McDonald's: Behind The Arches

by John F. Love

Perfect for fans of The Founder, this is the real-life story of the world’s premier entrepreneurial success.

The growth of McDonald’s worldwide continues to astonish. In tough financial times, McDonald’s proved that ingenuity, trial and error, and gut instinct were the keys to building a service business the entire world has come to admire.

McDonald’s has been a trendsetter in advertising, focusing on different demographics as well as the physically disabled. McDonald’s created McJobs, a program that employs both mentally challenged adults and senior citizens. And because its franchisees have their fingers on the pulse of the marketplace, McDonald’s has evolved successfully with the health food revolution, launching dozens of new products and moving toward environmentally safe packaging and recyclable goods.

Inspiring, informative, and filled with behind-the-scenes stories, this remarkable saga offers an irresistible look inside a great American business success.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Entrepreneurship, Food, Buisness

486 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

Reviews

[trinainmanila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly sympathetic to McDonald's as a corporation and Kroc as a visionary. Informative, but guard yourself against the author's bias.

[Omar Halabieh · Rating 5 out of 5]

As best summarized on the back cover of the book - "McDonald's is the story of an American business success, a company that proved the value of hard work, ingenuity, trial and error, and gut instincts. In McDonald's: Behind the Arches, business writer John F. Love tells the astonishing story of the people, and the strategies, the innovation and the brilliance that turned a single hamburger stand into a multibillion-dollar corporation that has influenced the very culture of America - and now the world."

An exceptional business read, with countless lessons in business, management, leadership and sourcing. These lessons are inter-weaved within a great story about the start and growth of one of the most recognizable brands in the world. A must read!

Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- "Few outside McDonald's understand that Ray Kroc's brilliance is found in the way he selected and motivated his managers, his franchisees, and his suppliers. He had a knack for bringing out the best in people who worked with him. To be sure, Kroc's success with McDonald's is a story of his own entrepreneurship. But it is more. He succeeded on a grand scale because he had the wisdom and the courage to rely on hundreds of other entrepreneurs."

2- "The fundamental secret to McDonald's success is the way it achieves uniformity and allegiance to an operating regimen without sacrificing the strengths of American individualism and diversity. McDonald's manages to mix conformity with creativity."

3- "Essentially, the approach Kroc took in franchising was the same as he took in selling food service supplies: his success was based on finding a way to make his customers successful with his product. As simple as it sounds, it was a revolutionary idea in the rapidly expanding food franchising business, and Kroc's notion of a fair and balanced franchise partnership is without question his greatest legacy."

4- "In short, Kroc assembled and tolerated one of the most diverse collections of individuals ever to occupy the top management of an american corporation. And even today, the practice of recruiting extremely individual managers is a McDonald;s trademark, one almost completely hidden by the chain's legendary operational uniformity."

5- "In fact, McDonald's greatest impact on American business is in the areas that consumers do not see. In their search for improvements, McDonald's operations specialist moved back down the food and equipment supply changed...They changed the way farmers grow potatoes...they altered the way ranchers raised beef...Indeed, no one has had more impact than McDonald's in modernizing food processing and distribution in the past four decades."

6- "McDonald's also encouraged closeness with vendors by giving them enormous incentives to upgrade their operations. It did so by demonstrating early on that it could be just as loyal to suppliers that met its standards as it was tough on those that did not."

7- "What converted McDonald's into a money machines had nothing to do with Ray Kroc or the McDonald brothers...Rather, McDonald's made its money on real estate and on a little-known formula developed by Harry J. Sonneborn."

8- "The free exchange of Zien's promotional ideas set a precedent that remains a key principle in McDonald's marketing today: that all franchisees are partners, and what one develops to improve his or her local operation is provided freely to all operators to improve the system's performance, with no royalty going to the franchisee, who discovered the concept."

9- "...for most of its history, dedication to new products resided with certain product-oriented franchisees who stubbornly pushed their inventions on company managers who were not easily sold on them."

10- "He (Kroc) had built not a company but a system of independent companies all pursuing the same goal, each dependent on the other. Indeed, the synergy that was developing between all the parts of McDonald's was so different and unexpected that Kroc himself was only beginning to grasp the significance of it."

11- "The packaged foods companies belatedly discovered that there was an enormous difference between the management of manufactured foods sold to grocers and foods prepared and sold directly to customers at a fast-food outlet. In the former, manufacturing is centralized and more easily controlled, and the sale to the consumer is indirect and depends highly on branded advertising. In the latter, production is decentralized and difficult to control, since each store is a self-sustaining production unit. Furthermore, the sale to the consumer is direct and depends highly on local service."

