The Keys To McDonald's Success, Rapid Growth & Market Dominance

Staff are encouraged to be friendly and provide “service with a smile”. They focus on customer satisfaction (short wait-times, hot food, etc). Ray Kroc was known to offer refunds to customers waiting longer than 5 minutes and say comments to workers like “if you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean”
McDonald's Operations Competitive Strategy focuses on cost, speed, and nutrition. They prioritize making the customer “happy.”

Historian Love writes that the McDonald's brothers "defined a totally new food service concept...(Their hamburger stand was) the birthplace of a new generation of restaurants" (13)
The McDonald brothers applied a Factory-line assembly design to a commercial kitchen, to make a faster and precise product. They cut the serving time down from 20 minutes to 30 seconds.
Ray Kroc who later took over McDonald's implemented having two separate windows for drive-thru (one to pay, one to get food). This created a faster flow through drive-thru which decreased wait times.

It is indicated that Ray Kroc when opening his first McDonald's insisted on a high standard of cleanliness which included (crisp white button shirts, black slacks, and a paper hat). Ray came up with the phrase that is still used in McDonald's today QSCV – Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value.
McDonald's has a focus on cleanliness – specifically a focus on clean bathrooms. McDonald's acknowledges that people will want to dine in clean and orderly environments and they recognize the negative impacts of having an unclean restaurant and/or bathroom (44)
Historian Love states, “Kroc was intense about quality of food, fast service, good operations, and most intense about cleanliness.”

McDonald's has a strict regiment for safety and food quality standards. (45) There have been questions about chicken McNuggets, which McDonald's debunks through their video.

McDonald's found new ways to streamline the foodservice workplace and employ cheap labour. For example, McDonald's utilizes self-service kiosks.
Schlosser reports that McDonald's is the biggest purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes in the United States. They are second for the largest purchaser of chicken. Since McDonald's is purchasing high levels of potatoes, beef, and chicken their higher buying power also reduces the price they charge customers.
McDonald's found different ways of cutting back costs with encouraging more independence from the consumer such as people serving themselves pop and throwing out their own trash.

McDonald's Promises Loyalty in Business in Exchange for Innovation

They encourage their suppliers to develop and create new and innovative products and processes
They encourage the development of technology from their suppliers in exchange for loyalty in business. This was a way of how McDonald's reduced their costs.

This franchise model was first to develop a franchise at a large scale with consistent experiences whatever location they attended.
Attention to detail – Same set-up, process, and taste. It is said that “attention to detail was one reason for the company's extraordinary success.”
McDonald's is the largest Worldwide Franchised Food Service Organization.
There was training at "Hamburger University" in Illinois. The franchise owners earned certificates in "Hamburgerology with a minor in french fries". This helped with creating consistent experiences at each McDonald's.
McDonald's model had a different approach - A very supportive process to ensure the franchisees excelled. It was noted that they only collected a fraction of its sales as a service fee. This contrasted with the territorial model (which the parent company would sell supplies to the franchise and a large franchise fee) that many other fast foods were utilizing.
Schlosser notes how most experts would note that key to success with franchises is summed up in one word “uniformity.”

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Ray Kroc was the one who streamlined operation and franchise to make it successful
John F. Love writes, "The essence of Kroc’s unique but amazingly simple franchising philosophy was that a franchising company should not live off the sweat of its franchisees, but should succeed by helping its franchisees succeed.”
Kroc was very engaged and involved with his franchisees, encouraging them to call him directly about any issues. He stressed the importance of each McDonald's being consistent so it'll reflect well on every other McDonald's that was visited by customers.
Ray Kroc believed, “In business for yourself, but not by yourself.” He focused on getting other people to help him achieve his dream of expanding McDonald's by approaching franchisees. Through this expansion, Canada's first McDonald's was established in Richmond, British Columbia in 1967.