10 ways to 'fix' McDonald's (if it needs fixing, that is)

McDonald's (MCD) takes plenty of criticism, and there's certainly no shortage of advice on how to return the Golden Arches to its days of glory.

All it has to get the detractors and pundits to move along is the following: Serve better-for-you food that won't lead to obesity; do so cheaply and very quickly at 36,000 sparkling and modern global restaurants; offer plenty of menu choices, but not too many choices; pay workers a sound wage; buy goods at a fair price from suppliers who don't use hormones or antibiotics or rely on genetic modification; keep profit margins climbing for franchises and company-owned stores; ensure the dividend continues to get raised every year; and grow the stock price and profits annually for investors.

If only every company had it that good, right?

Let's be serious. McDonald's is a tremendous business, with a great deal in its favor. But it's also not perfect, and it won't ever be. And it won't ever escape those who view it as the biggest problem in the world's food industry. We all have ideas on how it could improve, because we know the brand and what we believe would benefit it.

With new CEO Steve Easterbrook starting this week, we're looking at his options. Many of these would be difficult, not just for the logistics, but because they would bring various constituencies -- employees, shareholders, franchise owners, customers, suppliers -- into conflict with each other. Still, Easterbrook can right the ship. Assuming, that is, the ship even needs righting.

Not-as-much-work options

1. Here's one idea: Don't do anything, because in the long term it'll be fine. McDonald's had $27.4 billion in corporate revenue last year. The entire system, about 80% of which is run by franchisees, had $87.8 billion in sales. Net income was $4.8 billion. It paid dividends, which are raised annually, of $3.2 billion. It claims to have almost 70 million customers every day. The stock price is only a few dollars from the all-time high of $103.78 it recorded last year. What's wrong here again? There's an argument to be made that short-term worries have taken over.

2. In a continuation of that theme, stop apologizing for what you are. Fast food remains astonishingly popular, as sales at Burger King and Sonic (SONC) prove. At McDonald's, revenue declined last year. Are competitors clearly better than McDonald's? Maybe. Although perhaps it wouldn't be the worst approach to try getting by on actual identity rather than hoping to convince skeptics you're not completely terrible. Competitors aren't winning with steamed vegetables. The Hardee's 1/2-lb. Mile High Bacon Thickburger has 1,190 calories and more than a full day's recommended sodium. Granted, McDonald's is so large it takes most of the anger directed at the industry, but it's not on its own with "bad" food.

These-take-some-work options

3. Assuming McDonald's does want to "do" something, it could start here: Restore the old Dollar Menu. Drop the Dollar Menu and More, perhaps giving store traffic positive momentum. Customer counts have declined for two consecutive years. That's meant more and more reliance on higher levels of customer spending. In the U.S. on its own, visits fell 4.1% in 2014. Cheap prices are a powerful motivator when one's hungry and in a rush.

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4. What about adding more premium burgers? This would mean returning to an emphasis on the "barbell" idea. Get customers in the door with low-priced foods (Dollar Menu) and sell a lot of those, then hope other patrons buy something pricier instead when they order. But does the McDonald's customer want premium pricing? The Angus burgers were higher end, and they're not on the menu anymore. People say they want McDonald's to have better items, but they don't order them when it does. Those items cost a lot.

5. Simplify the menu, limit the limited-time offers and improve service speed. This is already in progress, including new kitchen preparation areas, but it probably can and will be hastened and re-stressed. Menu items have to make sense at every level of the operation. For example, the chicken wraps were introduced a couple of years ago, but published reports have cited franchisees complaining that they're difficult to prepare efficiently.

6. "Improve" food quality. Where to begin here? Restore a recipe, change a recipe. Make the burgers taste better, make the Big Mac bigger. Locally source ingredients and so on. This is the part where a transparency campaign was meant to boost public perception. It's not clear it has, and it might even have had the opposite effect. Meanwhile, in terms of its food supply, major changes are tremendously difficult with a supply chain as gigantic as McDonald's requires. It can't be Chipotle (CMG), which it used to control. Even Chipotle can't always get food sourced to meet its standards. It happened recently with pork, and it also has in the past when it had to serve "conventionally raised" beef and chicken because of supply shortages.

7. Make sure stores are clean and modern. Some are old, while others are brand new. The updates are ongoing, though theoretically the pace can be picked up.

8. Focus on customer service. Not everyone's glad each day to be working the register at a fast-food store. A common idea to help here -- pay workers more. It's not likely fast-food activists will get the $15-an-hour wage they've asked for the last couple of years, but McDonald's would build goodwill, and perhaps employee loyalty, if it follows Walmart (WMT) and others in raising minimum wages voluntarily, at least at corporate stores. Of course, if it does, that likely means less profit per store -- unless prices are increased to make up the difference. Will customers agree to this?

9. Sell breakfast all day everywhere. This idea arises regularly, so maybe McDonald's should try it for a year. Why not be able to get an Egg McMuffin at 4 p.m.?

Let-investors-figure-it-out option

10. Then again, McDonald's could leave it to Wall Street. Among the ideas from the activist-minded in the finance world: Bring in new board members, spin off real estate or sell more company-owned restaurants to franchisees. That won't change the burgers, but maybe it would "unlock value," as bankers are always interested in.

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