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Date Submitted: 04/20/2013 09:02 PM
Ray Kroc Biography
Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s Corporation, and once referred to by Harvard Business School as “the service sector’s equivalent of Henry Ford”, was born in Illinois in 1902.
Lying about his age to enlist as a Red Cross ambulance driver in 1917, he never got the chance to serve because the war ended before he had time to reach the front line.
A gifted piano player, he joined the Tulip Cup Company in 1922, selling cups by day and playing piano on the radio at night.
Becoming Tulip’s Midwest sales manager, Kroc acquired the exclusive rights to a new “multimixer” milkshake machine, promoting it across the United States.
Kroc learnt a great deal about catering management during his travels. In 1954, he visited one of his clients in Bernardino, a restaurant owned by two McDonald brothers. Amazed by the stream-lined operation, he set up nationwide franchises for the brothers.
Opening his first McDonalds outside Chicago in 1955, he developed the firm’s no-frills approach. Expanding widely, he bought out the McDonald brothers in 1961, for $2.7m, after becoming frustrated that they did not want to expand at the rapid rate he thought they should.
It was a bargain, as McDonald's grew exponentially, becoming one of the world’s most recognisable brands. By 1963, Kroc’s firm had sold three billion burgers, opened its 500th store, and, in a somewhat cynical attempt to target children, chosen Ronald McDonald as the icon of the firm. By 1965, the clown was more familiar to US children than the President. Kroc ensured that operations were standardised across all restaurants so that a Big Mac would taste the same wherever the customer purchased it. Strict customer service standards were also introduced. He would famously say to employees that if they had "time to lean" they had "time to clean".
Opening its 1,000th restaurant in 1968, in 1971 Kroc moved the firm into Europe.
Creating an enterprise of thousands of almost identical franchises throughout...