Why weren’t the Mcdonalds brothers able to reap the success of their revolutionary fast food production system?  ¡Simple, due to their lack of leadership!

It all started in 1937, in Pasadena, California, when the Dick and Maurice McDonald brothers opened a small self-service restaurant that actually, it first specialized in Hot-Dogs, not hamburgers. A few years later, they moved to San Bernardino, California, where they reorganized their kitchen into a fast food production line and included hamburgers on the menu. Over the years, hamburgers became the main dish and after 15 years of operation, they decided to franchise the business.

The funny thing is, even though the Mcdonalds Brothers were very good with their customers and had very revolutionary ideas, and an exceptional product, they only managed to sell 15 franchises. They did not had the ability to make the franchisees believe in their Business model. It wasn’t until Ray Kroc came along that Mcdonalds started to really grow. Ray Kroc sold 100 franchises in the first 4 years of operation and almost 400 in the next 4 years.

What did Kroc do that the Macdonalds brothers didn’t? He believed in the business, but more importantly, he got the franchisees to believe in the business model.

Kroc fixed the most important problems since the beginnig, recruited leaders for critical positions and although he couldn’t pay them with the resources the business had at that time, he took out personal bank loans, cashed in his life insurance policy and sacrificed his own salary for years to keep things running smoothly. At that point, thanks to Ray Kroc’s faith in the business, the franchisees beleived in him and in the business modeland the rest of the story tells itself.

The faith and self-confidence of the leader in any company, largely determines the success of the Business, but more importantly, how he can transmit it to his employees and how he can influence in them, also plays an important role in the companies success.

If Kroc had not believed in the potential that the revolutionary fast food system of the Mcdonalds brothers had, he probably would not have been able to sell as many franchises as he did. But also, if he hadn’t being able to influence in the franchisers the way he did, thanks basicly to his example, he wouldn’t have been able to make Mcdonald’s grown to the size it was born to.

Gonzalo Gonzalez

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