Introduction The purpose of this paper is to investigate a specific industry and select a representative company from that industry. To organize the paper, this report has selected global fast food industry considering the growth rate, customer base, and competition in the market. The paper will consider McDonald’s Corporation as a representative company of the industry. Industry Overview The global fast food industry instigated its journey at the inauguration of the industrial age; it obtained massive consumer attention along with the materialization of several big businesses in the industry. The globalization of the corporate world has boosted the industry to play a major role in causing economic growth to the participating countries as more people prefers fast food because of its time saving approach. In 2007, the international growth rate of the industry was 4.1 percent, whilst the sales increased by $106.9b; in the following year all the giant players enjoyed rising sales volume with McDonald’s sales increasing by 3.07 percent, KFC’s sales by about 10 percent, and Burger King’s also by 10 percent. More surprisingly, in spite of the economic crisis, the global fast food industry has showed significant developments in its profit margin in both 2008 and 2009. A glance of the profit margins of the major players in the US industry will provide a more clear perception of the fast food industry’s success in 2009 in global perspective: Key Competitors             Profits 2009 McDonald’s Corporation      £22.75bn     Yum! Brands, Inc.           $11bn        Starbucks Corporation       $9.8bn       Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc.  $3.6bn       Burger King Corporation     $2.54bn       Table 1: Profits of Key Competitors in 2009 Source: Self-generated from IBISWorld (2010) Overview of McDonald’s Corp. According to Yahoo Finance (2010), McDonald’s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a global food service retailer; it has franchises that operate McDonald’s restaurants offering a range of foodstuffs, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages all over the world; McDonald’s Corporation formed in 1948 based on Oak Brook, Illinois. In December 2009, the business operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 nations, out of which franchisees of McDonald’s operated 26,216 and McDonald’s itself operated 6,262; until September 30, 2010, profit margin of the business was 20.65% and operating margin was 30.18% with a revenue of 23.83 billion, gross profit of 8.79 billion, and quarterly earnings growth of 10.10% (Yahoo Finance, 2010). The following figure illustrates the common stock price of the company from January 2006 to January 2010: Figure 2: Common Stock of McDonald’s Corp. Source: Yahoo Finance (2010) The figure below shows a clear comparison in the common stock price of McDonald’s and its competitors: Figure 3: Comparison of stock price history Source: Self generated from Sterling, et al., (2007) Current Statistics and Information of the Industry:- Types of Products The global fast food industry is composed of restaurants from different national and cultural backgrounds with abundantly diverse product types of distinct tastes, flavors, and origins. Cheeseburgers, hamburgers, double cheeseburgers