[.ca] McDonald's: Behind The Arches (ISBN 0553347594)

Behind Play Land and Ronald McDonald:
The story behind the ubiquitous golden arches, and the man who expanded them coast to coast, (and today they reach the edges of the Earth). This book provides a reader friendly, detailed synopsis of McDonald's through decades of the original brothers, to Ray Kroc's entry and exit of what would become one of the most recognized oranizations of the world. (Whether this fact has positive or negative implications is another matter entirely). This is a good book about Mickey-D's and sheds light on many other aspects of American history, diet, culture, business and advertising. Two brothers named McDonald went west to California from the north-east. They came with about about $8 dollars in their pockets (according to them) and got jobs moving props on movie sets in Hollywood (sound familiar?) After some initial business ventures the brothers opened their own small restaurant in San Bernadino. Meanwhile, in the Midwest Ray Kroc left school at 16, and like almost all other achievers that reached his level of success, he had a strong work ethic and a hard-driving tenacity to succeed. Expecially at concepts that intially proved successful (hence SOP procedures). How ya build opon something that has a good and successful foundation. A gifted, successful salesman from an early age, he got a job selling paper cups and sold them for 17 years as one of the top salesman of his company. Some of his clients for example, were Wrigley field's vendors, among other Chicago establishments. In his late thirties, he started selling shake mixers. McDonald's comes into the picture when Kroc noticed that two brothers who owned a drive-in hamburger restaurant in Southern California, kept ordering lots of shake mixing machines, when Kroc's mixer business was dying out everywhere else in the country. He met the McDonald brothers and was greatly impressed by their practices. Ray implored them to expand and they replied "who'd want to do it, we don't," and Kroc became the seller of their franchises in the Midwest. He was very successful at establishing McD's in that part of the country (hint). For his work he didn't earn a lot because of the deal he made with the brothers (an inkling of what was to come). So he added a creative and logical way to profit from his diligent work in spreading the franchises. He formed a separate corporation, and when setting up franchises he'd purchase the property where a new McDonald's was to be built, from his own original corporation he created. (Read Robert Kiyosaki's "Loophoes of the Rich" for details). So, with his corporations being the owner of the property, Kroc would either collect the rent, or a percentage of the restaurant's profits, whichever was greater, by contract structure. This allowed him to be compensated more fully in addition to his original deal with the McDonald brothers, which wasn't the most favorable. Kroc was selling the franchises and focusing on keeping the model and SOPs identical for every franchise. Perhaps an analogy to the assembly line of the Ford. Kroc had a methodology. If a winning method was not altered or diluted by individualistic owner operators or franchise restaurants here and there across the country, the sales, expansion, and growth would continue. McDonald's had tapped into what a large part of the American public wanted in post WWII America. Ray later bought McDonald's from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million cash. When he discovered after the deal was finished that the original McD restaurant in San Bernadino was not included, and was to be kept by the brothers, Kroc had forced them to change their restaurant's name on legal grounds, and then and built a franchise across the street to put them out of business. The brothers asked for this, and likely didn't understand 3 major things: 1. ethical business practices 2. the law 3. common sense. Advertising: to help solidify more growth and consumer loyalty, Kroc knew the value of kids. He hired top advertising people: enter Ronald McDonald. After some marketing tests in some particular regions, came the major nationwide promotion to get the kiddies pleading with their parents that they wanted to go to Mickey-Ds. Have you heard kids clamour their parents to do this? I have. And today, McDonald's has continued the kid-concept by investing large amounts into the Playgrounds added onto many of its' stores. McDonald's represents many things about American culture. To Americans, and today throughout the world. No matter what you think of Mickey D's it's quite an interesting story of how it started, evolved and came to it's ubiquity today. It's a fact that those golden arches are more recognized than the Christian cross. Again, whether we think that's good or not leads to several other issues involving, chemicals and food science, general health, obesity, globalization, homogenization, marketing to children, and corporatization. For additional insights into the McDonald's phenomenon read, Jennifer Talwar's "Fast Food, Fast Track" and Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal," and Fumento's "Fatland."

Want to know absolutely everything about McDonald's?:
If you want to know absolutely everything about McDonald's and Ray Kroc, this is the book for you (all 470 pages in #4 font). The concepts (developing suppliers and new products, creating franchising, designing specific equipment, etc.) that McDonald's developed and implemented can and should be used in all industries! Plan at least a month to thoroughly read this book. (The low rating is due to the book length and the author's tendency to repeat stories.)

