Essay on Burger King

This paper presents an American company, which is named Burger King Corporation. It discusses and examines Burger King’s operations, environment, and international businesses.
To begin with, Burger King Corporation is one of the largest owners of a chain of fast food restaurants that is headquartered in Miami, the state of Florida. Supporting this statement, Hall (1991) emphasized that “Burger King, the nation’s second-largest hamburger chain” (para. 1).

The first Burger King fast food franchise was originally called Insta Burger King and was opened by James McLamore and David Edgerton in a suburb of Miami on December 4, 1954. McLamore, visiting the restaurant chain McDonald’s which was owned by Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, became acquainted with hamburgers’ production, manufacturing methods, equipment and decided to create his own version of the system that is called “fast food”.

By 1960 McLamore and Edgerton decided to expand the fast-food chain Burger King at the national level using the franchise system that is a popular method for the expansion due to its low cost of capital for the parent company. At the same time they registered Burger King Corporation and began to sell the franchise to private owners in the USA. Supporting this statement, Swart and Donno (1981) emphasized that “Because small businessmen could operate such a restaurant even without previous food experience, McLamore began to franchise the units” (p. 35).

In 1970, Burger King began to expend internationally in Latin America, Asia and Europe. This company went public in 2006.
Talking about Burger King’s core competency, it is possible to say that owing to the development of new products and services the company always satisfies its customers’ needs and requirements. In accordance with core competencies, Burger King implemented service and food technologies in order to introduce its core product that is named “the humble hamburger”. During its activity the company has developed a new product named “The Whooper Sandwich”. Moreover, Burger King introduced its service of pork ribs that became very popular with the crowds. In addition, a core competency directly relates to its chosen strategy because Burger King adheres to the following strategies: it develops an infrastructure before implementing it in its fast food chains, introduces a local team, etc.

The term “value chain” is a method for revealing the ways in order to create more value for customers. “”¦the value chain maintains its central role as a framework for the analysis of firm-level competitive strengths and weaknesses” (Stabell & Fjeldstad, 1998, p. 413). Burger King decided to configure and coordinate its value chain by implementing strategically relevant activities.
1. Primary activities:
Ӣ Sales and marketing;
Ӣ Inbound and outbound logistics;
Ӣ Different services and operations.
2. Support activities:
Ӣ Procurement activities;
Ӣ Company infrastructure;
Ӣ Human resources management.