Grinding It Out: The Making Of McDonald's
by Ray Kroc
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ray KrocEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-04-15
ISBN: 0312929870
Number of pages: 218
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780312929879
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Grinding It Out: The Making Of McDonald's
Book Review: The Ray Kroc Way
Summary: 4 Stars
Everyone knows McDonalds. Everyone is familiar with the
golden arches. Even in the farthest removed regions of the
planet where no one has experienced a McDonalds, the name
brings to mind several things:
Most people, think of a hamburger. Not just any hamburger.
They think of something superior. A burger that defines the
gold standard. The burger beyond all burgers. The burger
that proves that not all burgers are created equal.
Overview
The ubiquity of the brand is enough to show superior
salesmanship and product quality. However, what many people
do not think of is the man behind McDonalds: Ray Kroc.
This book is about a side of Ray Kroc that even his fans
have probably never seen; Ray Kroc *the man*, and Ray Kroc,
*the investor*.
This autobiography provides a detailed account of his life,
from his point of view. It details his early childhood,
his rebellious teenage years, his middle age mayhem and his
eventual seasoned successful later years.
The tone of the book is cordial and it provides very
light, easy reading. The ease of the read should not,
however, be taken to mean that the book lacks depth. This
is among the more pithy biographies that I've read.
In this book, Ray Kroc took me on a journey along is path
to success. He began McDonalds when he was fifty two. At such a
late age, only Colonel Sanders could best (or approximate?)
his chutzpah.
Despite, or perhaps because of, his age, he
became a veritable overnight success. He was a multi-millionaire
within 10 years! McDonalds was generating a billion
dollars per annum in revenue during that same time period. It's worth
noting that it took behemoths like IBM and Xerox Parc more
than 3 times that amount of time to generate similar
revenues!
The Early Years
Ray Kroc had a variety of talents. He spent his early years
working harder than any of his agemates. He played the
piano in clubs at night and during the day he was a
salesman. Initially he sold paper cups and later he sold
*multi-mixers*, devices that allowed resturants to
make quality milk shakes en masse.
As a child, he was known as a dreamer. He's parents didn't
approve. School seemed to be incompatible with his DNA and
he quit before his 18th birthday.
I was never much of a reader when I was a boy. Books bored
me. I liked action. But **I spent a lot of time thinking
about things**. I'd imagine all kinds of situations and how I
would handle them.
It was during this time that he, an underage boy, lied his way into getting
recruited by the Red Cross so that he could participate in
the 1st World War. At this early age, he felt a sense of
duty to his country.
It was while on an assigment that he came across another
like minded individual who had also lied his way into
recruitment:
In my company, which assembled in Connecticut for training,
was another fellow who had lied about his age to get in. He
ws regarded as a **strange duck**, because whenever we
had time off and went out on the town to chase girls, he
stayed in camp drawing pictures. His name was **Walt
Disney**.
It was these formative years where he built up his mind and
his resilience to rejection. Sales also provided him an
opportunity to build strong trust releationships with a
myriad of individuals. Wherever he came across a client or
a potential client, he would not only sell a product but
would also attempt to provide suggestions that would improve
the client's business:
The book details a story where an adamant shop owner refused
to buy paper cups because he did not perceive the value.
Ray then offered him a free consignment and told him that
his sales would improve. If they did indeed improve, Ray
would pass by to collect more orders.
The shop owner's income did, in fact, improve and this was
the beginning of Ray Kroc getting hold of many large
accounts while his peers struggled with a motley mix of
small irregular accounts.
Investing the Ray Kroc Way
The book gives significant pointers into what I call *The
Ray Kroc Way*. His investment strategy was simple and
analogous to those of his fellow billionaires:
1. Invest completely in product you completely believe in.
Whether he was selling paper cups or hamburgers, Ray
completely believed in his products. He believed they would
add value and he put his name behind his product even
offering free consignments so that potential clients could
witness the increase in value due to a superior product.
That McDonald's burgers were the best is no coincidence.
Ray Kroc discussed it thusly:
Consider, for example, the hamburger bun. It requires a
certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hambrger bun. Yes,
is it any more unusual to find grace in the texture and
softly curved silhouette of a bun than to reflct lovingly on
the hackles of a favourite fishing fly? Or the arrangement
of textures and colours in a butterfly's wing?
Not if you're a McDonald's man. Not if you view the bun as
an essential material in the art of servering a great many
meals fast.
2. Bet Big.
He invested **big** in the McDonalds franchise empire.
In ten years, he had built over 3000 stores. One episode
details his reaction to one of his executives slowing down
construction because of the weak economy. Ray Kroc
throws a tantrum. He insists that it makes no sense to wait
for the economy to improve because the cost of building will
also increase. He says that the perfect time to build is
when times are bad!
The mark of a true investor is one who knows and can exploit
the advantages of both the bad times and the good.
3. Drive a Hard Bargain.
Ray Kroc would never settle for a unfair deal. He firmly
believed that all parties should get the amount of value
that they deserve.
