Alyssa Weisberger
Extra Credit Reaction Paper
After watching The
Founder, I feel profoundly compelled to go get a burger at McDonald’s with just
ketchup, mustard, and two pickles. This movie has to do with a salesman named
Ray Kroc who realizes that he has a lot of potential, and that he wasn’t doing anything
to reach it. He was an amazing salesman, but at the time, his product was in
very low demand. But, there was one burger joint that wanted eight of his
milkshake mixers, and this intrigued him so much that he had to pay the joint a
visit. It was called McDonald’s and it was completely different than anything
he had ever seen in the restaurant business. The wait-time was around 30
minutes, and when comparing this to the average wait-time of 30 minutes at a
typical drive-up restaurant, it was groundbreaking. He came up with the idea of
franchising the business, and the owners didn’t want to do it because they had
already tried and failed miserably. These franchises ran completely different
than how they wanted them to run, so they shut them down. But, they granted
Kroc the opportunity to try to start successful franchises, as long as he
followed their lengthy contract. This included running all changes by the
McDonald brothers before they were put into place. So basically as the movie
goes on, Kroc’s franchises become very successful but he soon comes to find out
that he’s barely breaking even; which shouldn’t happen because he’s the head of
franchising. So, he hires a man to help him with his accounting and they start
a franchise real estate company. This meant that Kroc would be buying the land,
and they selling the leases to the franchisees, and if things weren’t followed
specifically how he wanted them, then he would cancel their lease. This turned
out very well for him, but the McDonald brothers didn’t like it. He was trying
to implement using powdered milkshakes instead of real milk milkshakes in order
to cut costs, and that was the last straw for the McDonald brothers. They
threatened to sue him, but Kroc made a good point by saying that they didn’t
have nearly enough money to sue him. So, in the end, Kroc buys out the
McDonald’s name, intellectual property, and all of the franchises for 2.7
million dollars. He becomes very successful, and this was all because he was very
persistent. (Hancock, J.L., 2016)
This
movie was based on a true story, so it’s not entirely true. But, it isn’t all
that far off. McDonald’s did start out as a drive-in barbecue restaurant, just
like it did in the movie. And Ray Kroc did find out about McDonald’s when he
was a milkshake mixer salesman, just like in the movie. Something that is
different, though, is that he didn’t drive across the country to visit the
store, but he took a plane to Los Angeles, and drove to San Bernardino the
following morning. Something else that is different is that McDonald’s actually
did have a few successful franchises, but Ray Kroc became the new head of
franchising. Ray Kroc’s age was true as portrayed in the movie, and also the
McDonald brothers didn’t have any interest in franchising across the country
themselves; that’s why they hired Kroc. Also, like in the movie, in real-life
Ray Kroc did all of the franchising while the McDonald brothers did nothing. And
also, Ray Kroc credited himself as the founder of McDonald’s in real life as he
did in the movie. So, to my surprise, the movie is mostly true. Most movies
that are based on a true story are usually very far off, just for cinematic
purposes. (The Founder Movie…, n.d.)
Some business law
topics that I noticed in the movie were lots of things having to do with
contract law, intellectual property, and business ethics. When it comes to
contract law, this movie had a lot of contracts involved. The biggest part
definitely being how Kroc broke his contract with the McDonald brothers by not
running changes by them before putting them into place. I feel that the
McDonald brothers would’ve been smart to sue him because they would’ve
definitely won, and they potentially could’ve gotten enough money to easily pay
off their lawyer expenses. Also, the Statute of Frauds comes to mind especially
because of the fact that they had to have a written contract for him to tart
franchising, because it definitely wouldn’t all be done within a year. And
also, when Kroc was buying the land to lease out, he had to sign a written
contract every single time. When it comes to intellectual property, when Kroc
bought McDonald’s from the McDonald brothers, he also gained rights to all of
the intellectual property involved with McDonald’s. That specifically why they
had to change their restaurant name to “The Big M”. When it comes to business
ethics, the McDonald brothers had a specific way that they wanted all
McDonald’s to be run, and that’s why their early franchises failed, because
they did not follow their specific code of ethics. Also, when Kroc was talking
about his leases, it was decided that if the individual franchises did not
follow his specific code of ethics, then their lease would be cancelled. One of
these specific rules was to always have a big smile on your face while working.
Some
ethically issues that I observed in the film include, mainly, how Kroc broke
his contract with the McDonald brothers, and he was proud of it! And he knew
that he would get away with it because they didn’t have enough money to sue
them. Also, the whole fact that Ray Kroc basically stole everything that
McDonald’s was from right under the McDonald brothers’ noses seems very
unethical to me! Some people believe that Ray Kroc was wrong for this, but he
believes that he was just very persistent. I mean, if it wasn’t for him
McDonald’s would not be nearly as large as it is now, so I think he was smart,
but I also think that it was a bit unethical.
In
conclusion, I greatly enjoyed this movie and I’m so happy that I got the chance
to watch it. It makes me feel extremely motivated to reach my full potential,
just like Ray Kroc did.
References
Hancock, J. L. (Director). (2016). The Founder [Film].
The Founder Movie vs True Story of Real Ray
Kroc, Dick McDonald. (n.d.). Retrieved
December 11, 2017, from
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/founder/
No comments:
Post a Comment