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297468953
297468953
297468953
Company Profile
McDonald’s is Global – and in Your Hometown
McDonald's is the world's leading global food service retailer with over 36,000 locations
serving approximately 69 million customers in over 100 countries each day. More than
80% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent
local business men and women. Our goal is to become customers' favorite place and
way to eat and drink by serving core favorites such as our World Famous Fries, Big
Mac, Quarter Pounder and Chicken McNuggets.
HISTORY:
The McDonalds migrated from Manchester, New Hampshire to Hollywood in the
late 1920s, where brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald began working as set
movers and handymen at motion-picture studios. In 1937, their father Patrick
McDonald opened "The Airdrome", a food stand, on Huntington Drive (Route 66)
near the Monrovia Airport in Monrovia, California Hamburgers were ten cents,
and all-you-can-drink orange juice was five cents. In 1940, Maurice and
Richard ("Mac" and "Dick") moved the entire building 40 miles (64 km) east, to
West 14th and 1398 North E Streets in San Bernardino, California. The
restaurant was renamed "McDonald's Bar-B-Q" and had twenty-five menu items,
mostly barbecue.
In October 1948, after the McDonald brothers realized that most of their profits
came from selling hamburgers, they closed down their successfulcarhop drive-in
to establish a streamlined system with a simple menu of just hamburgers,
cheeseburgers, french fries, shakes, soft drinks, and apple pie. The carhops
were eliminated to make McDonald's a self-service operation. The brothers took
great care in setting up their kitchen like an assembly line to ensure maximum
efficiency. The restaurant's name was changed again, this time to simply
"McDonald's," and reopened on December 12, 1948.
In 1952, the brothers decided they needed an entirely new building in order to
achieve two goals: further efficiency improvements, and a more eye-catching
appearance. They collected recommendations for an architect and interviewed at
least four altogether, finally choosing Stanley Clark Meston, an architect
practicing in nearby Fontana, in the fall. The brothers and Meston worked
together closely. They achieved the extra efficiencies they needed by, among
other things, drawing the actual measurements of every piece of equipment in
chalk on a tennis court behind the McDonald house (with Meston's assistant
Charles Fish).The design achieved a high level of noticeability thanks to
gleaming surfaces of red and white ceramic tile, stainless steel, brightly colored
sheet metal, and glass; pulsing red, white, yellow, and green neon; and last but
not least, two 25-foot yellow sheet-metal arches trimmed in neon, called "golden
arches" even at the design stage. A third, smaller arch sign at the roadside
hosted a pudgy character in a chef's hat, known as Speedee, striding across the
top, trimmed in animated neon.
In late 1952, with only a rendering of Meston's design in hand, the brothers
began seeking franchisees. Their first franchisee was Neil Fox, a distributor for
General Petroleum Corporation. Fox's stand, the first with Meston's golden
arches design, opened in May 1953 at 4050 North Central Avenue at Indian
School Road in Phoenix, Arizona. Their second franchisee was the team of Fox's
brother-in-law Roger Williams and Burdette "Bud" Landon, both of whom also
worked for General Petroleum. Williams and Landon opened their stand on 18
August 1953 at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard in Downey, California. Today the
Downey stand has the distinction of being the oldest surviving McDonald's
restaurant. The Downey stand was never required to comply with the McDonald's
Corporation's remodeling and updating requests over the years because it was
franchised not by the McDonald's Corporation, but by the McDonald brothers
themselves to Williams and Landon. (Recognizing its historic and nostalgic value,
in 1990 the McDonald's Corporation acquired the stand and rehabilitated it to a
modern but nearly original condition, and then built an adjacent museum and gift
shop to commemorate the site.)
In 1954, Ray Kroc, a seller of Multimixer milkshake machines, learned that the
McDonald brothers were using eight of his machines in their San Bernardino
restaurant. His curiosity was piqued, and he went to San Bernardino to take a
look at the McDonalds' restaurant. He was joined by good friend Charles Lewis
who had suggested to Kroc several improvements to the McDonald's burger
recipe.
Believing the McDonalds' formula was a ticket to success, Kroc suggested they
franchise their restaurants throughout the country. The brothers were skeptical,
however, that the self-service approach could succeed in colder, rainier climates;
furthermore, their thriving business in San Bernardino, and franchises already
operating or planned, made them reluctant to risk a national venture. Kroc
offered to take the major responsibility for setting up the new franchises
elsewhere. He returned to his home outside of Chicago with rights to set up
McDonald's restaurants throughout the country, except in a handful of territories
in California and Arizona already licensed by the McDonald brothers. The
brothers were to receive one-half of one percent of gross sales. Kroc's first
McDonald's restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, at 400 North Lee Avenue
in Des Plaines, Illinois, near Chicago. (It was demolished in 1984 after many
remodels.) Kroc incorporated his company as McDonald's Systems, Inc., which
he would later rename McDonald's Corporation.
Once the Des Plaines restaurant had become operational, Kroc sought
franchisees for his McDonald's chain. The first snag came quickly. In 1956 he
discovered that the McDonald brothers had licensed the franchise rights for Cook
County, Illinoisto the Frejlach Ice Cream Company. Kroc was incensed that the
McDonalds had not informed him of this arrangement. He purchased the rights
back for $25,000, five times what the Frejlacks had originally paid, and pressed
forward. McDonald's grew slowly for its first three years. By 1958, there were 34
restaurants. In 1959, however, Kroc opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the
total to 102 locations.
Mission:
McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favorite place and way to eat and
drink. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to
Win, which center on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place,
Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and
enhancing our customers' experience.
VALUES:
We place the customer experience at the core of all we do. Our customers are the reason
for our existence. We demonstrate our appreciation by providing them with high quality food and
superior service in a clean, welcoming environment, at a great value. Our goal is quality,
service, cleanliness and value (QSC&V) for each and every customer, each and every time.
We are committed to our people. We provide opportunity, nurture talent, develop leaders and
reward achievement. We believe that a team of well-trained individuals with diverse
backgrounds and experiences, working together in an environment that fosters respect and
drives high levels of engagement, is essential to our continued success.
We believe in the McDonald’s System. McDonald’s business model, depicted by our “three-
legged stool” of owner/operators, suppliers, and company employees, is our foundation, and
balancing the interests of all three groups is key.
We operate our business ethically. Sound ethics is good business. At McDonald’s, we hold
ourselves and conduct our business to high standards of fairness, honesty, and integrity. We
are individually accountable and collectively responsible.
We give back to our communities. We take seriously the responsibilities that come with being
a leader. We help our customers build better communities, support Ronald McDonald House
Charities, and leverage our size, scope and resources to help make the world a better place.
We grow our business profitably. McDonald’s is a publicly traded company. As such, we work
to provide sustained profitable growth for our shareholders. This requires a continuous focus on
our customers and the health of our system.
We strive continually to improve. We are a learning organization that aims to anticipate and
respond to changing customer, employee and system needs through constant evolution and
innovation.
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