- What makes Ray Kroc and the brothers different from each other? The brothers were very different in that while Dick and Mac were very focused on developing the brand of McDonald’s and making the best product, Ray was instead focused on how they could make the most money from the concept and in order to do that, how to scale into many more restaraunts, ethics be damned.
- Do you think the McDonald’s brothers did the right thing by selling out to Ray Kroc? Did Ray Kroc give the brothers a good deal? Yes, as a good capitalist, I think that the McDonald brothers did the right thing by selling out to Ray in order to grow the business. I love my McDonalds drive thru when I drive cross country on a military move, and I couldn’t get my delicious 2,000 calorie meal all without leaving my car if that sellout didn’t happen! Anyone that says any different about how easy and completely terrible the Mickey D experience is forgets they also stop at a Walmart for late night emergency purchases, and they also probably walk by the small Mom and Pop stores on Main Street on the way home to make sure their Amazon package wasn’t stolen. What is our culture / society except the lowest common denominator and easy (lazy?) habits, at least from the macro perspective? For real. And yes, Ray did give the brothers a good deal, as judged by the price at the time. That is, he had the balls to have the baby & take the risk to grow the business into an all American powerhouse, quality and morals be damned, because they don’t pay, at least not at scale, while the brothers were too focused on quality and doing things “right.”
- How did the local store franchisees make money? The local store franchises made money based on food sales, all of which was run from a top down control to help standardize the product so that middle class aspirants could open and run their own “restaurant” without having a culinary background.
- How did Kroc make money? How was that different than the franchisees, running the local stores? Kroc innovated after realizing that he was really in the real estate business in terms of owning the spots where franchises could setup shop, where they would run the business and he could collect that mailbox money rental payments and still have some control over how the businesses were run and standardized.
- Does this film change your view of McDonald’s? These facts don’t change my view of McDonalds — it represents the vapid BS of modern America, in my view — watching this film only reinforced my desire to be equally as ruthless and amoral if I have to be in order to not get eaten by a hungrier shark in the business world. I guess I’m less hungry whenever I see a Golden Arch, but I’ve always known Mickey D’s was glamour, glitz and camera tricks, and unhealthy to boot. I don’t want to operate or even think about running a completely ruthless enterprise, but it seems like the single most important “virtue” of the successful American entrepreneur is the the ability to shake off self-doubt and stay persistent, even if you are a jerk…
Powered by:
top