KFC, led by Brown and Massey. KFC was

KFC, which until 1991was known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is an American fast food restaurant chain thatspecializes in fried chicken products. KFC's headquarters is locatedat Louisville, Kentucky. It is the world's 2ndlargest fast-food chain after McDonald's,with about 20,000 locations globally in 123 countries as of end-2015, and about 60% of them are operated as franchises.

KFC is a subsidiary of Yum Brands,a restaurant company that also owns the world famous Taco Bell and Pizza Hut chains.In addition to its direct franchising model and wholly owned operations, KFC also enters into joint venture arrangementsin various countries. KFC continues to explore various options to gain marketshare in a competitive fast-food market. KFC was founded by ColonelHarland Sanders during the great depression period. He was a businessman whoinitially began selling fried chicken from a street outlet in Kentucky.Sanders was quick to spot business potential in the restaurant franchising model,and in 1952, the 1st KFC franchise outlet was opened in Utah.

KFC challengedthe prevalent dominance of the hamburger bypopularizing fried chicken as an alternate product in the fast food industry. Harlandbranded himself as "Colonel Sanders" and became an icon of Americancultural history, and his image continues to be widely used in all of KFC'sadvertising. However, the aged Sanders could not manage KFC's rapid expansion andwas compelled to sell KFC in 1964 to a group of investors led by Brown and Massey. KFC was amongst the first American fast food chainsto expand internationally. In the 1960's, it opened outlets in Canada, UK, Jamaica,and Mexico. All through the 1970's and 1980's, KFC underwent ups and downsin its business fortunes, as it changed hands with new owners who had little orno experience in the fast-food business.

In the 1970's, KFC was bought over by Heublein Inc.,who later sold it off to R.J. Reynolds, tobacco and food company.

 Eventually,PepsiCo bought over KFC. All through this journey, KFC did not stop expandingoverseas, and in 1987, it became the 1st western fast-food chain toopen in China. China now remains KFC's single largest market with 4,563 outlets in China alone. KFCwas later spun off by PepsiCo to its restaurant division, known as TriconGlobal Restaurants, which later was renamed as Yum! Brands. KFC'sMISSION statement is "To sellfood in a fast, friendly environment that appeal to pride conscious, healthminded consumers".   2.

0      ORGANIZATIONALSTRUCTURE "Organizationalstructure" refers to the levels of management and division of responsibilitieswithin an organisation.Since incorporation, KFC has undergone several changesin its organization structure. This was primarily due to numerous change-in-ownershipever since Colonel Sanders first sold KFC in 1964. KFC was first sold in 1964 toa small group of investors that eventually got KFC listed publicly in thestock-exchange.

KFC was sold to Heublein Inc. in 1971. Heublein preferred tohave a hands-on approach with day-to-day involvement in KFC's management. KFClater changed hands to R. J. Reynolds in 1982, which had a laid back approachand allowed KFC to operate the way it was.

Eventually in 1986, PepsiCo acquiredKFC in its pursuit to grow its quick serve restaurant segment. Besides KFC, PepsiCoalso owns and operates Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. PepsiCo typically is orientedtowards consumer products, and their style of management and culture was quitedifferent from KFC. In the 1990's, PepsiCo divested some of their non-core businessand organized their remaining business along 3 lines - soft drinks, restaurantsand snacks.KFChas split its operations into 2 divisions, viz.

a) Support Centre and b) BusinessUnits. KFC's head-office is designated as the "Support Centre" where both management and non-management personnelare located. All of KFC's outlets are known as "Business Units" and the recruitment over here is conducted at theSupport Centre. The Business Units personnel are categorised as front-end andback-end personnel.

Like many typical franchise operationsworld-wide, KFC operates as a decentralised business. While strategic businessdecisions are taken by senior managers, the day-to-day decisions on theoperations of the KFC outlets are delegated to the outlet managers. KFC's top management lay down the company policies andprocedures, whereas the middle / first-line managers and the franchises performtheir own functions on the basis of these policies and procedures. Thedistribution of authority is appropriate given the size of KFC and its scope ofactivities.A typical KFC restaurant adopts the beloworganizational structure (Charan, 2012).The team atKFC outlets are led by a General Manager and followed by Restaurant Manager, AssistantRestaurant Manager and Shift Supervisor.

There are other team members who arerecruited at these outlets as counter workers and kitchen workers. The communicationflows top-down in order of hierarchy from the general manager down to junioremployees. In this structure, decision making is kept as high as possible andthe top management have the authority to make key strategic and operationaldecisions. Therefore, this vertical form of communication between personnel atvarious levels helps improve the working relationship between senior managementwith the junior personnel at KFC. All KFC outlets around the world, includingthe franchisees follow the guidelines and policies laid down by the parentcompany.KFC is known toadopt more of an autocratic style ofleadership with a decent flavour of democraticleadership, where the manager is expected to be in charge of the businessand to have his decisions followed by the rest of the team.

Communicationchannels typically operate top-down. KFC currentlyhas a wide structure and a short chainof command. This keeps the top management less distant from the lower hierarchy;communication channels are fewer, quicker and more accurate. Since the span of control at KFC is wide, eachmanger has responsibility for many more subordinates, and hence is more likelyto delegate authority and followed a more decentralised management style.Currently, KFCis structured with two divisions under PepsiCo. KFC is part of the 2 PepsiCodivisions - PepsiCo Worldwide Restaurants and PepsiCo Restaurants Intl.

Boththe divisions are based in Dallas, Houston.