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Ray & Joan

Ray & Joan

Lisa Napoli
2016
T3 353 pages · about 5h 53m to read Open Librarygoodreads

The Krocs, the fortune, and the philanthropy it funded.

Summary

Lisa Napoli tells the story of Ray Kroc and Joan Kroc together, treating the McDonald's business history and the philanthropic disposal of the resulting fortune as one narrative. Joan Kroc gave away roughly two billion dollars, including a bequest of over one and a half billion to the Salvation Army, the largest single gift the organisation had received.

The business material covers Kroc's career as a milkshake machine salesman, his discovery of the McDonald brothers' San Bernardino operation in 1954, the franchising arrangement he negotiated and its inadequate economics for him, and the intervention of Harry Sonneborn, who worked out that the money was in real estate: McDonald's would lease sites and sublease them to franchisees at a markup, which produced both income and control. Napoli covers the buyout of the McDonald brothers in 1961 and the subsequent dispute over the handshake royalty agreement.

The Joan Kroc material covers her marriage to Ray, her funding of causes he opposed including nuclear disarmament and Democratic politics, her ownership of the San Diego Padres, and the structure of her final bequests including the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame and the network of Salvation Army community centres. The book is popular biography rather than business analysis. Readers wanting McDonald's operating history should go to John Love's McDonald's: Behind the Arches. The real estate insight is well told here and is the part a business reader will want.

Key takeaways 7

  1. McDonald's became profitable for Kroc through real estate, leasing sites and subleasing them to franchisees at a markup, not through franchise royalties.
  2. Controlling the property gave the franchisor leverage over franchisee behaviour that a royalty agreement alone could not provide.
  3. Kroc's original franchise terms were too generous to franchisees to support a corporate business, which nearly ended the company.
  4. Standardisation across outlets was enforced through operational inspection and through the threat of lease termination.
  5. The McDonald brothers designed the operating system and sold it for a fixed sum, which transferred the entire value of the concept.
  6. Napoli argues that Joan Kroc's philanthropy deliberately funded causes her husband had opposed, which shaped where the fortune went.
  7. Large unrestricted bequests can transform a recipient organisation's capacity and also strain its ability to absorb them.

Who should read it

Founders and investors in franchised businesses who want the origin of the property-based franchise model, alongside a study of how a fortune was given away.

Similar books 6

Chosen by shared topics, the entries that hold them, and the people who recommended both.

Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald'sGrinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's
T2 Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's
Ray Kroc, Robert Anderson · 1977
Open LibraryGoodreads

A milkshake-machine salesman finds the McDonald brothers and builds the franchise.

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald'Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald's
T4 Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald's
Max Boas, Steve Chain · 1976
Open LibraryGoodreads

Early unauthorised account of the franchise and real-estate machine.

McDonald's: Behind the ArchesMcDonald's: Behind the Arches
T2 McDonald's: Behind the Arches
John F. Love · 1986
Open LibraryGoodreads

McDonald's to the mid-1980s, from the brothers' stand to Kroc's franchise system.

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Fast Food NationFast Food Nation
T1 Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser · 2001
Open LibraryGoodreads

How fast food reshaped farming, meatpacking, food science and low-wage work.

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Kevin Rose, Richard Branson

Taco Titan: The Glen Bell StoryTaco Titan: The Glen Bell Story
T4 Taco Titan: The Glen Bell Story
Debra Lee Baldwin · 1999
Open LibraryGoodreads

Glen Bell's rise from poverty to build Taco Bell and sell it for $130 million.

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black AmericFranchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
T2 Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
Marcia Chatelain · 2020
Open LibraryGoodreads

How McDonald's and fast-food franchising became bound up with Black America.

Where it sits in the reference 2

McDonald's
Companies
Ray Kroc
Biographies

Topics

Biography and MemoirCompany HistoriesFounders and EntrepreneursFood and restaurant founders