516-538.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations, 69(1), 33-60.
Fidel, P., Schlesinger, W., & Cervera, A. (2015). Collaborating to innovate: Effects on customer knowledge management and performance. Journal of business research, 68(7), 1426-1428.
Gu, V. C., Schniederjans, M. J., & Cao, Q. (2015). Diffusion of innovation: customer relationship management adoption in supply chain organizations. International Journal of Quality Innovation, 1(1), 6.
Lawson, B., & Samson, D. (2001). Developing innovation capability in organisations: a dynamic capabilities approach. International journal of innovation management, 5(03), 377-400.
Mahmood. Z, , Javied. S, & Zafar. F, (2013). Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation. Global Journal of Management and Business Research Administration and Management.13(12). pp. 1-9. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/2570304_2010377192_StrategicManagementandTechnolo%20(1).pdf.
Merz, M. A., Zarantonello, L., & Grappi, S. (2018). How valuable are your customers in the brand value co-creation process? The development of a Customer Co-Creation Value (CCCV) scale. Journal of Business Research, 82, 79-89.
Schaarschmidt, M., & Kilian, T. (2014). Impediments to customer integration into the innovation process: A case study in the telecommunications industry. European Management Journal, 32(2), 350-361.
Shipton, H., Fay, D., West, M., Patterson, M., & Birdi, K. (2005). Managing people to promote innovation. Creativity and innovation management, 14(2), 118-128.
Solutions, A. (2018). Astute ePowerCenter | CRM Software for Consumer Engagement. Retrieved from https://www.astutesolutions.com/products/epowercenter