13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc

1.     After reading Grinding it Out: The making of McDonald’s memoir about the startup of McDonald’s I was very intrigued. Unlike the startup of Apple, I had never thought to wonder how McDonald’s became what it is today. What surprised me most was learning that Kroc was 52 years old when he first was introduced to the McDonald’s name. I thought that he was pretty old for partnering with a company which changed the rest of his life. I admired most about Kroc is that he never gave up. He never received a high school diploma, had some obstacles and made some poor decisions along the way, but he never gave up. He struggled to make ends meet for most of his life and had to work 19 hour shifts to support himself. Kroc was told that he was destined to do this in his life, so he never gave up. I least admired that Kroc didn’t feel that an education was important enough. He felt like school would be a waste of time for him. For the great businessman that he became, a high school or college level education could have given him a little more prestige and credibility. In the end, he became one of the most successful businessmen there has been, but an education should have been more important to him. Kroc definitely faced adversity and failure. When he went into selling multimixers and in the end received only 40% of the profits because of a hole in his contract. He was losing out on so much money that he was supposed to be receiving 100% of it. His 19-hour shifts were definitely not easy for him. Additionally, when he opened the second McDonald’s, he struggled quality control. He couldn’t figure out how to exactly prepare the French fries which was a staple to the company. To manage this adversity, he had to contact potato and onion experts to help him.

2.     A competency that Kroc exhibited was being a great salesman, having a good sense of business, and coping with stressful decisions.

3.     A part of the reading that confused me was when Kroc flew out to San Bernardino, California because he heard through the grapevine about this small restaurant. I am wondering why the brothers agreed to meet with a person who they didn’t know, and a guy who was selling mixers for a living. Based on his previous record, he didn’t seem like the best choice to partner up with.

4.     If I were to ask Kroc two questions, I would ask him: If you were to look at McDonald’s today, would you be happy with the company’s results? How do you feel that McDonald’s has contributed to a lot of unhealthy eating? I want to ask him these questions because McDonald’s seems like the father of all fast food chains. Because of McDonald’s and fast food chains, obesity has grown. Did he envision McDonald’s to be an international company with different segments or did he want to stick to the original simple menu in America.

5.     I think that Kroc’s opinion of hard work was the amount of time spent on something, and the output that you produce. Since he wanted to franchise McDonald’s, he probably wanted to produce the most amount that he could with the McDonald’s name. I don’t necessarily agree with this opinion. I believe quality over quantity. McDonald is not known for the best quality of food. They are able to produce a plethora amount of food, but their quality is not great.