RAY CROC – THE KING OF BURGERS IS BORN.

According to Ray Kroc, the two key elements of being a success is, firstly being in the right place at the right time, and secondly, doing something concrete about it.
After years of struggling with various businesses, Kroc finally stumbled upon what he thought, was a business with great potential.

Founded in 1954, this is one of the finest success stories in America. Kroc took a small but successful California-based hamburger restaurant, and turned it into what is known as McDonald’s world-wide successful food chain of restaurants, employing no fewer than 50 000 employees with a 20 billion dollar revenue, and a globally recognizable logo.
Kroc was a high school dropout, but recognised that he had an entrepreneurial flair.
Kroc was never one for enjoying books, instead he enjoyed action; honing in on his piano playing skills he turned this into something lucrative, by playing at a radio station at night, and selling paper cups in the day, for the Lily Tulip Cup Company.

His destiny was forever changed whilst working for the paper cup company, where he met up with Earl Prince. Noticing that Prince was buying up cups for his multi-mixer product by the truckload, Kroc believed the machine had possibilities, and soon gained exclusive marketing rights for the mixer.

For the next seventeen years Kroc marketed this machine right across the States, and in 1904, he met up with the McDonald brothers – Dick and Mac, who ordered no fewer than eight mixers for their San Bernardino, California-based restaurants.
With his interest piqued, Kroc took a trip to meet with the brothers and visited them in 1954.

The McDonald brothers focused on only a couple of menu items, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, French fries, milk shakes and soft drinks. Kroc was enormously impressed with their establishment which was run with great efficiency, but knew that he could improve on this.

Ready for a career change, and tired with selling mixers, Kroc saw his golden opportunity in the McDonald’s restaurant.