JOANNA B.

GUERRERO MANAGEMENT MMNSA MOJ 1D

The Founder (2016): A Reaction Paper

The Founder (2016), directed by John Lee Hancock, it began with the curiosity of Ray
Kroc to a certain fast-food restaurant which was named after the surname of McDonald
brothers (Mac and Dick McDonald) as McDonald’s Hamburgers because there are so many
customers trying to buy the food that they offer so he also ordered and saw that their
operation is also good, there’s enough machines, crews or workers and a good facility for
them to work at. He had the opportunity to talk with the owners and was even toured
around the business facility. While they were having conversation the owners told how they
started and opened about the strategies they’ve done. The use of “speed” as a basis for
their production and the customization of their products is done by McDonalds itself, they
have 30 seconds of preparing the food instead of having it for 30 minutes because they
noticed that people love the idea of having instant foods for convenience, but then it
doesn’t affect its quality since the owners personally checks and observe them properly
given the situation when the fries was checked by Dick on how it was cooked it shows how
hands-on they are towards their business. They also consider the customer’s feedback for
example is when Ray Kroc gave a suggestion regarding their fries. The McDonald brothers
took Wylie Reid as an inspiration to put up a business for he owns a hotdog and root beer
stand so they came up on having a hotdog and orange juice in Arcadia, but it didn’t mean
that they copied his business instead they decided to moved out of the place and relocated
to San Bernardino due to their market which is also a good idea for me because if there’s
too much competitors that surrounds your business and there’s only less customers it is
much better to find new location where the business might have an edge and the market
will recognize it.

As years passed by, McDonald’s upgraded their terms of providing service and
improved their products which is based on the current trends. There came a time that their
sales level-off since they are just beginners, they often face challenges. They experience
having huge salary expenses due to large staff requirements based on their first try and they
realized that the bulk of orders only happens during the customer’s first three times of
trying their product. So, to have less expenses, they formed new strategies such as making a
new product and service design along with their new facility layout that meets the exact
vision they have for their business and that is to be considered as a unique one and will be
known as theirs only and fortunately their plan worked out as they wanted it to be and
resulted into symphony of efficiency. It is the world’s first ever system to deliver food fast
and they became an overnight sensation because of the demand for their products.

Then Ray Kroc had an idea of franchising McDonald’s, he suggested that there
shouldn’t be only one location for a business, that it must be expanded and known
everywhere. At first, the brothers hesitated to take the risk as they worry about quality
control because it’s impossible to enforce standards from afar according to them but later,
they were convinced by Kroc. Apparently, Ray Kroc got all the ideas which was originally
made by the brothers including the golden arches and blueprints and came to tell other
people that it was his own ideas for his own benefit. He let his other friends franchise the
business, but it turned out to be a failure since they cannot take care of it properly.
Afterwards, he regains having another franchisee again, but it gave him an opportunity to be
boastful to the point that he neglected the mere fact of not being the original founder of
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McDonald’s he became more famous and richer than them. He tried to break the old deal
he had with the brothers. Although they regretted the idea of letting Kroc into their lives,
they couldn’t do anything about it anymore because he was obviously stealing what was
theirs, the siblings even had an argument with each other, and it somehow affected their
relationship. Meanwhile, there was a man named Harry Sonneborn who influenced Kroc to
totally have the control over McDonalds and get the authority from the original owners, so
they formed the Franchise Realty Corporation which is a separate entity outside McDonald’s
purview where Kroc is the President and CEO.

The McDonald brothers confronted him saying that every deal changed must be
agreed in writing, but he refused and still went through his plan. Additionally, he asked for a
divorce in his legal wife, Ethel, and got married to Joan who happened to be the wife of a
restaurant owner and a McDonald franchisee because according to Kroc, Joan dream big
than his own wife. The sad thing about it is that Ethel didn’t even have a share to Kroc’s
business due to his selfishness. The McDonald brothers stick to their deal, but Kroc didn’t
because all he thinks about is for his own sake. For him business is war, and he doesn’t care
for anything else but himself. The siblings became broke, Mac got sick, and Kroc took that as
an opportunity to take over their weakness, so he made a deal to pay them in exchange of
the full ownership of McDonald. Just like that the hardships made by the brothers went into
nothing and was bought in exchange. But after many years had passed it is mentioned in the
last part that they were totally cheated for they haven’t receive any compensation.

