What makes mcdonalds

And, 25 percent of the American population eats fast food on a daily basis. This phrase continued to be displayed on its main sign with the golden arches even after McDonalds surpassed million hamburgers sold. But it all started with a couple of brothers in a family run business! They have different talents, and want different things. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen to all the episodes online or subscribe to the programme podcast.

Take Dick and Mac. They were brilliant at figuring out more efficient ways to make hamburgers. As John F Love notes in his book McDonald's: Behind the Arches, the brothers worked with a local craftsman to invent a new kind of spatula, a new dispenser that squirted the same amount of ketchup and mustard every time, and a rotating platform to speed up the process of assembling of burger, bun and condiments.

What Henry Ford had done for cars, the McDonald brothers did for hamburgers and French fries: they broke down processes into simple, repetitive tasks. This meant they could churn out food quickly, cheaply and consistently.

There was nothing else like it. But when it came to the wider world, the brothers seem to have been fairly clueless. When competitors started peering through the windows, taking out notepads and sketching plans, Dick and Mac laughed about it. When anyone asked about those ingenious condiment dispensers, they cheerfully named their craftsman friend.

None of them had bothered to patent the design. Some people wanted more than snatched sketches, so the brothers sold franchises - after a fashion. For a one-off fee, you could buy blueprints to their building, with the golden arches, a page description of their "Speedee Service System", and a week's training. After that, the franchisees were on their own. Dick and Mac did not expect that their trainees would serve the same menu, or even use the same name.

When their very first franchisee mentioned that he would also call his new restaurant "McDonald's", Dick replied: "What the hell for? Into this smooth-running kitchen and half-baked franchising operation walked a man with different skills and desires. Ray Kroc was in his 50s, and managing health problems from diabetes to arthritis. But he was keener on money than peaceful sunsets, and he loved life on the road. Kroc later wrote that "finding locations for McDonald's is the most creatively fulfilling thing I can imagine".

Sensing a business opportunity with a lot of potential, he made a proposal to the McDonald brothers to begin franchising their restaurant concept, which the brothers eventually accepted. His belief in this motto was so strong he went on to found a training school in , "Hamburger University," which remains the training program for franchisees.

The curriculum is based upon the four concepts, as well as lessons Kroc learned from his initial years in operating the franchise.

Consistency, of course, is vital to any franchise system and Hamburger University has systematically taught McDonald's franchisees how to run a restaurant the way Ray Kroc envisioned over 60 years ago. Customers know what to expect and can rely on that knowledge when making a decision on where to eat.

The early efforts towards process repetition and efficiency not only set the basis for McDonald's success from the standpoint of customers' expectations, but also help McDonald's stay on top in a culture where producing at a quick pace is commonly expected.

At first, the characteristics of consistency and innovation seem to contradict one another. Staying consistent with the core components of your business doesn't mean the products you sell, or even the way you deliver them, have to stay the same. With a solid foundation and established processes, you can tweak your product to better serve your customers without causing disruptions.

Innovation stemming from responsiveness its customers and franchisees has played a big role in McDonald's fending off stagnation over the years. For example, in a group of potential McDonald's customers had a problem: They were soldiers and, at that time, soldiers where they were located weren't permitted to get out of their cars while wearing their fatigues.

After learning of this problem, McDonald's came up with a solution: add a drive-thru. Additional drive-thru locations in Georgia and Oklahoma City soon followed.

It was also learning the lesson many legacy businesses have had to learn: Customers have the upper hand in today's market , and it's best to listen to what they want when they tell you—then act accordingly.

The biggest example of McDonald's giving customers what they want is the arrival of all-day breakfast. However, as sales continued to disappoint investors, executives changed their tune. McDonalds also paid keen attention to establishing a solid brand. The first official store looked eye-catching and interesting. All the surfaces were shiny and clean, thanks to the ceramic red and while tiles.

The counters were bright sheet metal and the establishment has glass with pulsing white, yellow, red, and green neon lights. The cherry on top was the famous Golden Arches that over the years have become synonymous with the McDonalds brand. While these early steps helped McDonalds spread throughout the U.

S, becoming a global force was a challenge.