Entrepreneur Case Study: Raymond Kroc, Theories & Self Analysis

This case study delves into the entrepreneurial journey of Raymond A. Kroc, the driving force behind McDonald's success, by exploring the definition of an entrepreneur, their personality traits, and relevant psychological theories such as Need for Achievement, Locus of Control, and Kets de Vries' Psychodynamic Model. It evaluates Kroc's visionary leadership, commitment, integrity, decision-making abilities, team-building skills, and risk-taking propensity, highlighting how these attributes contributed to his achievements. The report also includes a personal reflection, comparing and contrasting the author's skills with those of Kroc, identifying strengths in risk-willingness and teamwork, while acknowledging a need for improvement in visionary and analytical skills to better forecast future opportunities. The analysis concludes that entrepreneurs possess a combination of skills and traits that enable effective business operations and success, and these can be developed through self-awareness and targeted improvement efforts. Desklib provides similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Assessment 2:
Entrepreneur Case Study
& personal analysis

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
What is an entrepreneur? Exploration of the entrepreneurial personality..............................3
Psychological Theories of Entrepreneurship..........................................................................4
PART B............................................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of the entrepreneur ..............................................................................................5
PART C............................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References .......................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Entrepreneur could be determined as an individual engaged in contributing additional
values towards society as well as business environment. Though, a major aim of entrepreneur is
to earn profit out of their efforts and actions, but still primary and foremost purpose result in
being resolving a problem or issues faced by people in society. Raymond A. Kroc is chosen
entrepreneur for carrying out this particular report presentation in order to complete the same.
This report assessment will be comprised of insightful knowledge of an entrepreneur with
context of several theories and models. Furthermore, it will be including evaluation and
exploration of an entrepreneur in order to provide effective understanding of the same.
Main Body
PART A
What is an entrepreneur? Exploration of the entrepreneurial personality.
Entrepreneur is basically referred to an individual engaged in setting up a business unit
with exploration of their creative and innovative ideas. For instance, an entrepreneur always look
after contribution of additional values towards people in society as well as business environment.
In addition to that, the primary and major purpose behind consideration of exploration of
business idea lies in resolving a specific problem or issues faced by people in society. In order to
resolve these problems or issues, individual engaged in entrepreneurship takes risks with
investment for establishment of business unit in order to earn profit out of same. The meaningful
process of entrepreneurship initially starts with identification of problem or challenge faced by
consumers in society. The succeeding step taken into consideration is strategic planning
regarding converting transforming the issues or challenge into a creative and innovative business
idea in order to develop a business unit for the same. It includes development of products and
services offered to customers in order to be served to consumers in society which further
facilitates in meeting their needs and demands (Vizcaíno, Cardenas and Cardenas, 2021).
Characteristics of an entrepreneur
 Resolute Motivation: In order to execute efforts and actions towards establishment of a
business unit, an entrepreneur requires motivation and passion as the individual has to
face various different situations in the journey. For instance, this has been determined as
one of the primary characteristics of an individual engaged in entrepreneurial activity.

 Self-disciplined: Self-discipline and consistency are key competencies for an individual
to become a successful entrepreneur. For instance, this particular characteristic of an
entrepreneur facilitate in being focused at accomplishment of their desired goals and
objectives.
 Creative thinking: Due to huge competition in the market, establishment of an
additional and entrepreneurial business unit requires creativity and innovation. For
instance, It has been determined as another major characteristic of entrepreneur which
facilitate in exploration of their own business idea in order to acquire most out of it.
 Persistence: This characteristic is basically aimed at consistent and positive approach
towards carrying out difficult tasks and activities in their journey towards
accomplishment of desired goals and objectives. Furthermore, it allows an entrepreneur
to be positive and keep upright morale and confidence in facing different experiences and
situations.
 Risk-taker: Threat of failure often lead individuals to back off from their designed
business approach. In order to be precise, this individual characteristic of entrepreneur
facilitate in taking risks with investment for establishment of additional business unit
(Wells, 2021).
Psychological Theories of Entrepreneurship
Need for Achievement
This particular theory of entrepreneurship is basically aimed at the feeling of achievement
of desired goals and objectives. For instance, this particular states that an entrepreneur initiates
efforts towards establishment of a business with an inner feeling of achievement for personal
goals. The primary and major observations under this theory includes validation with some cases
while not with some cases, contradictory in nature but has limited evidence, it has no direction of
causality, etc. All these primary aspects of this particular theory determines a systematic manner
of executing entrepreneurial activities in order to establish a business organisation.
Locus of Control
This theory expresses a major trait of an entrepreneur which states that an individual has
degree of belief of control of outcomes of certain situations. For instance, it includes both
internal as well as external degree of control which is believed by different entrepreneur. In order
to be precise, internal belief is referred to the situation where the belied of an individual lies in

