Ray Kroc: De Vendedor de Batidoras a Empresario Millonario | La Historia de McDonald's Parte 2 🍔

The story of Ray Kroc, the visionary who transformed McDonald's into a multi-billion dollar company. At the age of 52, he was struggling because his milkshake machine business was barely making enough to survive. Fifteen years later, he had built the largest fast-food empire the world has ever known, now valued at over $170 billion and boasting more than 39,000 franchises in 119 countries… How did he do it? The protagonist of this story is Raymond Albert Kroc, who was born on October 5, 1902, in the village of Oak Park, located in the Chicago metropolitan area. At the age of 37, he left his cup company and obtained the exclusive rights to sell the Multimixer machine, a blender that could prepare five milkshakes at once. With these rights, he founded the company “Prince Castle Sales,” where he would spend the next decade of his life traveling the country in search of clients among restaurants and soda fountain owners. The business was quite profitable and, by the end of the 1940s, allowed him to generate $25,000 in revenue in a single year, while the average American earned less than $5,000 annually. However, what seemed to be a successful business he planned to run for life would suffer a major crisis. With the expansion of highways across the country and nearly 40 million cars on the road, food businesses migrated their service models to the popular drive-in, a system in which orders are served without customers having to leave their cars. Faced with this new trend, establishments like soda fountains began to disappear, causing Kroc's sales and income to plummet. By the time he turned 50, Ray Kroc was a fairly ordinary man with a career on the decline. He also suffered from diabetes and arthritis, and had lost his gallbladder and most of his thyroid gland. Nevertheless, he was convinced his greatest success was yet to come. RAY KROC AND THE MCDONALD BROTHERS One day in 1954, he received an order for eight milkshake mixers for a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. This unusual order surprised him greatly, since, with the demise of soda fountains, no restaurant needed more than two mixers. Driven by curiosity, he decided to travel there to deliver them personally. The establishment that had placed the order was none other than McDonald's, a restaurant founded by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. Upon arriving, he was astonished by the long line of people waiting to buy hamburgers for 13 cents, something he had never seen at any other restaurant. Without wasting any time, he introduced himself, delivered the equipment, and learned everything he could about the successful restaurant and its efficient business model called "Speede." Filled with determination, the next day he proposed several strategies to the McDonald brothers to expand the hamburger brand nationwide. Immediately, Ray Kroc began working tirelessly to sell franchises and make each new franchisee feel like part of a family. In just a couple of years, the company already had 30 locations across the United States. The profits from these locations allowed Kroc to open his own McDonald's restaurant in Illinois in 1955. By 1961, frustrated that Maurice and Richard didn't recognize the incredible potential of his project and the powerful expansion it could achieve, Ray Kroc realized he could do it alone. He offered to buy the company from them for $500,000, but the brothers rejected the offer. Months later, they proposed selling Ray the company for $1 million in cash each, plus $700,000 to cover taxes, and 0.5% of the business's future profits. Currently, McDonald’s is valued at over $170 billion, has annual revenues exceeding $19 billion, employs more than 200,000 people, owns over 39,000 franchises in more than 119 countries, and is the world’s largest fast-food empire. Raymond Kroc, for his part, amassed a personal fortune of over $500 million and led the business until 1974, when he decided to retire. More success stories at: https://www.negociosyemprendimiento.org/ Video credits: • Big Stock Photo • Pexels, Pixabay • The film "The Founder," directed by John Lee Hancock and Robert D. Siegel. Remember to subscribe to keep enjoying our videos. #Entrepreneurs #Success #Business