12- "But McDonald's reliance on nearly captive suppliers for technological breakthroughs goes beyond new products. Indeed, it was suppliers - driven by the prospect of increased McDonald's business - who played the key role in organizing McDonald's supply lines and making its distribution system one of the most advanced in all of retailing."

13- "...McDonald's Americanization of the global food service industry is one of the most promising developments in U.S. trade relations. McDonald's, after all, is exporting what has become the centerpiece of American industry - the service sector."

14- "More important, however, Fujita's success made it clear to McDonald's that to succeed in retailing abroad it needed a partnership that could give McDonald's a home grown flavor in each foreign market without deviating from the fundamentals that made McDonald's work in the United States."

15- "The company was not only a good target for environmental activists because it was large, but the fact that it had outlets in virtually every U.S. community of any size made McDonald's accessible to picketers and protesters everywhere, in some cases for issues that the company was not remotely involved in."

Regards,

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very good and actually interesting which surprised me considering it is a book about McDonalds. I got it from my dads bookshelf in his office. He likes it too.

[Raphael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greatly shows how this huge cooperation was built.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long and detailed history of one of the, if not THE most famous fast food franchise in history. A look, warts and all, at McDonald's as it started and how it has grown to a huge multi-national corporation.

I have been reading this on and off for about a month. It's not an easy read (at least, not for me), as it is organized thematically, rather than chronologically. That in itself is not an issue, but it can make reading hard.

It's a fascinating look at McDonald's, although it does suffer by being somewhat outdated. It would have been interesting to see history of "super-sizing" as well as the fast food controversies over obesity and health issues addressed. Hopefully this will be updated at some point.

[Luciano Villegas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book for any business-oriented mind and/or anyone fascinated by the McDonald's story. Found myself writing and highlighting quotes, business practices, and Krocisms throughout. I never would have guessed McDonald's at heart is an entrepreneurial enterprise. This story of growth, mistakes along the way, and international expansion is one for the ages.

[Tim Turkelboom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een mooi inzicht wat Macdonalds in de beginjaren heeft moeten doorstaan. Van de eerste Macdonalds tot het overkomen van de internationale moeilijkheden.

Vaak zijn er te veel gedetailleerde randverhalen die er minder toe doen.
Alsnog kan ik dit boek zeker aanraden. Een business case over ondernemerschap en consistentie.

[MJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the many chapters on business strategies boring and repetitive. This book is also very dated with its most current statistics from the 1990s.

[TarasProkopyuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

«McDonald's. О чем молчит БИГМАК?» одна из лучших книг, о истории копании, которые я когда либо читал. Автор писал книгу придерживаясь высоких стандартов, которые оценят самые требовательные предприниматели, и при этом у Джона Лава получилось ещё и очень увлекательная книга для большего круга обычных читателей.

Автор тщательно описал не только историю всемирно известной франчайзинговой компании, а ещё и провёл детальное исследование в поисках формулы успеха Макдональдз. Лав очень скрупулёзно препарировал историю компании и тот, который прочитает данную книгу несомненно будет уже совсем по другому смотреть на компанию. А если вы до сих пор были и есть противником пищи быстрого приготовления я думаю, что это не помешает вам зауважать хотя бы профессиональные компетенции данного сетевого бизнеса и их невероятные успехи в мире.

P.S. В этой книге немыслимо много ценных уроков. А порой их концентрация просто будоражит! Читать, читать и обязательно читать!!!

[Michael Guzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became curious about the history of McDonald's after watching the movie The Founder. The movie was wrong on many fronts with regards to Ray Kroc. His family is probably livid about his inaccurate portrayal in the movie.

This book, while long, is fascinating. The history of McDonald's gave me a newfound respect for the company and the level with which they'll go to ensure the quality of their food. While I never ate at McDonald's, save for the occasional breakfast on the go, I found myself eating there more frequently because of this book. I highly recommend this read.

[Mik Chernomordikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Очень подробный рассказ об истории становления и развития McDonalds. Помогает понять, как устроен грамотный франчайзинг, сетевая модель, экспансия на зарубежные рынки и преимущества единых стандартов.

[Aleh Piatrou · Rating 4 out of 5]

По названию можно сделать ошибочный вывод что книга посвящена разоблачению секретов империи фастфуда. На самом деле это очень познавательная история построения успешного бизнеса. Интересующимся темой франчайзинга будет очень полезно ознакомиться с данной книгой.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I randomly watched The Founder and it led me to this book. Fascinating as someone who went often as a kid in the 80s and into the 90s.

[Coffee Store Guy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Last time I checked, the only thing behind the arches was trees.

