13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

GRINDING IT OUT: THE MAKING OF MCDONALD'S,

RAY KROC

The element of Ray Kroc that surprised me the most was how little he did on his own. He did not come up with the name, he did not even come up with most of the processes that made McDonald's the industry titan that it is today. He was not a finance genius or an industrial engineer. Despite that surprise, I do admire his business acumen. His ability to critically think and make almost all the right moves to penetrate a fairly new but large industry and then set in motion the international symbol. However, I despised his treatment of others. He ran the founding brothers of McDonald's out of business when they refused to sell him the original location by placing a McDonald's across the street and stripping their ability to use the name. Kroc’s biggest challenges were with franchising the restaurant and the suppliers. McDonald's sold food for a cheap price, and with that kind of business plan, it is hard for some people to see the profit in the long run for it.

One definitive competency that Ray Kroc exhibited was that he was open to new ideas. That was the basis for how he moved from his old job into the restaurant industry into the real estate industry. He was not great at coming up with the opportunities and solutions, but he was great at identifying which ones would work and how he could use them in his business. The interest he put into the automation of the restaurants changed the industry.

The most confusing part was how the information was presented. I felt that the story could have been told in a better and more creative way. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the subject, but felt that there could have been a more informative way for the story to play out.

Two questions that I would ask Ray Kroc is if he hadn’t made the decision to cut out the McDonald brothers, where does he think the restaurant would be now? My second question would be what decisions he would have made differently in the scope of his entire business venture with McDonald’s?

I believe, based on the information, Ray Kroc believed that hard work is necessary for success. The path that he took was not an obvious one and other people in the same position would have made different decisions or quit on the idea part of the way through. This is inspiring in some ways, not because of the person that he was according to others, but because of the success that he enjoyed and the way the world would be now without his effort.

Comments

  1. Kimberly PaloJune 17, 2019 at 3:46 PM

    Hi, Jacob Schuster!

    I love the story of Ray Kroc. Have you seen the documentary that came out on Netflix about him too? That’s when I realized he literally took an idea that already existed and made it even better. The previous owners of the idea were afraid of a challenge and he just did what he wanted no matter what other people thought about it. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Connor BrennanJune 17, 2019 at 4:21 PM

    Hey Jacob, overall great post. I didn't know much about Ray Croc but I feel way more informed on him after reading your post. Also like Kimberly states above, have you seen the movie on Netflix about him? I haven't seen it, but my parents said it was very cool and interesting to see how McDonalds came to be. After reading your post, I will definitely check out the movie now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Melissa DavisJune 17, 2019 at 9:58 PM

    Jacob
    I knew a little about the story of McDonald’s and Ray Kroc prior to reading your reflections, however you summarized the story nicely. I could not imagine putting my efforts into my business for someone like Ray to force me out. Retail organizations must adhere to the fact that if they do not change they will die and that is inevitably what happened.

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