Don't bet against McDonald's (NYSE:MCD). It always comes back.

So goes the old adage on Wall Street. Over the past five decades, McDonald's has managed to fend off many challenges, always rising after a brief pause.

What's behind McDonald's endurance to the test of time?

First comes franchise, a business model that allows its franchisee-members, management and shareholders to share the risks and rewards from the discovery and exploitation of new business opportunities—McDonald’s model has become the norm for other franchise organizations.

The franchise model helps McDonald's attain economies of scale and scope without the traditional problems of monitoring and control associated with large and diverse business organizations.

Second comes location. As a first mover in the restaurant franchise space, McDonald's has acquired and developed prime real estate location, which it leases to its franchisees.

So all it takes is for McDonald’s to come up with the right business model to capitalize on these advantages -- even if this model means the company has to drop the golden arches; drop Ronald McDonald; raise wages; or even hire robots to flip burgers.

This has led to the company’s next advantage – the ability to adopt and adapt; in essence, new product menus and new services to address emerging trends and to fend off competition.