The Founder was an amazing film. The movie tells the true story of a persistent salesman in a relentless pursuit to manifest his future vision of McDonald’s. Ray Kroc, a traveling salesman received an abnormally large order for some milkshake mixers, and he decided to deliver them in person to San Bernardino California. Once Ray arrived, he met 2 brothers who owned a restaurant named McDonald’s. Ray was fascinated by the taste of a McDonald’s hamburger, and the efficient processes that the brothers had in place to run their business operations. Ray was different from the brothers because he wanted to expand the McDonald’s business in terms of franchising. Ray pitched various innovative ideas to drive revenue however, the brothers were content and satisfied with how their business was already functioning. Ray eventually persuaded the 2 brothers to allow him to franchise the company, and Ray opened stores nationwide.
I think it was a good idea for the brothers to allow Ray Kroc to franchise, because the McDonald’s business needed to be exposed to the world. The quality of the product and the business efficiency was superb, basically groundbreaking at the time. I don’t think that Ray Kroc gave the brothers a fair deal regarding their ending contract. The brothers should’ve kept the rights to their name 100%, and never let any entity conduct business using the McDonald’s name, logo, and trademark without their final approval. This was the beginning of the brothers losing control of their company. The start of Ray Kroc taking over the McDonald’s business.
The local franchised stores initially bought their own land, then built their own McDonald’s stores. They generated their income from store sales. Ray Kroc eventually realized that he wasn’t profiting, and only earned a small percentage from the overall McDonald’s business. Ray decided to eventually buy vacant plots of land, then begun to lease said land to the franchisees. By doing this, Ray now gained equity from each McDonald’s location, and understood he was in the real estate business. Ray Kroc became a real estate developer and multi-millionaire by building and leasing McDonald’s restaurants worldwide.
The Founder hasn’t changed my personal perspective of McDonald’s in any way. The movie helped me understand more about the importance of brand ownership. McDonald’s has and always will be the most recognized restaurant franchise in the world!
