Research Paper

How the McDonald Brothers Became Successful

Many people around the world enjoy eating fast food because you can get it anywhere and it’s not that expensive. One of the most successful and well-known fast-food companies that people think of when someone mentions fast food is McDonald’s. It was started by Richard and Maurice McDonalds even though some people believe it was Ray Kroc. The brothers worked their way up to create this fast-food company as a result they were able to create the well-known name Mcdonald’s and have people all around the world enjoy their food.

Early Life

Maurice McDonalds was born on November 26, 1902, in Manchester, NH, and his brother Richard McDonalds was born on February 16, 1909, in Manchester, NH. They also had three sisters. Their parents were Irish immigrants and their father worked at G.P krafts shoe factory as a shift manager (When Dad lost his job). Their father Patrick was brought to the U.S as a baby from Ireland, and their mother Margarete was also brought to the U.S as a child. The family decided to move to California in the late 1920s (Muldoon). Maurice attended Central high school, and Richard attended school in the West. They even attended some classes with the Reverson brothers who ended up founding the Revlon cosmetic empire (When Dad lost his job).

Start of Career

Once their father had been cut from work the brothers decided they wanted to be financially independent. This gave the push the brothers needed in order to be on their own. Even if all they had were high school diplomas. The first business they owned was a 750-seat Mission theater that they later sold after 7 years (Stice). Then they wanted to try a food business. That is when they opened their first food business: a hot dog stand called Airdome. It was doing fine (When dad lost his job). Later they opened McDonald’s Barbeque. In 1948 they remodeled and got rid of the barbeque menu, and carhops. This caused them to not have as many people come because not having carhops was not normal during this time. When they opened McDonald’s barbeque and invented the new quick-serve way this helped make them famous (Stice). Once they remodeled the McDonald's, their goal for the restaurant was speed, volume, and cleanliness. Inside they replaced the grill, cutlery, plates, and dishwasher. Now the people had to order their food at a counter. They only sold hamburgers, cheeseburgers, potato chips, coffee, soft drinks, and apple pie. They ended up switching the apple pie for milkshakes. Also, the potato chips for french fries. The brothers had to overcome the misconception that Ray Kroc was the one who started McDonald's. In reality, they only sold their business to him (When dad lost his job).

Accomplishments

The McDonald Brothers got successful because of their speed, cleanliness, prices, and the way they promoted (Muldoon). In 1984 the brothers were at a New York ceremony. At the ceremony, Richard McDonald’s who made the first ever McDonald’s burger got served the 50 billionth McDonald’s burger (Brook). And now about 38,000 McDonald’s around the world serve about 68 million people every day (When Dad lost his job). The main problem they faced was when they signed their business to Ray Kroc. In order for Ray to own the business he had to pay $2.3 million. Ray also once said, “I needed the McDonald’s name and those golden arches.” When the brothers sold to Ray Kroc there were multiple times that he tried to write the brothers out from the business history. An example is in Ray’s book "Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald's" when he claimed he was the founder. And wrote the date of the first McDonald's that was under his name as the original McDonald's (Stice). When Richard was asked if he regretted selling the business to Ray. He replied with “Not at all. I would have wound up in some skyscraper somewhere with about four ulcers and eight tax attorneys trying to figure out how to pay all my income tax” (When Dad lost his job. Even though the brother created the business they did not get the credit they deserved. Even at the McDonald’s headquarters they did not get viewed as founders. Eventually, after 30 years they got the recognition they deserved, but by this time Maurice, one of the brothers, had passed away. And the senior chairman at the time blamed the media for giving credit to Ray Kroc (Stice).

Impact They Had

The impact that the McDonalds brothers had is a positive impact. This is because of the new service they created. Without it, we would not have the fast-food system we have today. This is because Richard created the concept of a quick-service and a limited-menu restaurant that became a model for McDonald's as well as many other fast-food businesses (Brook). When they decided to re-designed their restaurant they did not receive as many customers as they used to. And if people didn't eventually start coming in, their business would have been a failure like many of their other businesses. And if they had failed again and given up then they would not have been able to achieve the success they have today. And many businesses would have done things differently. For example, one of the things the quick-service did was remove carhops which were people, mainly women who would deliver your food to your car. This changed with the quick-service system because people now needed to get out of their cars and order the food themselves (Stice). Now fast-food restaurants mainly use the quick-service system and people go in and order their food, or order online, or use the drive-thru.

Lessons Learned from their Life

Richard McDonald, one of the McDonald brothers, had a trait that made him great. When they sold to Ray Kroc he tried multiple times to erase them out of McDonald’s history and they lost a lot of money they could have earned, but in the end, Richard did not end up hating Kroc. The brothers also did not receive proper credit for starting the business. "I would have wound up in some skyscraper somewhere with about four ulcers and eight tax attorneys trying to figure out how to pay all my income tax," is what Richard said when they asked him if he resented Ray. Unlike Richard, Maurice did feel some resentment towards Ray which wore him down over time. Maybe it was because of the effort they had put in for them to not be properly credited, especially his brother since he created a new system that changed the fast-food industry (Stice). I can apply those lessons to my life, for example, if someone tries taking my ideas or business and calling them their own then I can feel resentment towards them, or if things work out in the end and I’m happy that at least I was able to create something that could have helped people. The McDonald brothers are people to look up to because even when they failed with their other businesses they kept trying. Also, they were children of immigrant parents which could not have been easy for them growing up. And now they have one of the most successful fast-food empires.