3 Lessons We Can Learn from the Founders of McDonald’s
The story of Kroc and Sonneborn
Ray Kroc was a genius at operation details.
He also knew lots more about hamburgers, milk shakes, and French fries. In fact, probably more than almost every human being on earth.
Enter Harry Sonneborn.
He was a genius of another sort.
He was good at complicated financial operations.
He kept saving the company from bankruptcy.
Can you guess the company?
Nope (that would’ve been the most long-winded and disappointing build-up ever).
It is, as promised:
I found this story from this book: Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell.
I’ve digested it (pun intended) and extracted three (3) lessons we can learn from the founding of McDonald’s.
1. Synergy — work with people who are different from you
Apparently, Sonneborn didn’t even like hamburgers.
But together, Kroc and Sonneborn were a formidable team.
They made McDonald’s not only a leading company in the world, but a familiar household name.
Not just in the US, but across the world.
But one of them couldn’t have started this business without the other.
2. Break from the past — if you decide to do something new, don’t go 50%
Enter Howard Johnson.
Howard Johnson was another restaurant franchise at the time (not under the above logo).
It was the 50s, when lots of fast food restaurants aspired to be the big hit.
You may have noticed, Howard Johnson is a person’s name.
You are right.
Howard Deering Johnson was an American entrepreneur born in 1897 in Boston, Massachusetts.
He actually decided to name his restaurant ‘Howard Johnson Jr’.
Can you imagine the sort of vibe, just from the name alone? Or the sort of mistakes it would make?
That restaurant brought over practices that worked in conventional restaurants, but it was still too slow for fast food.
But Kroc and Sonneborn were leaders under a new mould. They fully embraced the new model of fast food production.
They broke free from the reins of the old world.
3. Risk-taking — try lots of things, and risk is (sometimes) good
Kroc and Sonneborn tried lots of ways to find successful franchise managers.
They wanted to grow their business and attract people to manage franchises for them.
They looked for people who had previous business experience, and who did well.
Nonetheless, they did very poorly with MackieD’s.
Then they tried something else.
And that something worked.
It was when they hired a working class couple, a couple who poured their lives’ savings into the venture.
They wanted the business badly.
They were so financially strained at the start that they even struggled to come up with the $100 required to start their opening day.
The $100 was needed for the cash register.
They ended up millionaires.
Which point will you take away?
The most important thing in learning a skill is, of course, to put it into practice.
For me, my biggest take away is point 1 — working with someone who’s the complete opposite of me. I’ll probably learn something from them.
Which one is yours?
Summary
1. Synergy — work with people who are different from you
2. Break from the Past — if you decide to do something new, don’t go 50%
3. Risk-taking — try lots of things, and risk is (sometimes) good
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