Ray Kroc
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"“The key to success is being in the right place at the right time, recognizing that you are there, and taking action.” -Ray Kroc"
"the problem with pragmatism is that it rapidly becomes a habit, and short-term gratification – expressed in profits, cash and the praise which goes with them – becomes a drug that drives out long-term customer-related aspirations. It takes a rare visionary – people such as Henry Ford, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s, Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA, and Southwest Airlines’ Herb Kelleher – to insist on rock-bottom prices; or, as with Steve Jobs, fantastic products and a simple, intuitive customer experience. It takes an exceptional person to take on the risk of this approach – the risk of going bust."
"For example, the McDonald's people found out that the quality of the fries depended significantly on the starch content of the potatoes used, which had to be 21 percent. Ray Kroc sent specialists to the potato suppliers, who measured the starch content of the potatoes with a strange device - a hydrometer. The sight of the McDonald's specialists with their hydrometers left many a potato farmer speechless. They had never experienced someone showing up to subject their potatoes to thorough testing. But Kroc was still not satisfied. He inquired about how the potatoes were stored, and was shocked to hear that most suppliers stored the tubers in artificial caves lined with peat. So he began to look for processing companies that were willing to invest in modern storage with automatic temperature control. But that wasn't enough. With scientific precision, he had the frying process in the restaurants analyzed and potential improvements worked out. The husband of Kroc's secretary, who had previously worked as an electrical engineer for Motorola and then opened a McDonald’s restaurant with his wife, studied the frying process for the fries for several months in the basement of his restaurant. Eventually, he came to the belief that McDonald’s needed its own research lab, because despite all the improvements, the quality of the fries varied – and Kroc would not tolerate this. Kroc eventually agreed to the proposal to set up a small laboratory."