27A - Reading Reflection No.3

Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc

Part 1:

What surprised you the most?

The book Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc shows the success of McDonalds. The success of McDonalds is contributed to Ray Kroc, not the original founders of the first McDonalds. Ray Kroc was an entrepreneur who was in the business for money and perusing the American Dream. Kroc himself did create the first restaurant, but instead saw the opportunity to create an empire of McDonalds based off of quality, service, cleanliness, and value.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I admire how Ray Kroc saw and believe in the potential of hard working Americans to run and operate his restaurants. At first, he used his social capital of high worth retirees as gain investors. Kroc soon realized they did not have the same attitude towards the American Dream and making money. In addition, Kroc viewed all his relationships as a win-win for McDonalds and the contributing personnel. 

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I did not like the stubbornness of Ray Kroc. When it came to franchising, he started to completely take owner of McDonalds and tried to remove the original founders out of the picture. He broke contracts and created his own company as an offset. He transformed his concept to view McDonalds as more as real estate investments. At times, Kroc did not uphold integrity. In addition, Kroc was a workaholic and created conflict for his marriage. He neglected and then divorced his wife in 1961. That same year, Kroc spent $2.7 millions buying out one of the brother's stake in McDonalds.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

At first, Ray Kroc had a difficult time being a sales man and investor. Many banks would not grant him loans due to unsuccessful products and elevator pitches. Prior McDonalds, he sold paper cups and multimixers. Due to his lack of progress in marketing and sales, many saw him as  a joke or crazy. In addition with the franchise, he created many new products to add to the menu of McDonalds. Some of these concepts "failed fast" thus he took them off immediately. Despite this, the main focus was still the hamburgers, fries, and shakes.

Part 2

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

Ray Kroc was 100% all into the business. He would watch over the franchises to ensure they were following every instruction, cooking time, meat quality, etc. to the t. In addition, Kroc was OCD about every aspect of the company and expanding it. He would even sweep up after long nights to ensure the appearance of the restaurant. In addition, he used his previous knowledge with multimixers and paper cups to add to his success of the McDonalds Corporation.

Part 3

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I was semi confused about when Ray Kroc realized his was not profiting and had to renegotiate contracts with franchisee. He wanted to lower the McDonald's stake in the corporation and increase his. Kroc was power and money dominated.

Part 4

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

1. Did you smell like French fries and fried food every night? If so, how did you get the McDonald's stench off your clothes?
2. How did you know that the brother's McDonald's restaurants were going to be an immediate hit in America?

I would ask him these questions because 1) all McDonald's have a specific smell and 2) he knew and believe instantly that this one company was going to a success. If you think about it, it took Kroc less than 30 years to transform one mom and pop restaurant into a global franchise. That is  incredible!

Part 5

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

Hard work was what Ray Kroc lived by. He consumed himself day and night thinking, breathing, and building the McDonalds Franchise. Hard work gave Kroc a high. The success, the money, the national growth, and fame only aided to his enjoyment of hard work. I myself find satisfaction off my hard work, but I also do prioritize myself, my family, and friends before work. Kroc neglected his for work. I need time to breath, have fun, relax, and break from work. Kroc never did that. Every action, thought and idea was consumed on making McDonalds better and greater.