How big is a global company?

There are many interesting facts we come across in our business dealings with global companies.

An interesting question is what exactly does it mean to be a global company? STAR Translation has 44 offices on 5 continents and employs some 900 people. Are we a big company?

For fun, we had a look at one of the largest brands in the world, that is, “McDonald’s”. McDonald’s has an astonishing 36,302 stores in 119 countries. That’s truly global! In fact, it’s hard to find a country without one: McDonald’s-less nations!

The company employs some 1,924,035 people. Imagine trying to manage that! Taking into consideration that each country has its own laws, cultures etc. It’s certainly amazing how they keep their brand consistent throughout the world. If you go to a McDonald’s in France, the experience is virtually the same as a McDonald’s branch in the USA. Their management systems are commendable — they serve some 60 million customers every day.

Aside from McDonald’s, who else has the largest number of employees in the world?

According to Wikipedia, the largest employer in the world is the US Department of Defence, or “defense”, as an American would spell it, with approximately 3.2 million members of staff. If we just look at commercial companies however, Walmart wins hands down with 2.2 million employees. It’s interesting that Walmart is similar in size to the US Army.

And outside the US, the two largest employers in the UK are Tesco (597,784) and the private security company, G4S with 620,000.

How does your business stack up?

Some interesting facts:

• Fun McDonald’s facts
• McDonald’s sells more than 75 hamburgers every second
• If you’re a production manager consider this: “Americans alone consume one billion pounds of beef at McDonald’s in a year — five and a half million head of cattle.”

Source: Business Insider