[Lamec Mariita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to know everything about McDonald's. In all parts of the world has become part of the eating culture and represents a modern way of life. This book takes you behind the scene and shows how a great idea went to spread out across the world. One cannot help but leave with great admiration for Ray Kroc and others surrounding McDonald's for their perseverance in bringing to the world an affordable, quality food product in spite of a barrage of barriers placed in their way.

[Adam Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was given this book as a present by my boss. I was offered to work in America to grow our Australian brand. Incredible growth from McDonald’s and a very interesting story!
Very usual and surprising!

Onto the next book!

[Akshara · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who love business and it's brick up way to success will find this book an interesting read.

[Keegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive and extremely in-depth, albeit far too laudatory, which can more than obscure the disastrous effect of the fast food giant.

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

🍔 I’m out for lunch 🥙🍴😋

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was published in 1986, shortly after Ray Kroc's death, so this volume is essentially an introduction to the McDonald's saga instead of the whole story. Still, it turns out the story is not only more complicated but historically more important than I expected.

The actual California store of McDonald's was a drive-in restaurant founded by two brothers who emigrated from the east coast when their father lost his job there, and they were new to the restaurant business. Ray Kroc came in as a salesman of restaurant equipment, and he came up with the idea of making the restaurant with its limited menu an assembly-line process to reduce costs and maximize quality. As more franchises for McDonald's appeared, Kroc made it a point to keep firm control of them, as well as make exacting specifications for the suppliers of their products and engineering the food to be the highest quality possible, as food regulations were weaker then.

Kroc took control of everything, even when McDonald's was still a weak and uncertain franchise and hired Fred Sonneborn to manage the financial aspects which Kroc knew little of. But Kroc was a vindictive man and would force Sonneborn out when they clashed over who was in control of the new corporation, and when the McDonald brothers wanted to be bought out, Kroc did so only to punish them by forcing their original restaurant out of business. Also, it took other people in the company to come up with the Ronald McDonald clown and other innovations such as the Filet-o-Fish sandwich.

McDonald's was the first national restaurant chain to have such strong central control and was the most efficiently-run, in a way that was not done in the past. Also it would use radio and television which national chains did not do before. However the food was, McDonald's worked well as a company.

[Đậu Hồng Cúc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hầu như ai từng học về truyền thông, marketing đều sẽ biết đến những chiến dịch quảng cáo của thương hiệu đồ ăn nhanh đến từ nước Mỹ: McDonald's. Tính tò mò khiến mình tìm đọc về lịch sử hình thành và phát triển của tập đoàn kinh doanh trong ngành nhà hàng dịch vụ nhanh này.
Cuốn sách trình bày khá chi tiết, cụ thể về bối cảnh hình thành những cửa hàng drive-in bán hamburger với mức giá 15 xu, rồi quá trình xây dựng hệ thống nhượng quyền trên khắp quốc gia và lan tỏa ra toàn thế giới. Thông quá lịch sử hình thành thương hiệu, người đọc cũng thấy được cách mà McDonald's thay đổi cả ngành chế biến thực phẩm, nông nghiệp, chuẩn hóa quá trình đào tạo nhân lực trong ngành dịch vụ ra sao. Có thể nói là vô cùng ấn tượng và đầy tâm huyết của người sáng lập Ray Kroc.
Lần đầu tìm hiểu về ngành F&B và đúng như những gì mình tưởng tượng, đây là một ngành kinh doanh vất vả, cạnh tranh và đầy thử thách. Dù ra đời cách đây gần 30 năm rồi nhưng những kiến thức mà cuốn sách mang đến người đọc vẫn còn nguyên giá trị. Một cuốn sách rất đáng đọc với tất cả mọi người, đặc biệt những ai hứng thú với ngành kinh doanh dịch vụ F&B.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the perfect book to read a few pages before bed each night; it was interesting enough that I enjoyed reading it, but dry enough that I could put it down after a few pages. It certainly comes across with some bias in favor of McDonald's, but at the same time the author doesn't shy away from airing the dirty laundry of behind-the-scenes conflicts and close calls. I walked away with the feeling that McDonald's' success as the world's leading fast food company has come from a combination of some very smart decisions and a lot of luck. Love definitely brought to life the personalities of the biggest players in the history of McDonald's, and seeing how they worked (or didn't work) together was fascinating. I especially enjoyed learning about all of the innovations that came from individual franchisees or regions that are now staples of McDonald's, and I find their structure for funding and making decisions on marketing fascinating. There are definitely some elements that make the book feel dated (my edition came out in the mid-1990s) but on the whole, I found it an enjoyable and interesting read.

