13 Reading reflection

1.       The book I chose to read was grinding it out. The story of Ray Krok. The man who turned McDonalds into a corporation of thousands of restaurants around the U.S. and internationally.

a.       What surprised me the most is how Ray literally came from a small middle class working family and built such a large legacy by maintaining principles that he learned as a young boy-teenager.

b.       From the beginning of the book I admired Rays drive and compassion about making business and his dreams become a reality. He would work tirelessly just to make ends meet and his dreams work. Another thing I admired was how much he gave in his later years of life after obtaining so much success.

c.       What I didn’t connect with Mr. Krok on was his overconfidence in his expenditures. As an entrepreneur I understand that you must take risk but He would unnecessarily take very large risk even during the great depression quitting a job for another he thought would be more profitable. I would rather have a sustainable lifestyle than take the risk of living on the street.

d.       Although McDonalds wasn’t a failure there were trivial things, not financially, within the company that were dealt with as soon as Ray could find a solution to the problem. Adversity is a word that makes me think to the different applications of products introduced to deal with competition. My favorite was the filet-o-fish sandwich implemented in the late 60s if I recall correctly. They did this to satisfy the need of Catholics on the day that the priest wanted them to fast meat. The sandwich turned out to be a hit even among other religions.

2.       A major competency I saw within Mr. Krok was this ability to foresee the future and identify what needed to be done foreshadowing the success of the many businesses he affected in his lifetime.   He could almost always tell what an expenditure would end up being, majorly successful, or a huge failure.

3.       A part of the reading I found confusing was how little he implemented the value of spouses of McDonalds men being involved in the business and decisions the men would make effecting the business, while rarely talking about his spouses rather than one. His last wife was detailed much more than his second and first. I believe this because his third wife had been a part of the McDonalds business since the beginning, because she was married to an operator of a few of the earliest franchises. She was willing to be involved in the business heavily while the other two didn’t want much part to the business.

4.       Since he has passed many changes to the overall quality and cleanliness of McDonalds has gone down. So, my first question would be: “Would you try to start an effort to reboot the QSCandV you originally put so much emphasis behind?” and 2. “Is there a way that you think you could make McDonalds quality increase while keeping the prices the same?”

5.       He stated many times that he enjoyed demanding work in the book so I would say he interpreted hard work to be “grinding” to make everything fall into place no matter how hard it was or how many hours it took, all while never seeming like it was a chore, rather than it being a hobby. My opinion of hard work on the other hand is physical labor. I see this because I have worked in a lot of various aspects of life, from working retail, to mechaniching, to working in a factory. My vision of hard work is demanding physical labor… mental work, numbers, communicating etc. is cake compared to being in a 110-degree building 8 hours a day with only a 30 minute lunch break is what I envision hard and never want to do this kind of work again.