$600,000,000
Ray Kroc
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Chicago
Born in (Country)
United States
Date of Birth
05th December, 1902
Date of Death
14th December, 1984
Mother
Rose Kroc
Father
Louis Kroc
Children
- Marilyn Kroc
About
Ray Kroc was an American entrepreneur best known for expanding McDonald’s from a local chain to the world’s most profitable restaurant franchise operation. McDonald’s currently has its restaurants in over 36000 locations and is the second largest chain of fast food restaurants in the world.
Early Life
Kroc was born on October 5, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago, to Czech-American parents, Rose Mary (1881–1959) and Alois "Louis" Kroc (1879–1937).After immigrating to America, Alois made a fortune speculating on land during the 1920s, only to lose everything with the stock market crash in 1929. In the end, he worked as a superintendent. Ray Kroc was brought up and spent most of his life in Oak Park. As a child, he took piano lessons and displayed his developing business instincts through such ventures as opening a lemonade stand and working at a soda fountain. During World War I, he lied about his age and became a Red Cross ambulance driver at the age of 15 years old, unknowingly alongside Walt Disney. The war, however, ended shortly after he enlisted. After the war, Kroc explored a number of career options, working as a pianist, musical director and real estate salesman. Eventually, he found stability as a salesman for the Lily-Tulip Cup Company, rising to the rank of Midwestern sales manager. Kroc’s business dealings connected him with ice cream shop owner Earl Prince, who invented a machine capable of generating five milkshake batches at the same time. By the 1940s, Kroc had left Lily-Tulip to focus on selling these "multi-mixers" to soda fountains around the country.
Road to Success
In 1954, Kroc visited a restaurant owned by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, that reportedly had the need for several of his multi-mixers. He was impressed by the simple efficiency of the operation, which rapidly catered to its customers by focusing on a simple menu of burgers, french fries and shakes. Grasping the potential for a chain of restaurants, Kroc offered to work as a franchising agent for a cut of the profits. In 1955, he founded McDonald’s System, Inc. (later McDonald’s Corporation), and opened its first new restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
By 1959, McDonald’s had opened its 100th restaurant, but Kroc still wasn’t reaping significant profits. Following the advice of Harry J. Sonneborn, who became McDonald’s Corp.’s first president, Kroc set up a system in which the company purchased and leased land to new franchises. Sonneborn also helped secure a $2.7 million loan that enabled Kroc to purchase the company outright from the McDonald brothers in 1961. Kroc purchased the company outright in 1961, and his strict operational guidelines helped transform McDonald’s into the world’s largest restaurant franchise before his death in 1984, at the age of 81.
With the McDonald brothers out of his way, Kroc was free to run the company as he saw fit. By 1965, he had opened more than 700 restaurants in 44 states. In April of that year, McDonald’s became the first fast-food company to go public. Stock was issued at $22 per share. Within weeks, it climbed to $49 a share, making Kroc an instant multimillionaire. By the end of the decade, Kroc had met and surpassed his goal, with nearly 1,500 McDonald’s operating worldwide.
By the 1970s, McDonald’s was the largest food supplier in the country and would remain so through the next two decades. At the time of his death on January 14, 1984, a new McDonald’s was opening on average every 17 hours. Ten months later, McDonald’s sold its 50-billionth burger.
Challenges
Kroc is said to have a great capacity for self-denial in the search of a bigger picture and is capable of hard work and persistence. However, this became an issue as he lacked joyfulness and the ability to have fun every once in a while. It is said that Ray Kroc often felt burdened by life's demands and responsibilities and had an envious feeling towards those who are able to achieve what they want in life without a lot of struggles.
Achievements
Ray Kroc brought a revolution in the fast-food industry, making McDonald’s the biggest fast-food chain in the world.|Kroc set up the Hamburger University in Oak Brook where restaurant employees are trained over a campus that is around 80 acres.
Quotes
- I was an overnight success alright, but 30 years is a long, long night
- Luck is the divided of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
- The quality of an individual isreflected in the standards they set for themselves.