The Founder

In the 1950s, Southern California was a place of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Among the bustling streets and wide highways, a small burger joint in San Bernardino caught the attention of a charismatic salesman named Ray Kroc. Kroc, a born salesperson with a drive to succeed, had already established a reputation as one of the best in the business. He traveled the country, peddling his products and services to anyone who would listen, with an unwavering persistence that often left his competitors in awe. It was during one of his sales calls that Kroc stumbled upon the McDonald's brothers, Mac and Dick, who had established their small burger joint, McDonald's. Founded in 1940, the restaurant had built a loyal following among the locals with its signature menu - burgers, fries, milkshakes, and a revolutionary assembly-line cooking system designed by the McDonald brothers to provide speedy and efficient service. Ray Kroc was immediately drawn to the McDonald brothers' innovative system. He was impressed by the speed and efficiency with which they could serve a high volume of customers, and he saw the potential for franchise nationwide. Kroc saw the world as an endless opportunity to sell, and the efficiency and standardization of the McDonald's system made it a winner in his eyes. He approached the brothers with an offer to become their franchise agent, hoping to exploit this new market to his advantage. Mac McDonald, a former Army Air Forces Master Sergeant during World War II, played a significant role in implementing the assembly-line cooking system in their restaurant. He took pride in maintaining a clean and efficient operation, frequently inspecting the equipment to ensure cleanliness and maintaining high standards. The assembly-line style service quickly gained popularity among the locals in San Bernardino. Ray Kroc and McDonald observed that with standard equipment and a uniform set of operations, McDonald's could be delivered with consistent results and quality across the board, and potentially create big profits. Kroc did his usual convincing sales pitch to the brothers during a lunch meeting on April 15, 1954, pitching his plan to sell McDonald's franchises and earn commissions from the sales. Mac McDonald, impressed by Kroc's ambition, turned him down, preferring instead to retain control and focus on running their current operation more efficiently. However, Kroc persisted. As a result, the door was open for Ray Kroc to return to the brothers' restaurant in the future. Over the next several months, Ray devised various strategies to infiltrate their business with an unobtrusive presence. Kroc would help out in the local McDonald's, collecting detailed customer feedback in the process. Through this relentless probing of their systems, he often wrote notes of ways in which their operation could be improved. The strategy led to constructive conversations between Kroc and McDonald that left both men eager to work together for mutual gain. It wasn’t long before Ray found an opportunity to buy the rights to McDonald’s brand name, with the condition that the system only be carried out through his oversight. With more discussions, Kroc and McDonald outlined the rights for the rights for naming the system "Speedee Service System." Although the McDonald's brothers opposed many of Kroc's moves, as well as his increasing control over their operation, he progressively took steps to take over completely. During a pivotal moment, the McDonald brothers discovered Ray Kroc secretly holding control stakes at McDonald Enterprises, securing that if he should buy the majority shares, all business with any other restaurant claiming the "Speedee Service System" could go through McDonald's. It was then realized that the McDonald’s franchise system was of no use without the McDonald's name. Therefore it would ultimately result in the sole ownership of McDonald Enterprises to be at stake. Further actions taken by Ray Kroc ultimately led to him purchasing all remaining McDonald's shares in 1961. Ray Kroc’s single-minded pursuit and relentless drive bought him his eventual major success but by the same token, left a disappointed, embarrassed and empty-hearted Mac and Dick McDonald feeling they had made a disastrous mistake, forcing them into retirement. The chain eventually flourished, renamed McDonald's Corporation. As the face of the company and with Kroc's aggressive franchise development, McDonald's conquered the fast-food market, eventually thriving worldwide with restaurants and retail stores in numbers that the brothers initially thought no one would ever imagine possible. In the end, Ray Kroc achieved unimagined success through aggressive franchising, and long established himself in the fast-food industry. His bold business spirit became an American icon, while sadly influencing the sad decline of the McDonald brothers as their own true identities and innovation were reduced to that of mere names, absorbed by a brand that to them was beginning to no longer just have a sense of corporate vision but now too only bore their actual name too.