Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers are different in many ways. Ray Kroc is driven, motivated and persistent. He strives for success and doesn’t care what goes in his way to create an empire and make money. On the other hand, Dick and Mac McDonald were wise and humble brothers who started a family business in San Bernardino to cater to the families in the city. They believed creating good food in a family-friendly environment was all that mattered. They did not strive to make profits in the local business, nor were they persistent and driven to franchise outside of San Bernardino. Ray is an intelligent and charismatic individual that strives to network and build connections amongst other individuals. Ray prefers to exit his comfort zone if it means he will be successful in the end. Meanwhile, the McDonald brothers prefer to settle with what they already have instead of building an empire.
I believe the brothers did the right thing initially by selling out and partnering with Ray. They had a transparent contract and agreement with Ray, which they firmly believed could not be exploited while running the partnership together. However, signs further on showed Ray was just in it for the money instead of the partnership. In the middle of the agreement, he tells the brothers that they are in safe hands and will be running the franchising operation outside of San Bernardino. With all the efforts in Ray’s hands, he created a fast-food empire all by himself but decided it wasn’t enough and took the name of the company and 100% of the ownership to himself. Although, I can agree that Ray was overboard, asking for a 4% cut instead of 1.9%. The brothers were already at a 0.5% cut. While, in my perspective, Ray is a horrible and greedy individual, he took an idea that was never going to grow if he wasn’t a part of it. Without him, McDonald’s would have never franchised into a national empire. The brothers squandered the potential of their company. With that said, I feel that the brothers should’ve known what was going to happen. They knew Ray Kroc personally, and they should’ve understood what would happen if he took over and franchised the company. From what I believe, the deal he asked for was a good deal, albeit greedy and selfish. They let a persistent and motivated individual run the company from a family business to a multimillion-dollar empire.
The McDonald’s brother’s local restaurant made money because many ideas made their franchise stand out from other fast-food restaurants. They chose a family-friendly location, had a simple 3 item menu with cheap yet tasty food, a clean environment, plastic wrap instead of costly silverware, and most importantly, a fast and efficient food cooking system. The system the brothers developed was called the” Speedee Service System.” They created this system because they prioritized speed and quality. As mentioned by Dick McDonald, “orders are ready in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes”. Furthermore, they cut expenses significantly by using a walk-in system instead of having extra employees bring food to the customer’s cars.
Ray Kroc made money because of an individual he met outside of the bank. Harry J. Sonneborn was a businessman that showed Ray that it wasn’t about the food; it was about the land. Sonneborn convinced Ray that he wasn’t dealing with the food industry; he was operating the real estate. Soon he co-founded a real estate company, without the brothers’ permission, to buy land and lease more locations to generate more revenue. Ray inundates the word “persistent,” which describes his personality. His persistence led him to create a real estate company with money as a main priority. This was entirely different from the McDonald’s brother’s local business as they made money by keeping control of one location, which often created a steady revenue or a break-even.
Yes, it changed my view of McDonald’s. To the point where I’ll start second-guessing ever ordering food from their chain again. It’s also making me second guess whether I’d want to commit to having the corporate lifestyle when I’m older. All these schemes, scams, and stolen ideas have made me realize that the real world of business is much crueler than I have ever expected. The entire movie shows that, even with a drive and motivation to succeed, most will do undesirable actions to get what they want in life, even if these actions are unethical and could ruin another individual’s life.
