McDonalds: Customer Driven

Essay by sammie2801College, UndergraduateA, November 2014

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

Samantha Lawson

March 20, 2013

BUSN 420 OL

McDonald's: Customer Driven

What does it mean to be customer driven? One Fortune 500 Company that lives to please and satisfy their customers is, McDonald's. According to the article The Ray Kroc Story (2012), McDonald's passion for quality and customer service all began with a man named Ray Kroc (p.1). In 1954, Ray came across a restaurant in San Bernardino, California run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. He was immediately captivated by how effective their small operation was. Ray found that the restaurant only offered a limited menu, which consisted of burgers, fries, and beverages. Due to the limited variety, the brothers were able to focus on what was really important, which was quality customer service.

Ray Kroc had formed a vision. The article The Ray Kroc Story (2012), he pitched his vision of McDonald's restaurants all over the United States to the brothers (p.

2). In 1955, one year after discovering the small restaurant in California, Ray Kroc founded the McDonald's Corporation. Five years later, Ray bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald's name, and by 1958 McDonald's has sold its 100 millionth burger.

According to the article The Ray Kroc Story (2012), Kroc's unique philosophy was that he wanted to build a restaurant system that would be famous for its food consistency, its uniform methods of preparation, and that was customer driven (p. 3). He wanted to be able to serve burgers in Alaska that would taste the same in Alabama. To make this a reality he persuaded franchisees and suppliers to buy into his vision. This was that they were not working for McDonald's, but rather for themselves, for McDonalds.

Ray Kroc never stopped working for McDonald's. He worked there right up until he passed away on January...