Ray and Ronald Girdle the Globe

The McDonald Story has become part of American mythology. The essential elements are all there: an admirable hero, an adorable clown, pluck and luck, and the big buck. The admirable hero, a latter-day Horatio Alger, is Ray Kroc. He came up the hard way, selling milk-shake mixers. Then one day he happened upon a new and innovative fast-food restaurant rub by the McDonald Brothers (luck). He bought them out and gambled all to take the idea and the hamburger to all the people (pluck). He envisioned the perfect alter-ego, the adorable clown Ronald McDonald, and put millions into an advertising campaign (both luck and pluck). Ronald came on network television in 1966, clad in a colorful red and yellow striped suit, red wig and traditional clown makeup. Soon other characters, such as Mayor McCheese, The Hamburglar, the Grimace, Captain Crook and the Professor were added. By 1977, McDonald's had become the largest user of television commercial time in the nation. Together Ray and Ronald had revolutionized America's eating habits, fed billions and made many people millionaires (big buck). Welcome to The World of Ronald McDonald (Fishwick 1). The McDonald Saga has become public property.(1) Ray Kroc himself got into the act by writing a brief autobiography. The spectacular success of McDonald's in the Global Village of the '90s (especially in Russia and China) occurred at a time when the world is full of spectacular failures but longing for successes as trading barriers were being challenged--NAFTA, APAC and GATT pointed the way. Is there a message here in Kroc's success? Could Walt Disney have done better with EuroDisney had he followed Kroc's example and studied French popular culture before trying to Disneyize France? Have Ray and Ronald succeeded while others have failed? In 1826, Jean Brillat-Savarin observed that "The destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they nourish themselves." More and more we nourish ourselves on fast food. But America stands for much more than fast food--fast communication, fast cars, fast entertainment, fast bucks. Ray and Ronald have come to symbolize the "American Way" and American potential in the 21st century. How have they done it and what can we learn from their example? One might best answer by reviewing the early days of McDonald's and triumphs on the home front--for the formula has been little changed abroad. The steady emphasis on localizing the architecture and decor and on seeking out native managers and employees tends to conceal this fact. Our story begins in 1930, when Richard and Maurice (widely known as Dick and Mac) McDonald left their native New Hampshire and moved to California to make their fortune. After several false starts, they opened a drive-in restaurant in 1937 just east of Pasadena. Dick and Mac cooked the hot dogs (not hamburgers), mixed the shakes, and waited on customers seated on a dozen stools. Three car-hops took care of the parking lot. By 1940 the enterprising brothers had made enough money to open a bigger drive-in 50 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino. By 1945 it was the town's chief teenage hangout, employing 20 car-hops. They saw they could go no further without a new format. In 1948 the brothers closed, fired the 20 car-hops, redesigned their restaurant, and put new emphasis on speed and volume production. The menu was slashed from 25 items to 9, the price of a hamburger from $.30 to $.15. This was the restaurant that Ray Kroc entered when he went west to sell milkshake mixers to the McDonald's. Instead, he ended up buying their idea and their franchise in 1955, and, eventually, their name for $2.7 million in 1962 (Love 271). In 1955, Kroc opened up a flashy structure in Des Plaines, Illinois, featuring golden arches designed earlier for the McDonald brothers by Stanley Clark Meston, a pragmatic problem-solver rather than a "modern architect." He wanted something that could be seen from fast-moving cars. …