Convenience

The Internal Environment
Organizations also have an internal environment that consists of their owners, board of
directors, employees, and physical work environment. (Another especially important part
of the internal environment is the organization’s culture, discussed separately later in this
chapter.)
Owners
The
owners
of a business are, of course, the people who have legal property
rights to that business. Owners can be a single individual who establishes and runs a
small business, partners who jointly own the business, individual investors who buy
stock in a corporation, or other organizations. McDonald’s has 1.02 billion shares of
stock, each of which represents one unit of ownership in the firm. The family of McDo-
nald’s founder Ray Kroc stills owns a large block of this stock, as do several large insti-
tutional investors. In addition, thousands of individuals own just a few shares each.
McDonald’s, in turn, owns other businesses. For example, it owns several large regional
McDonald’s
Competitors
• 
Burger King
• 
Starbucks
• 
Subway
• 
Dairy Queen
Customers
• 
Individual
consumers
• 
Institutional
customers
Suppliers
• 
Coca-Cola
• 
Wholesale food
processors
• 
Packaging
manufacturers
Strategic Partners
• 
Walmart
• 
Disney
• 
Foreign partners
Regulators
• 
Food and Drug
Administration
• 
Securities and
Exchange
Commission
• 
Environmental
Protection
Agency
Internal environment
Task environment
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