 | By: Ray Kroc Binding: Mass Market Paperback Publisher: Saint Martin's Press Inc. ISBN: 0312929870 ISBN-13: 9780312929879 Released: 01 Jul 1990 RRP: Average Rating:  |
I read this after the Sam Walton (WalMart) biography & it reallly helps any budding business owner, or potential business owner, in reading how & why these guys made it on such a grand scale & gives an insight into what it takes.
Kroc saw the potential of somebody else's business idea, the McDonald bother's formula of providing cheap but high quality food prepared in a clean environment, & used alll his energy & capital to exploit it. This simplicity is unsurprising coming from the man who claims to have come up with the KISS acronym: Keep It Simple Stupid. The success, however, was not without problems. In the early days even though the restaurants were in profit & the franchises apparently booming, the McDonald's corporation had a very serious cash flow problem. They couldn't pay the wages. But they acted fast & brought in an accountant who turned things around.
A key feature of the McDonald's franchise's success is not easy to grasp. It's the formula whereby McDonald's acquired & leased the land on which the restaurants are built. It is this field which produced what is arguably Kroc's most expensive mistake & also highlighted a contradiction in his character. Because Kroc & his right hand man, Harry Sonneborn, failed to monitor a property developer who was supposed to be locating sites & building stores they had to borrow $400,000 in order to bail themselves out. This devil-may-care attitude sits uncomfortably with the Ray Kroc who fired an employee for having dirty shoes & earmarked a manager for dismissal because he didn't have "potential."
It is sometimes said that the devil is in the detail & Kroc provides a lot about French fries & hamburger buns. He claims that a key element of his early store's success was serving up great French fries. Kroc also points out that "It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun." It is worth mentioning that Kroc's response to a rivals attempt at industrial espionage was not to hire a high powered detective agency but to sift through the rival's garbage cans to glean information about what lines were selling poorly & therefore getting thrown away. Ray Kroc is certainly an original.
There are two criticisms of this book. Firstly, McDonald's international expansion is not well covered. Secondly, & perhaps frivolously, the creation & use of Ronald McDonald isn't given enough space. This topic could have given interesting insights into corporate marketing. Kroc does mention that "...a great deal of study had gone into creating the appearance & personality of Ronald McDonald, right down to the colour & texture of his wig."
Ray Kroc also describes some of his non-business exploits such as his purchase of a baseballl team & his quest for love & his new wife. But this is primarily a business book which will be useful to Business Studies students looking for insights into the creation & running of what is probably the most successful franchise operation in the world. But a general reader will enjoy Kroc's bright & breezy entrepreneurial style. "Grinding It Out" is not a grind to read.
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