[Alexa Doran · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this in a Little Free Library! I gained a vast amount of knowledge I would not otherwise have gained about McDonald's and the rise of big business in general. The framing?!?!! in this text is ugly work though, friends. Love begins by telling us he's not a McDonald's apologist...while spending the next 471 pages being a shameless McDonald's apologist....

telling us the founder hired Jewish people despite being an anti-Semite - not the good look you think it is, Love!

telling us repeatedly how awful unions are as if this is a fact instead of corporate bullshit

telling us that McDonald's was successful in Japan because they endorsed blatant lies such as eating a Big Mac would turn you blond

telling us that those pesky Black Panthers forced McDonald's to start hiring Black people instead of acknowledging that not hiring women and minorities is an unethical practice

telling us that the environment isn't a "real issue"

and of course, how did McDonald's get so rich? Love would tell you it's ingenuity when it reality it's that they lied about their finances

I worry for anyone reading this text without using critical thinking skills ....

[Dennis Kocik · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book I have a newfound respect for this Company. Not only a success story, but a Company that believes in the pursuit of quality and service while maintaining fairness to the people that work there. I grew up in DesPlaines, Illinois where the first Ray Kroc McDonald's was built in the same year I was born, so I literally grew up with McDonald's. To this day their regular, original hamburgers and cheeseburgers represent comfort food to me. When I asked my Dad to buy stock in the company when i was a kid still, when they first went public, I remember him saying: "They wont make it, but Henry's (another competitor in the area) will". I am happy to say that I am glad Dad was wrong on this one and that they not only "made it" but then some - I only wish I had had some of that stock now though...I would not have to be working for someone else today and maybe would have had one of my own stores to run.

[Aaron T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible amount of research and work went into this book. I think for anyone interested in building a business, or seeing some of what may be happening behind the scenes, this is such an interesting book. You get a lot of things that come together to make something like McDonalds successful, you have the beginnings of fast food, you have the culture changing, you have all these factors that sort of make success possible, but do they make it probable? Not really. History is absolutely littered with failed and mediocre restaurants. I mean absolutely littered with them. Success is never guaranteed. Even with some good ideas its not the ideas themselves that are enough to build something so successful. In McDonalds case you have the ideas, but you also have a tremendous amount of work, you have a group of really unique people some of whom are incredibly driven, coupled with luck of course. It is a story worth telling (and reading).

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, why am I reading a book that is essentially 40 years old about a company that remains in business today? The answer is I didn’t realize how old it was when I pulled it off the hard drive. I resigned myself to it despite its age, and I don’t regret reading it at all. I just learned to blow off the statistics about present things. I can’t tell you how many gallons of coke they served in 1985, but I bet the number is in the book. I stayed with it for the broad-brush history of the company, and every page was fascinating.

You can still read this and benefit from it despite the age of the book. Sure, much has happened to the company since 1986 when this hit the streets. But you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere a more thorough investigation of the company’s beginning and the behind-the-arches conflicts that brought people to power and broke them within the organization.

[Dave Ives · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. If you're looking for insights and inspiration on how a well run business comes into being, functions and operates, this book is a winner. I did feel the author's bias coming through a bit as it seemed like there were glimpses of hero worship going on ... author is a big fan. But, author also exposes some not so nice aspects of the McDonalds story, but usually brings it back to a positive somehow. Again, this leads me to believe there's a author positive bias almost as if McDonalds asked him to write the book. The book is an excellent read, author makes it interesting and kept me wanting to read more. Overall, a valuable book that tells the story of one of the most successfull business operations ever - McDonalds.

[Greta · Rating 2 out of 5]

In all fairness, there are some insights into the merits and demerits of franchising in this book. And I would not have guessed that McDonald's makes their money with real estate.

That being said, I have read bible stories more critical of Jesus than this book was of McDonald's.

They lost me altogether when they named McDonald's as the "victim" of racial divisions. I always thought black people were the victim of those.

It lacked self-awareness throughout, either hardly or never addressing the critiques McDonald's rightfully provokes. No mention of animal cruelty, no mention of the environmental destruction, no mention of the cardiac arrests it has caused over the years - you get the gist.

[Alex Pardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

McDonald was going out of business but Dick and Mac Chose to keep it alive. Mac is the person that I connect to the most because we are both hard workers and wanted to start a restaurant. the most interesting part of the book was when Dick and Mac were going to quit but Mac stayed in the business and got his brother back to work with him again. What I wish happened was that the end is seeing Dick and Mac making more restaurants and have their own path. What could have made the book better is seeing Mac and Dick telling us more info in now generation of McDonald's.

[Susan Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

What could I say? It is a love story in a form of an entrepreneurial instrument. Touchy.
The author has done an outstanding, extraordinary and almost never-replicated job in constructing this masterpiece.
His ability to isolate the events of each chapter from the other related events put things into their prospectives.
It is unmatched mature, decent and world class reading about a corporation (and the people who built it) of the same qualities.