He had drive.
He made it happen.
Americans today cry and ask their mommy to kiss it better then demand the government pay for their lives.
"Oh, but he was unethical, wah wah wah."
Pussies.
He did what it took to make it happen. Took a lot of risk as well as it could have failed and he didn't have any support, even the McDonald's brothers were happy to sit back and let him do all the work. If they took a more active role they may not have been locked out of their own business and use of their name.
shareThe McDonalds brothers simply improved speed. They didn't invent anything really.
Kroc was the one who made McDonalds a global giant. He was indeed the true founder.
Yep you nailed it.
They had no idea Ray would be starting over 200 stores in less than a decade. They probably expected him to open 5 new stores a year so after 10 years they might have 50.
They also never thought about making money off the land the stores were on. Surprising given what control freaks they were. Franchisees were leasing lots from third party people so it was brilliant for Ray Kroc to form a company that provided those lots.
IF THE MCDONALD BROTHERS HAD BEEN SMART..THEY WOULD HAVE TAKEN ALL THE LESSONS AND INOVATIONS OF RAY KROC AND OPENED A NEW RESTAURANT CALLED KROC'S...BETTER NAME THAN MCDONALDS.
shareWhat I don't get is, how was he able to take control of McDonald's from the founders? What sort of contract allowed him to go above and beyond what the contract stated? It's like someone stealing your business in a sense from what you wanted it to be and doing whatever they wanted even though it generated more revenue. I'd be pissed at that personally. Can't they sue Kroc for breach of contract? Did the brothers offer some shitty contract that was full of holes or something? Did the brothers allow Kroc to own his own McDonald's franchise aka stores?
shareRay was hired to franchise restaurants and the first one was his own. As far as i know that was the only store Kroc actually owned until they started building corporate stores mainly after going public.
Kroc was looking for ways to make more money and save money.
The brothers and their lawyers drew up the contract. The issue was enforcement. The brothers wanted total autocratic control and veto power over every little thing but there were hundreds of restaurants to worry about.
""""Can't they sue Kroc for breach of contract?""""
The issue came up late in the film. It was one of the reasons the brothers were willing to sell. They knew that litigation would cost them far more than it was worth.
The important contribution of Harry Sonneborn, who would become the first President and CEO of McDonald's. "The 'Sonneborn model' persists to this day within the corporation, and might have been the most important financial decision in the company's history. McDonald's present-day real estate holdings represent $37.7Bn on its balance sheet, about 99% of the company's assets and about 35% of its global revenue." -- Wikipedia
See here how it is explained in the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxCL2RqCuiY
No.
shareI don't mind what Kroc did but I do feel some sympathy for the Mac brothers but not a lot. They should have actually listened to what Kroc wanted to do. He took their restaurant idea and turned it into an empire. Of course, they had no idea it was going to get this big.
And I do understand wanting to do things in a certain way. That's the unfortunate thing about doing business with certain people, they only want it done one way and are rarely open to suggestions.
Still, in the food service industry, it makes more sense to do it one way because this insures that customers will always know what they're going to get at your restaurant no matter where they are in the world.
Seriously, I would hate to go into a McDonalds in Ohio and they're serving something completely different than the one in my home state. That would suck pretty hard.
Anyhow, good movie though, I'll give it a 6.8 out of 10. I wasn't thrilled by it but it had some good acting and a solid story and perhaps is a good lesson in business. It's worth watching if you have any interest in how McDonalds started or how any business starts for that matter.