Assignment 13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

I read the book, “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s”, by Ray Kroc.

What surprised me most about Ray Kroc and McDonald’s is the fact that the French Fries were actually one of the biggest sellers early on. One of his suppliers went as far as to say that he wasn’t even in the hamburger business - he was in the French Fry business!

The thing about Ray Kroc I most admire is that he never gave up on reaching for success. Ray Kroc was 52 years old when he got involved with the McDonald’s business. He had previously sold multimixers but never achieved the level of success he did when McDonald’s started taking off. This goes to show you that the right opportunity may be a long ways down the road, but you should never give up looking for it.

The thing about Ray Kroc I least admire is the decision to raise the franchise fee from 1.9% to a whopping 11.9%. I am in strong favor of small businesses and their ability to succeed, and 11.9% just seems too greedy to me. Kroc was a genius business man, but greed definitely corrupted his life. I understand raising the percentage as new benefits are offered to franchises, but it just seems that Ray Kroc was looking out for himself rather than the owners.

Kroc encountered adversity numerous times, but one that stuck out to me was when he signed the Multimixer contract on behalf of his previous employer who later would not relinquish the contract to him. He had to negotiate a contract where he only got 40% of the business. Down the road, he gave interest in purchasing the 60%, but they demanded $68,000 for their share. He was outraged but accepted and had to remortgage his house. Kroc says this is one of the first examples of him feeling like he really had to grind it out to be successful. Little did he know, adversity would present itself in much worse situations later on, but having dealt with this first prepared him to tackle tougher situations in the future.

Ray Kroc exhibited many competencies that allowed him to be successful. He was determined when he had to figure out how to reproduce the same quality French Fries at a different location, hardworking for the long hours each week and little sleep each day when problems would arise he would have to fix, and exhibited smart techniques of self care, where he would train himself to not focus on nagging issues when he went to bed. These core competencies made Ray Kroc the successful businessman he was.

One part of the reading that confused me was the comparison to the Starbucks franchise and how it wouldn’t work with the McDonalds method. It was referenced multiple times but I still don’t understand how the differences would cause the other to fail.

One question I would ask Ray Kroc is “If you had to invest in a completely different industry, what would it be?” because I believe he had a talent for sensing opportunities and could have been successful with other companies had things worked out differently. Another question I would ask would be “do you regret spending more time on McDonalds and less time with your family, or did your fortune and successful business help more people than it hurt?” I would ask this because it had to be hard to take time away from people you love to work on your business.

I think Ray Kroc’s opinion of a hard worker is someone who is willing to sacrifice everything to achieve their goal. You may lose friends and other opportunities in the process, but if you really believe in your idea, then it’s worth it. I don’t necessarily share the same belief to the same extent, but I do believe in the core foundation. You do have to sacrifice to be successful, but the amount you sacrifice is always a case by case situation.