Yesterday I went to the movie theatre to watch “The Founder”, the story of Ray Kroc and McDonalds. Not only the movie was entertaining, it was also a very good business lesson, which is why I decided to share a few business insights from the movie. These insights may not only be valuable for business owners and entrepreneurs, they are also life lessons, reminding us to focus on the essentials – having a vision, be persistent, be creative, and care about others, serving others.

The revolution in establishing MacDonalds as a new type of restaurant as compared to other restaurants at the time relied on a simple distinction: serving only a few items: hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, and milkshakes. In other words, having a simple line of products that is consistent across all McDonalds franchises ensured an easier choice for clients. Simplicity of the menu allowed to “Speedee service”, thus addressing one of the most common complaints with restaurants at the time – the wait to get served. Simplicity speeds up things, including client’s decisions, turnover and revenue.

Ray Kroc’s innovative franchising model of granting a franchisee the right to only one store location at a time, thus retaining the ability to exert control over the franchises and maintain uniformity of service and quality was key in building the McDonalds empire. By imposing a carefully design franchising strategy – i.e. divide and control – he ensured uniformity of service and quality. Creativity, careful planning and execution leads increased returns.

Kroc established strictly standardised operations for all McDonald’s franchises, including portion sizes and food preparation, packaging, and ingredients. Customer service standards were also high, although franchisees were allowed to determine how to market their businesses. While controlling and setting carefully all the internal process within the restaurant that directly impacted on the point of distinction of McDonalds, Kroc left some flexibility on the marketing approach, allowing the franchisee to tailor design their marketing to suit their local environment. Focus on the essentials, but be flexible enough to the local environment to drive innovation and the beginning of crowd sourcing.

Although Kroc did not create the concept of the chain restaurant, he saw a niche and developed the plan to transform burgers, fries and shakes into a huge empire. With his eagerness of always wanting more, he developed a global vision for McDonalds which lead to the creation of the McDonald global empire. Everything starts with a vision and the magnitude of the vision dictates the magnitude of the manifestation. Trust in the vision, single mindedness of focus and persistence are the keys to success.

Kroc was a stickler for consistency and cleanliness in all of his establishments. In addition, he did everything he could to keep costs down so that even low-income people could afford a meal out at McDonald’s. Keeping the cost down to ensure a low entry barrier can lead to widespread success.

Kroc’s insight to standardise cooking and serving procedures meant that all processes were efficient and easily learned, even by new and unskilled employees. By making the system clear, simple, and easily learnable, you can opened Pandora’s box to scalability and built an empire.

Kroc established a welcoming franchisee arrangement so that he could increase his presence. He used the method of charging a 1.9 percent commission on a franchisee’s sales, rather than charging a large startup fee. A system that allows itself to expand with low startup cost for franchisees, but a commission on success. Long-term vision pays more than short-term gratification.

As McDonald’s became the biggest restaurant company in the world, savvy salesman Kroc continued to live by his motto of providing customers what they wanted. Gives to the customer what he wants – quality food, cheap, simple with clean service, fast – and you’ll never have to worry about the customer. Stick to the essence of what the customer wants and you can’t make mistakes.

Finally, I’ll end on Ray Kroc’s motto: Persistence and determination can get you anywhere you desire.

 “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Ray Kroc

In Nutshell: VISION + DETERMINATION + PERSISTENCE = PERSONAL / PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS