No. 1 Fast Food chain in the World!
“Look after the customers and the business will take care of itself.”
This quote by Ray Kroc was the reason behind the success of The Mc Donald’s.
Do you all know the astounding facts about your favorite fast-food brand Mc Donald’s?
- Well! As we all know it is a worldwide food chain! And is serving in 37000 locations over 115 countries. Isn’t that amazing?
- Well, that’s not the end, till today it has sold over 100 Billion burgers and serves over 68 million people every day which sounds pretty amazing and has a revenue of 24 Billion Dollars which is again a milestone.
One of the most loved food outlets for every age group as it is quick and easily available. It holds the history which had many endeavors that made Mc Donald’s “The Global brand”. Mc Donald’s was a big hit as they had unique “Speedee System” which was something Revolutionary in those times. Richard and Maurice Mc Donald’s hit the road in the early 1940s for the journey of Mc Donald’s.
How it all started?
In 1940, Mc Donald Brothers’ commenced its First Drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. Where uniformed waitresses were serving to the cars, Sadly this counted in large cost and later they faced some challenges with this idea as that wasn’t attracting the targeted clients. They desired to have a family-friendly environment.
They were in dire straits because of fewer sales. Later they discovered what sales more! that was burger, fries, and drinks! phew! After dwelling on so many issues they finally came to a solution.
They altered their menu, made some changes, asked the customer to collect their food from restaurant windows, all food packages were changed into paper bags and cups. Siblings wanted to do something out of the box.
They had a motive to serve people within 30 seconds and not 30 minutes. The restaurant was closed for a month, they decided to redesign the system and went to a tennis court with the workers and choreographed the whole system, after 6 hours of hard work, the 3rd try got them perfect SPEEDEE system.
“Symphony of efficiency, not a waste of motion.”
After all the blood, sweat and tears they were an overnight sensation in the food industry.
Wolf in a hen house:
Mc Donald’s being such a successful outlet, how did someone take over it? Well, only persistent and mastermind could play this role. In 1954, the spunky salesmen Ray Kroc received an order from Mc Donald’s for 6 multi mixers. which was a big deal for him.
He was curious and visited the brothers, there they introduced Ray to The Revolutionary Speedee system. He was astonished as he never saw the merchandising system like this before and was ready to convince the brothers to grant him a franchise.
At first, brothers declined the offer by Ray, as they tried to franchise before but it was difficult to enforce standards from far. Ray persisted and ensured brothers about quality control. Since then everything changed.
The contract was drafted. He took 1st franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Ray was ready to line up the Franchise. He killed two birds with one stone Initially they failed to replicate the efficiency of san Bernardino. Ray concentrated on finding people with the same determination as he had towards quality control.
A year later there were 11 Franchised stores across the country and had 25 more a year later. Ray was suffering from financial crises and was earning less than the brothers according to the agreement. Harry Sonneborn financial advisor guided him and convinced him that Mc Donald’s is not just limited to fast food outlets but now can create real estate opportunities. Soon he indulged himself in real estate, as Mc Donald’s corporation.
In 1961 he bought McDonald’s for 2.7 Million as he was not satisfied with disagreements of brothers. After 13 successful years, Ray settled as C.E.O of McDonald’s.
Not Plagiarism!
Ray was panned for the action of dominance over the Mc Donald’s brothers.
To which he gave this statement,
“The McDonald brothers were simply not on my wavelength at all. I was obsessed with the idea of making McDonald’s the biggest and the best. They were content with that they had; they didn’t want to be bothered with more risks and more demands.” – Ray Kroc.
-Article By Nehal Rajdev
