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.