Mcdodol

McDonald's MCD -0.16% has had a rough year so far, declining 15% since the ball dropped in Times Square.

Same-store sales for the global, quick-casual, restaurant chain have been under pressure. Third-quarter earnings missed analysts' consensus estimates by four cents. For the entire company, the October sales decline of 1.8% marked the first decline in sales for McDonald's in nine years. Total sales in the U.S. declined for the month of October by 1.4% and same-store sales slipped by 2.2%.

This lackluster performance may have been the reason that the head of U.S. operations, Jan Fields was replaced with another longtime McDonald's executive, Jeff Stratton, a few days ago.

Part of the disappointing earnings I believe can be traced to the strength in the dollar versus currencies in its areas of operation. I would also state that McDonald's was facing some very strong same-store sales from 2011, thus presenting a high bar to jump in 2012.

Coming into 2012, I realized that McDonald's would be facing a challenging operating environment beyond the same-store sales issue, such as: a slowdown in its fast growing Chinese market; a certain European recession; and, a lack of new menu changes on the horizon.

As a result, I sold about 20% of my holdings in the company's stock at just over $100 in January of this year. This was the second time I have taken a bit of the stock off the table. I have held the stock personally and for clients since the selloff on Christmas Eve day 2003, the day of the “mad cow” scare, and continue to do so.

So now that I have discussed what McDonald's has endured in 2012, I want to focus on what McDonald's can do to get back on track. Consider this an open letter to Donald Thompson and his management team. Here are my four suggestions.

1. GET INTERNATIONAL

We already know that McDonald's has extensive operations throughout the world with a large presence in China, Japan, Australia, Europe and Latin America. The Latin...