Babao, Alyana Jean February 15, 2023

FM401P STRTMGT

Project #2: "THE FOUNDER" REACTION PAPER

The movie “The Founder” is about Ray Kroc, and how he came across the McDonald
brothers and the story of his creation of the McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain. The movie
begins with Ray Kroc, making ends meet by selling milkshake-machines to drive-in restaurants.
Unfortunately, his ventures meet a dead end because no one was willing to buy them, that is,
until he received an order from McDonald’s hamburgers. Through this, he became acquainted
with the brothers Mac and Dick and how he found their methods and system revolutionary and
pitched to franchise the restaurant. At first, the brothers were reluctant due to a previous
failure, but Ray managed to convince them. Through a series of events, his franchise eventually
became successful but with one major problem, due to a signed contract, he couldn’t carry out
his own ideas to further make McDonald’s successful and earn more profit because Mac and
Dick seems content to how things currently are. Ray ended up making a deal with them to buy
the business and to cut the brothers off of any involvement of McDonald’s moving forward.
Ray’s deal with the brothers originally included 1% of the annual royalties of the business but
this deal was carried out as a handshake agreement, by the end of the movie, it was revealed
that the brothers didn’t receive the royalties due to insufficient evidence about the handshake
deal.
My first thought when I learned that this movie was about McDonald's, was that the
events portrayed on it would be about how the founder thought about making McDonald's fast-
food system. His road on how he built his first restaurant and how it became successful as time
passed by. But what greeted me was far from what I thought. The first few minutes of the
movie was really interesting and entertaining. I even thought that Kroc is a character in the
movie only to make the show more creative where he witnessed the road to the brother's
success in establishing McDonald's. And of course, I was once again wrong with my guesses.
It was really interesting to see how McDonald's operated back then compared to how
the fast-food restaurant operates currently. It makes me question why they didn't continue that
kind of speed and efficiency in serving the food now but just with the added dine-in system
included. But then again, McDonald's is doing more than fine given how they are pretty
successful and famous so I can't exactly tell them what should and should not be done. Another
thing different from the McDonald's before, compared to now, is the menu. The current
McDonald's offers more variety in the menu compared to in the movie like chicken and many
other deals, which would be a given, since a lot of time has passed since then.
There was also one thing on which the movie gave emphasis throughout, which is
persistence. Through persistence, Ray Kroc, a milkshake-machine salesman, who had many
failures in his past ventures, ended up owning McDonald's which, at that time, had an annual
revenue of $700 million. At that time, if one reached his age, one normally enters retirement
and be contented. But Ray had a persistence and determination to become big, to be successful
and aim to the top of the food chain even though he is no genius, and he fails again and again
on his business proposals. The movie really imparts the message that even if one has talent
and genius, like Dick had, without persistence or drive to go far in business, it would end up
nowhere.
 By the end of the movie, I had a kind of bitter taste in my mouth to how Ray and the
brother's relationship developed and ended up to. I felt bad regarding the royalties that
should've been given to the brothers, as it was stated near the end credits scene, it was never
given to them because of insufficient evidence about the handshake deal. If I was in Ray Kroc's
shoes at that time, I guess I would uphold the deal as it would make my conscience guilty, and
at least just give it to them as a sign of respect because the business was rooted from their
idea. Although, I do somewhat understand Ray’s actions and on why the things happened,
happened. Ray as the franchise manager, went to such great lengths to make the business a
successful empire. He found solutions to the initial reason to Mac and Dick's failure, which was
the poor management of the franchise due to not hiring the right man for the job. He was also
focused on improving the business' profits while also looking for a way to lessen the
restaurant's expenses. He proposed some changes to help the business generate revenues and
save from costs, and also to renegotiate the contract because Ray can't make ends meet due to
high expenses, and thus, can't further expand more. But Dick and Mac always said no without
even considering the situation and effort that Ray went through. So I can somewhat
understand Ray's frustration. He wanted McDonald's to further expand, generate revenue and
thought of various plans to help the business grow further but Mac and Dick were contented
with what they have, to maintain status quo, to maintain the norm of their operations without
improving their methods. That’s why I think it was just right for Ray to want to buy the
business and have exclusive rights because it was all due to his efforts and hard work that
McDonald's became what it is today. I'm guessing that if things were to continue the way they
are, and Ray hadn't met Harry who proposed a solution to his financial problems, and just
followed Dick and Mac's ideas to stick to what was originally there and not improve on the
business operations. Then, sooner or later, I guess that someone will copy McDonald's ideas
and if they innovate and improve more on McDonald’s ideas, then McDonald's will be left in the
dust and be taken over by competitors. If Ray didn't have the drive and persistence to see
things through, then what I'm inferring to may happen.
I think the most important lesson that I learned from the movie is that don’t be at ease
with just a handshake deal. Even though there are witnesses with the handshake deal and can
be brought to court with enough evidence, but if these evidence aren’t enough then there is a
possibility that the handshake deal won’t be followed through just like what happened in the
movie “The Founder”. Lesson, don’t settle with just a handshake deal, make sure to have it on
a written agreement. Another lesson would be persistence, as shown in the movie, persistence
is the key to success, if one wants to reach high in life, be determined and don’t make the
failures in your life pull you down from achieving success. All in all, the movie taught me these
lessons, and also some strategies and ideas that they thought of to make or help the business
grow into the empire that it is today. Although I felt bad for what happened to the brothers, but
I think as a businessman, Ray did the right call to ensure that the business wouldn’t sink and to
let it soar further. So, Ray's actions are understandable, but I also sympathize with what
happened to the brothers in regard to the royalties, but business is business, I guess.