About book Grinding It Out: The Making Of McDonald's (1992)
Ray Kroc meets Pabrai's criteria of a huge-value-creation CEO: truthful, loves his company, low-ego (well, putting company ahead of self, at least), high energy & determinationMemorable quotes: stay "green and growing"; "work is the meat in the hamburger of life"-- they did some deals that were win-win. Even when others got an unfair deal, just honored it and kept going -- focused on larger goal.Good judge of character, built a team of super-dedicated folksYelled a lot at work.Being in cup/mixer supplier business taught him a lot about what is a good operationStood by his convictions/principles, even to leaving his job in the great depressionAttributes success to persistence; also had excellent work ethic and some good judgements on what is likely to succeedKept vision of the operation pure -- and this focus helped drive replicability and successEmphasized QSC and V -- quality, service, cleanliness and value.Would not give up, making California operations a successCreated tons of millionaires while succeeding himself; francisees succeeded, mostly;The bun etc suppliers grew huge along with them, but he was happy to let them succeed, not try to vertically integrate -- focused on his forte; this system, while not capturing the largest percentage of profits, got everyone to act as owners, which is great; the increase in value came from win-win growth, not from zero-sum value allocationSmall menu resulted in extra fast service, great concentrated purchasing powerFour stars since this honest book paints a less compelling picture than Sam Walton, but inspiring none the lessNational advertising created ability to have fill-out nook and cranny expansionGround competitors down with QSC and VMade some rash calls -- maybe in the name of moving fast.
I'm not really sure how this book ended up in my to-read pile, but it was short and so I grabbed it for a recent plane trip. I was surprised to find that it was a rather engaging read. Finished (even this 2nd edition) long before McDonalds became the anti-health and corporate manipulation punching bag that it is today, I found it was rather charming to think of McDs as a tiny little operation with a small menu selling 15 cent hamburgers. I kind of wish I had been able to try their fries back when they cut the potatoes in the stores and made them by hand. I kind of wish I had been around when having a McDonalds open in your town was an exciting prospect (although I imagine it is sort of like what I experienced when a Container Store opened 2 miles from me recently). Based on the vision that he conveyed in his book, I have to attribute his vision and purpose with McDonald's to something akin to Steve Jobs and Apple. He knew what he wanted, he knew how things should be run, and he wanted to provide a stellar experience to all of his customers. He also strived to be fair with his store owners and with his suppliers and enrich everyone. I'm sure that some of the owners and suppliers might have had a different take on things. Nevertheless, watch the company grow and reading about how excited they were for the "new" look of the McDonalds stores in the 70s (when they all had those red mansard roofs) reminded me of how my local McDonalds looked as a kid, where we always used to go on Halloween night to have our candy scanned by the local police. And it made me take a fresh look at the various McDonald's I've seen driving around lately.
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This book contains the quote, "In the hamburger of life, WORK is the meat." Like Les Schwab's book, this is a fascinating autobiography of a complete maniac. Ray Kroc made his fortune with McDonald's late in life, after struggling as a salesman for various cup/plasticware companies and an automatic milk-shake machine maker. I read this shortly after reading "Fast Food Nation" and I think that everyone who agrees with Eric Schlosser that the fast-food industry undermines America's values and manipulates its workers should at least hear what Ray Kroc has to say. (If you'll allow me to summarize in two words, he says: "Fuck you!") The book also has Ray Kroc's explanation of the famous incident when he hijacked the PA to address the crowd DURING a San Diego Padres game (shortly after he bought the team) to apologize for the team's lazy play. (His explanation, if I may summarize, was: "Fuck you, of course I did that!")
—Jeff Gramm
Ray Kroc greased, fried, and larded his way into the history books, revolutionizing America's eating habits while exponentially spiking the fat and calorie count. Beneath this saga of the Golden Arches is a tender love story--that of Ray's torch-carrying devotion to Joan, his eventual third wife. He first set eyes on her at an office party, where she was playing piano. ("I was stunned by her blonde beauty.") They married a dozen years later, in 1969.After Ray's 1984 death, Joan invested her vast McDonald's fortune in a host of causes, including nuclear disarmament, the Salvation Army, animal rescue, and flood relief. However, it's her $225 million gift to National Public Radio that may have touched the greatest number of lives. It certainly has mine.The four stars I give this book is an average--three stars for the chronicle of Ray's meteoric rise in the fast-food world, five stars for Joan.
—Conrad Wesselhoeft
I bought this book for my dad for Christmas - this prompted a lot of questions from him about the history of McDonald's and how things are run today. So ultimately I read this out of obligation to some extent, but more than anything, I wanted to learn more about my employer.Overall, it was very interesting - I often hear about the Joan Kroc Estate on NPR and was quite surprised when I read that Ray & Joan met while they were both married (she was married to an owner operator). They ultimately decided to divorce their spouses to be together - who knew? It was also good to hear a more colorful, though autobiographical, account of Ray Kroc's life. Today, I see many quotes from Ray Kroc around the company, but I really didn't know much about him. Now I feel a bit more enlightened.I also appreciated learning about where the company started and some of the early growing pains... I didn't care for reading about Ray's ego and his obsession with owning a MLB team.I recommend this book to all McD employees and to people that have an interest in how McDonald's got started.
—Ann Marie
