Thinking about Ray Kroc
For no readily apparent reason, I’ve been thinking about Ray Kroc today. The story, as I remember it, had Ray Kroc living a fairly unremarkable life selling paper products and milkshake mixing machines up until his 52nd birthday, or so. He then saw something that changed his, and millions of American’s lives. He saw, and understood the implications of the local success enjoyed by the MacDonald brothers who were running a small local restaurant.
He came to an agreement with the MacDonald brothers, took their basic idea and expanded it nationally to become the fast-food chain know as McDonald’s.
The growth, and profitability of McDonald’s wasn’t a smooth instant success story. Individual stores fared well, but the corporation didn’t receive enough revenue to be truly called profitable. Where did the profits kick in?
When McDonald’s corporation started purchasing and leasing land to their franchise owners. Leverage, which is one of the strongest benefits of owning real estate, was one of the major reasons McDonald’s corporation switched from an “average” company to an American success story.
If you don’t know the story of Ray Kroc, I’d highly recommend searching his name on a search engine and reading some of the information about him. Fascinating guy, I think everyone can learn something from what he accomplished.