Hello everyone

I will share my experience of seeing McDonald’s coming to a high-risk country. Yum Brands Inc. decided
to invest in South American Countries despite the socio-economic barriers and unexpected changes that
constantly happen in this region, which potentially can affect international companies. Yum Brands Inc.
analyzed the markets in South American and was trying to expand operations since the ’70s. In an
industry such as fast food, however, an analysis of economic and political variables was insufficient.
(Donelly, 2013, p.581).

Even with the best circumstances expanding business is risky especially when it comes to getting paid,
navigate laws, prices, political changes like revolutions, also geographical factors such as volcanos,
earthquakes and try to mitigate some of the economic and social factors in an unknown market could be
hard. Ecuador was part of a Free Trade Agreement since 1994, and we change currency due to a financial
crisis and we adopt the American Dollars as currency in 1999, which help to bring more International
Investment. But the factor that set a big barrier was that there was a fake McDonald’s in Ecuador for
years.

Since the spin-off from Pepsi in 1997, Yum Brands Inc., (Donelly, 2013, p.573) has become a global
company led by over 10,000 world-class franchisees outside of the United States. One of their
restaurants arrived in Quito - Ecuador in 1997 McDonald’s successfully opened their doors for a hungry
market. After many years Yum Brands with their restaurant in South America announced its recipe for
growth, especially in Ecuador. It's multi-year growth strategy to become more focused, more franchised,
and more efficient and came to conquer a market ruled by Burger King. I remember the slogan when Mc
Donalds open their first restaurant and Burger King received Mc Donalds with a big sign “Welcome to our
Kingdom”, but in a matter of months, Mc Donalds dominated the fast-food market in my city. (Year,
2013).

Also, Yum Brands Inc., introduced Pizza Hut, KFC years before that Mc Donald's, and it was sharpening
the set of strong values with different brands and business practices through its recipes good
sustainability strategies. They focus on areas like preserving our environment and support people by
providing jobs in different branches across the country. Ecuador has 45 KFC restaurants in different cities
and generates decent employment for people. (Donnelly, 2013, p. 580).

Overall I consider that Yum Brands Inc. is extremely proud of its employees and franchise associates in its
system around the globe and the unique culture they have built grounded on innovation, inclusion, and
financial growth reaching out to sales of 11.4 Billons dollars in International Operated Markets. (Statista,
2021).

References
Donelly, P. P. (2013). Marketing Management. NY: McGraw-Hill.

Statista. (2021, February). Statista. Retrieved from Revenue of McDonald's Worldwide in 2019 by region:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/219453/revenue-of-the-mcdonalds-corporation-by-
geographic-region/
Year, T. B. (2013, June ). Burgernomics. Retrieved from The Business Year:
https://www.thebusinessyear.com/Ecuador-2013/burgernomics/vip-
interview#:~:text=McDonald's%20arrived%20in%20Ecuador%20in,20%20years%20of
%20banking%20experience.