The movie has so many learnings and realizations to offer towards me while I am
watching it, both in real life situations and on management. I was touched of how the story
goes, specifically within the story of the original founder of McDonalds and I was literally
amazed on how they put up strategies for their business to succeed. The factors that a
business must possess was also shown all throughout such as the consideration of the
market, the location, accessibility, the immediate service, and good quality of product to be
provided and many more. In the first part of the movie I focused on the motto which was
used by Ray Kroc in order to promote and sell a multi-mixer product that “If you increase
supply, demand will follow”, which is a bit contradicting for me because in my opinion the
quantity of supply made by the manufacturers or distributors and the quantity which will be
demanded by the market is not the same since there are instances that there is a less
demand from customers although there are lot of supplies which are only stocked by the
suppliers due to some unexpected conditions, for me it is much applicable to follow the
quantity to be supplied based from the variation of quantity demanded by the market which
involves chase demand strategy. Persistency can be seen on the character of Ray Kroc
during those times that he was always rejected by several businessmen. In fact, he’s always
listening to words of wisdom about positivity. The statements “Persistence and
determination alone are all powerful. Show that you don’t have to be defeated by anything”
and “While it may sound like a magical notion, it is in you to create your own future”
somehow gave me an inspiration to do my best no matter what challenges I may face in the
future.

Upon finishing the movie, I realized that the uncertainty of the justice system puts us
into acknowledge our limitations. From the influences that Ray has, our best educated guess
is that the brothers will be better off selling the company, for they are not able to
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successfully sue and win Ray. However, if the court knows the story of the brothers and
decide to favor them over Ray, our prediction will fall short because the dominant strategy
for the brothers will be to not sell the company and sue Ray. This probability is low,
however, due to the existing corruption in which one could potentially buy the government
officials with financial bribe. Ray, therefore, will use any means to win the court and
subordinate the McDonald brothers. This movie has portrayed a dismal view of the history
of the McDonald’s Corporation fast food chain. Ray Kroc, by having the political powers and
financial advantages compared to the McDonalds’ brothers, has dominated the company
without letting the brothers owning any share of the company. This is a zero-sum game; Ray
has put it frankly on the phone to the McDonald brothers: “Business is war. It is “dog eat
dog, rat eat rat”. If my competitor were drowning, I'd walk over and put a hose right in his
mouth.” Indeed, the McDonalds’ brothers have never foreseen that one day, Ray Kroc will
betray them. Indeed, the McDonalds’ brothers have put too much faith in Ray and accept
his offer to franchise the company in the beginning. Eventually, the McDonald brothers
must put their brand names off their original restaurant. Ray then opens a new restaurant
right beside the brothers’ restaurant, then put the McDonalds’ brothers out of business. The
McDonalds’ brothers, despite being the original founders, were not paid any shares of the
company, which might now worth 100 million dollar annually.

I realize how related it is into the current issues and situations we have. There are
people that won’t even show gratitude to you even after all the things you’ve done for
them, I can say that Kroc obviously has ethical issues because of his guts to own something
which isn’t originally his but as we all know there is such thing called karma and although he
experienced having popularity and wealth here on Earth it doesn’t mean that he can bring it
until his last breath so it’ll be all nonsense after all. Regarding the McDonald brothers, I
literally feel sorry for them for giving their trust into somebody who isn’t deserving for it but
then I compliment them for the good things they’ve done especially while running a
business because they did everything to achieve their mission and applied all the processes
that must be considered when having or running a business, they also proved that if a
correct process has been selected then it will lead to a good result in the business.

References: Hancock, John Lee. The Founder. 2016.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/
JOANNA B. GUERRERO MANAGEMENT MMNSA MOJ 1D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founder