I grew up more of a Burger King fan as a kid, in part
because my oldest brother used to be a manager at one and would con me into
mowing their lot in exchange for a Whopper, fries and a Coke. As I’ve gotten older and with a child of my
own, McDonald’s has become the fast food establishment of choice. After
watching the movie “The Founder”,
I now have a deeper appreciation for fast food in general and more specifically
the impact McDonald’s has had.
In my mind, the movie generated three key takeaways for
businesses.
1.
Develop a tight process
2.
Vision without passion will only take you so far
3.
Get all the details down in writing
Early in the evolution of McDonald’s, the two brothers Dick
and Maurice worked tirelessly on creating efficiency in the process. They
were so fast getting food out to the customers, then a revolutionary idea,
allowing them to increase capacity and thus profits. In the movie, the brothers go to a local
tennis court and use chalk outlines to create potential layouts to scale for
their kitchen areas. It took hours of effort on their part and those
simulating the work and three layouts before they figured out the basis for
their layout. While many things have changed, there are still elements in place
today at thousands of McDonald’s restaurants that originated during this time,
including the burger slide and the tool that delivers a measured squirt of
mustard and ketchup on each burger. Over
60 years later and a process is still in place is a testament to just how tight
a process is.
I’ve been to Des Plaines, Illinois and knew that was the
site of the original McDonald’s. Only I was wrong. The original was in San Bernardino,
California; the one started by the two brothers. It was Ray Kroc’s first
franchise store that opened in Illinois. It was the McDonald’s brothers who had
the vision of creating a fast food establishment, the golden arches and even a
franchise of restaurants all over the country. When Kroc stumbled on to
McDonald’s, they already had a few franchises set up out west. But it was Kroc’s
passion that brought quick, affordable hamburgers to seemingly ever city and
town in the world. Kroc was the ultimate
sales person, with enough passion and work ethic to overcome a lot of obstacles
to find success. Passion won’t necessarily work without the right vision, and
without passion even the best vision won’t lead you to success necessarily. A
lot has been written about Kroc and his passion, and how that passion created
casualties along the way including this piece from Forbes
Magazine.
Perhaps the two biggest casualties were Dick and Maurice
McDonald’s themselves. Surely,
you might be thinking, the originators of the concept ended up wealthy beyond
your wildest dreams. The riches went to Kroc, who bought out the McDonald’s
family for what amounted to $1 million each after taxes according to the movie.
Kroc, at the last minute refused to
put into his contract buying them out a deal to give them .5% of the company’s
profits forever. Michael Keaton, who brilliantly portrayed Kroc in the movie
said that they would just have to trust him on this and that they would see the
profits. They did, and he didn’t. The McDonald brothers had the leverage, and
likely would have got Kroc to put it in the contract but they caved without
anything being in writing. That handshake deal instead of getting things down
in writing has cost that family billions of dollars so far. And with every
passing day, that total like the number of burgers made continues to grow.
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