Overview

The sheer mention of hamburgers will naturally bring an immediate association with the leading brand, McDonald's. Even though McDonald's is not the creator of the hamburger, nor is it the pioneer of fast-food restaurants, its revolutionary approach to franchising fast-food outlets and its successful corporate strategy enabled it to become a fast-food juggernaut that is recognizable throughout the entire planet. Perhaps that is not a hyperbole and in fact, McDonald's Corporation could be forgiven for boasting that "it is the world's leading food service retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants in 118 countries serving 46 million customers each day". Its success is further symbolized by the fact that "the corporation generates more than $40 billion in annual systemwide sales".

In order to understand the success of McDonald's, it is imperative to look back at the background of this fast-food restaurant. Throughout the years, there has been a popular argument over who the real founders of McDonald's are: Is it the McDonald brothers, or is it Ray Kroc? A satisfactory answer would be that while the McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, were the founders of the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, Ray Kroc was the man who took the concept of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant, franchised it, and turned it into the money-spinning juggernaut it is right now. The McDonald brothers may have been portrayed as easily contented non-entrepreneurs by Ray Kroc in his semi-autobiography, Grinding It Out, but the fact that they were quick to capitalize on...