Consider the scenario where he was playing the piano at the *Silent Night* night club. After the main show, he would, necessarily, play a couple more tunes to please the
crowd.
The sad part about this was that he wasn't treated like the
lead in spite of the fact that he obviously was. As a
result he was expected to share his tips with the rest of
the Williard Robinson Orchestra of which he was a part.
He would go home with his fingers covered in
blisters and swathed in bandages. His income would not
reflect his effort.When he discussed this with his manager
he was ignored. How Ray then dealt with it is even more interesting:
... I got smart, all right, but no thanks to Robinson. I
was doing my solo routine for requests one night, and an
old geezer who'd won a bundle at the racetrack that day came
in with a doll who could have been his granddaughter but
obviously was not...
...the old boy waved a dollar bill at me and asked if I
could play "I Love You Truly." I just stared at him and
shook my head negatively. He was startled and the young
girl slapped his hand with the dollar, knocking it into the
top hat, and she shouted;
"How dare you insult him with a dollar, you cheapskate!"
Then she grabbed a twenty dollar bill from his breast pocket
and dropped it in my lap.....
This was a small indication of the hard bargaining Ray that
was to emerge in the McDonald years.
1. Pay Attention to the Details.
Some armchair quaterback billionaires frequently preach the
ills of micromanaging. What I gathered, after reading this
book, is that micromanagement is not such a bad thing. In
fact, it is a good indication of a leader's dedication to
his goal and a pointer towards his\her future success.
Micromanagement, focussing on the small, pedantic attention
to detail and a continuous striving for perfection are
absolutely necessary to ensure quality across the entire
production pipeline. Ray Kroc put it best when he told
this story about his very first shops:
...Sometimes Ed MacLuckie would have forgotten to turn the
sign on when dusk began to fall, and that made me furious.
Or maybe the lot would have some litter on it that Ed said
he hadn't had time to pick up.
Those little things **didn't seem to bother some
people**, but they were gross affronts to me. I'd get
screaming mad and really let Ed have it...
...Perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was
what I wanted in McDonald's. Everything else was secondary
for me.
2. Surround yourself with good, competent, intelligent
people.
Ray hired only the best. Harry Sonnenborn was the financial
genius. June Martino, who started off as a personal
assistant became a mediator and the gell that held the
entire company together. Fred Turner was an operational
genius.
Ray and Harry, in particular, were a complete mirror of
the Warren Buffet-Charlie Munger combo!
Bottom-up Innovation and Development
Contrary to popular opinion, McDonald's is not a real
estate business. It is true that they do own a copious amount of extremely
valuable real estate on which their shops stand. In spite
of that, Ray Kroc firmly believed that they were in a
franchise business.
He emphasised the fact that McDonald's corporation should
not own the restaurants outright. Instead, shops owned by
franchisees should constitute the larger proportion of
businesses. His rule was that McDonald's would never own
more than 20% of the shops.
The reasoning behind this is solid and accurate. Ray built
an architecture of participation into the franchise. He did
this because he understood that the innovators are those
individuals at the grassroots level. Furthermore, he
understood that innovation happens elsewhere. By reducing
the barriers to entry, he ensured that he would allow
innovators to contribute to McDonald's as a whole.
This, *open architecture*, had positive results. The
fish items in the menu can be attributed to innovation from
shop owners. Other items such as the egg based dishes were
also a result of bottom up innovation.
Ray was constantly doing his best to decentralize the
operations of the McDonald's empire. Give people
responsibility and give them the power and authority to
execute the attendant duties.
Summary
This books is a classic. It is a biography that is
**mandatory** reading for anyone on the Billionaire
path.
Ray Kroc was a no nonsense businessman. At the same
time he was driven by a strong set of ethical and moral
principles.
Ray Kroc has proved that age is not and will never be a
determinant of success. In spite of Ray's many ailments, he
started McDonald's at the age of 52. During this time, he
had more energy than is displayed by many of today's
teenagers!
His story is one of absolute resilience and a realization
that *nothing* is impossible or rather,
*everything* is possible.
McDonald's have recently been the victim of bad
press. After reading this book, I'm convinced that if Ray
Kroc were still alive, McDonald's would be far superior to
what it is now, both ethically and qualitatively.
Summary of Grinding It Out: The Making Of McDonald's
Few entrepreneurs can claim to have actually changed the way we live, but Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food service automation, franchising, shared national training and advertising have earned him a place beside the men who founded not merely businesses but entire new industries.
But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business legend is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical self-made tycoon, Kroc was 52 when he met the McDonald brothers and opened his first franchise.
Now meet Ray Kroc, the man behind the business legend, in his own words. Irrepressible enthusiast, perceptive people-watcher, and born storyteller, he will fascinate and inspire you. You'll never forget Ray Kroc.
But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business legend is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical self-made tycoon, Kroc was 52 when he met the McDonald brothers and opened his first franchise.
Now meet Ray Kroc, the man behind the business legend, in his own words. Irrepressible enthusiast, perceptive people-watcher, and born storyteller, he will fascinate and inspire you. You'll never forget Ray Kroc.
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