McDonalds - more than a quick bite:
Growing up in the end of the 20th century and not knowing McDonalds is almost impossibile. In all parts of the world McDonalds has become part of the eating culture and represents a modern way of life. This book takes you behinde the scene and shows how a great idea went to spread out across the world. The book is writen in a light but very precise way, never boaring and always fascinating. All I can say is "read it and love it, whilst eating at McDonalds".

Made me crave french fries............:
I read and enjoyed Fast Food Nation a few years ago and wanted to read more about McDonalds as a corporation that began quite modestly and is now an internationally recognized symbol. This book while critical at times is far less disparaging than Fast Food Nation. From a business perspective this book offers insight into managemnt, advertising, product development and expansion. I admit I skimmed the long passages on fanchising. The best parts are those describing the fateful meeting of the McDonalds brothers and Ray Kroc who took their idea of trasty, well produced fast food and spun into a national phenomenon. I enjoyed the chapter dealing with how McDonalds made its foray into the international market as well as how new products were developed. The best ideas came from the franchisees. Kroc was convinced little poundcakes would be top sellers and also introduced a "Hula Burger" of cheese and pineapple ?!? The idea of a chicken entree was oringinally to be a deep fried chicken pie and the mcnuggets began as onion bits deep fried. It was interesting to read and I liked seeing the evolution of a corporation.

Interesting And Relevant To Today:
The story behind the ubiquitous golden arches, and the man who expanded them coast to coast, (and today they reach edges of the Earth). This book provides a reader friendly, detailed synopsis of MacDonald's through the decades of the original brother to Ray Kroc entry and exit of on of the most recognized emblems of the world. (Whether this fact is has positive or negative implications is another matter entirely). This is a good book about Mickey-D's and sheds light on many other aspects of American history, culture, business and advertising. Two brothers named McDonald went west to California from the north-east. They came with about $8 dollars and got jobs moving props on movie sets in Hollywood (sound familiar?) After some initial business ventures the brothers opened their own small restaurant in San Bernadino. In the Midwest Ray Kroc left school at 16, and like almost all other achievers that reached his level of success, he had a strong work ethic and a hard-driving tenacity to succeed at a concept that in+tial+ly proved successful. How ya build on something good. A gifted successful salesman from an early age, he got a job selling paper cups and sold them for 17 years as one of the top salesman of the company. Some of his clients were Wrigley field among other Chicago establishments. In his late thirties, he started selling shake mixers. McDonald's comes into the picture when Kroc noticed that two brothers who owned a drive-in hamburger restaurant in SoCal, kept ordering lots of shake mixing machines, when Kroc's mixer business was dying out everywhere else in the country. He met the McDonald brothers and was greatly impressed by their practices. Kroc become the seller of their franchises in Illinois, and was very successful at establishing and McD's in the Midwest. For his work he didn't earn a lot because of the deal he made with the two brothers (an inkling of what was to come). So he added a creative and logical way to profit from his diligent work in spreading the franchises. He formed a separate corporation, and when setting up franchises he'd purchase the property where a new McDonald's was to be built. He'd collect the rent or a percentage of the restaurant's profits, whichever was greater. This allowed him to be compensated more fully in addition to his original deal with the McDonald brothers, which wasn't the most favorable. Kroc was selling the franchises and focusing on keeping the model and SOPs identical for every franchise. Perhaps an analogy to the assembly line of the Ford. Kroc had a methodology. If a winning method was not altered or diluted by a franchise restaurant here and there across the country, the sales, expansion, and growth would continue. McDonald's had tapped into what a large part of the American public wanted in post WWII America. Ray later bought McDonald's from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million cash. When he discovered after the deal was finished that the original McD restaurant in San Bernadino was not included, and was to be kept by the brothers, Kroc had them change their restaurants name, and he built a franchise across the street to put them out of business. Advertising: To help solidify more growth and consumer loyalty, Kroc knew the value of kids. He hired top advertising people: enter Ronald McDonald. After some marketing tests in some particular regions, came the major nationwide promotion to get the kiddies pleading with their parents that they wanted to go to Mickey-Ds. Have you heard kids clamour their parents to do this? I have. And today, McDonald's has continued the kid-concept by investing large amounts into the Playgrounds added onto many of its' stores. McDonald's represents many things about American culture. To Americans, and today throughout the world. No matter what you think of Mickey D's it's quite an interesting story of how it started, evolved and came to it's ubiquity today. It's a fact that those golden arches are more recognized than the Christian cross. Again, whether we think that's good or not leads to several other issues involving, chemicals and food science, general health, obesity, globalization, homogenization, marketing to children, and corporatization. For additional insights into the McDonald's phenomenon read, Jennifer Talwar's "Fast Food, Fast Track" and Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal," and Fumento's "Fatland."