Corporate level strategy is a strategy which is aimed at the long term position of abusiness.

A company for instance, may consider where it will be in 10 years time andshould decide in what ways it should reach the aim by pursuing certain s trategies anddirections. A corporate or business can use variety of methods to d evelop a corporatelevel strategy but, there are four main strategies that almost all businesses use which are: Concentrate on a single business, which means that the business stays on the sam eindustry or activity in order to create a strong competitive position within th eindustry. Diversification; which is to move to a new business to provide a new good or ser vice.There are two kinds of diversification, related diversification which is to compete insimilar area/industry of activities to build a synergy and unrelated diversificationwhich is to enter a new industry to compete and build a portfolio strategy. International Expansion. This is to compete in more than one market to serve the needs of the other markets/countries. Vertical Integration. This is a way to cut costs by providing your own ways of i nputs,backward vertical integration and your own channels of distribution and se llingoutputs by forward integration.Mc Donald s is a fast food restaurant operatin g on a global basis. It is operating on 119countries world wide. Mc Donald s was o pened for the first time in Cyprus, larnaka inJune 1997 and by now there are 16 Mc Donald s restaurants in Cyprus.Mc Donald s uses corporate level strategies like a ll other global basis corporations inorder to reach corporate goals to be cost e ffective.MC Donald s is a business which only concentrates on a single task which is the fast foodbusiness industry as stated by Dr. Weber, (2000). This will help the business toconcentrate on a single task and gain power, marke t share and consumer loyalty in result.This is because they will run many strate gies, plans and researches to find the bestsolutions of the consumer needs and p references. However this can be very risky if thebusiness fails to meet the righ t needs of consumers and therefore will not be profitableand as a result will cl ose down due to bankruptcy.As stated in Washington post (2005) MC Donald s diversifies its operations in manyways. The firm uses related diversif ication which is to produce similar products whichare burgers and salads mainly but in variety of choices e.g. Big Mac or Mac chicken,different kinds of salads, and also they operate in more than one geographical area butstill performing th e same task. Also it has opened MC cafes all around the world. McDonald s gains m any advantages by doing related diversification, firstly, if there are twoMc Don ald s restaurants in a city, then the two firms can build a synergy by co-operatin gand coordinating together to enjoy the same facilities such as the advertisemen ts,suppliers and even events such as charity events. Secondly, as stated by Ricky, W (2003) ,the firm depends less on a single product, so it s less vulnerable to competitive or

economic threats. This means that Mc Donald s having variety of products like burg ers,salads, ice creams and drinks does is not being threaten of competition beca use it hasdiversity in its products, for instance, Mc Donald s Greek Mac makes it stronger than therivals like Burger King because the rivals don t have such produc t. Thirdly, it allows thefirm to use technology or expertise developed in one ma rket e.g. fast food to enter asecond market more cheaply and easily e.g. MC Caf. However, the only disadvantagethat Mc Donald s faces, is the cost of coordinating the operations of the related divisions. In 2001, McDonald's launched a new vent

ure by opening two hotels in Switzerland(Zurich and Lully) under the name "Golde n Arch Hotel. Stefan, M (2005) .This is a goodexample of an unrelated diversification because Mc Donald s is spre ading the risks of itsbusiness from a single activity to many others like taking part in the Hotel industry.Unrelated diversification provides a portfolio for M c Donald s because it is operating ontwo different industries and the risk is redu ced because if one of the two markets that thebusiness has activity in fails to grow successfully, then the growth of the other marketwill cover the costs of it . Secondly, such conglomerate strategy is less vulnerable tocompetitive threats because any given threat from a competitor is likely to affect only aportion of its total operations. However, unrelated diversification is very difficult toman age since the company has to deal with two markets and their strategies, plans a ndorganization and coordination of each specific market which it is dealing with . McDonald s has introduced the American concept of fast food and franchising to man y foreignMarkets as stated by, Francine L, (2005) . Moreover, the firm has by now, expanded throughoutmost of the world by operati ng on 119 countries. Mc Donald s is known globally today because itis expanded int ernationally. Mc Donald s is using multi-domestic strategy to serve each nationsne eds. It is customizing the fast food menus for each specific country/nation to s uit the people swants. For instance there is Greek Mac in Cyprus and Greece. The a dvantage of this strategy isthat the company is targeting a nation very effectiv ely and gains market share by attracting thecustomers whereas, the cost of produ ction will increase in order to add a new feature to the firmand the prices will rise to cover the costs. As stated in Getting the Facts Straight leaflet of Mc Donald s, the firm is working withtop suppliers and independent experts on health and safety. The Cyprus Mc Do nald srestaurants inputs such as meat, is ordered regularly from Italy with the hig hest qualityand when they enter the island, it is supplied to all the franchise branches on the island byMc Donald s vans and trucks. This shows that Mc Donald s ow ns its inputs and has itsfarms to breed cattle and grow vegetable and potatoes. This allows the firm to lower thecosts by doing vertical backward integration, i f not the firm had to pay extra money everytime for getting the supplies. Also i t, maintains a guaranteed time, quality and amount of supply to the restaurants when required. The drawback of vertical integration is that, atthe beginning of the integration huge amounts of capital should be invested in to thebackward int egration.Mc Donald s business has been working since 1956 till now successfully an d stilloperates under these corporate level strategies