their own efforts and actions as the outcome or result of that particular situation. On the other
hand, External belief includes belief of entrepreneur in external environment factors as a result or
outcome of their efforts and actions, be it negative as well as positive result (Filion, 2021).
The primary and foremost observations of this theory includes limited research support,
direction of casualty, culture and belief system, etc. which facilitate in defining a major trait of
an entrepreneur.
Psychodynamic Model by Kets de Vries
This model based upon entrepreneur, determines various different situations which
influences an individual to become a successful entrepreneur. For instance, Kets de Vries states
that individuals tend to become self-employed and successful due to problematic and stressful
childhood. These troubled childhood situations include Loss of parent or parents, Extreme
poverty, child abuse, refugees, etc. which further influences an individual to become successful
in life with determined approach. The determined theory contends one's ability as well as
readiness of an individual to accept risks of investing in establishment of a business unit.
Furthermore, it determines that not every person going through troubled phase in life tend
towards contribution of efforts in order to innovate additional values towards society as well as
business environment (Coad, and Storey, 2021).
All these theories and models further facilitate in determining and exploring personality
of an entrepreneur. For instance, it provides an understanding of personality traits of an
individual engaged in establishing a business unit with context of different situations and
experiences. Furthermore, it further presents different observations and outcomes of these
determined theories and models in order to contribute effective understanding of the same.
PART B
Evaluation of the entrepreneur
Raymond A. Kroc was born in 1902 to a working-class family in Oak Park, Illinois and
grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Kroc has gone through a lot in his life and he has never stopped
learning new things and improving his skills. From an early age, he worked as an ambulance
driver, piano musician, salesperson, and other jobs. Kroc established a strong work ethic at a
young age during the Great Depression in the United States (Chen, Li and Zhang, 2021). He

understood the value of embracing chances and forming relationships in order to achieve
superior learning and development advantages. Kroc was a lifelong learner who gained
knowledge of the food service sector through marketing his goods to industry professionals and
learning new things on a daily basis. He obtained a great deal of expertise at an early age and
advanced quickly, making him a highly successful entrepreneur (Kafetzopoulos and Gotzamani,
2021). Raymond Kroc's success was due to a variety of entrepreneurial abilities and attributes,
which are discussed more below; Visionary: Raymond Kroc is a household name in the fast-food sector all over the world
because he was a visionary who prioritized his goals. He gave a lot of consideration to
the procedures and activities that the company used to achieve its goals. He was a
wonderful leader who was ready to learn until his last day in the company and he helped
McDonald's become a place where people enjoyed eating it. Commitment: While vision and optimism may propel people to great heights, it is critical
that a person remain devoted to being a successful entrepreneur at all times. Ray Kroc
was always sincere in their work and actions because he put his heart and soul into
whatever he did in life. He was knowledgeable, clever and entirely dedicated to his work
ethic, as seen by his contributions to the organisation even after he departed from his
position. Honesty and integrity: Kroc was a man of his word, and as a result, he was seen as a guy
who could be relied upon for his honesty and integrity. He was open and honest in his
acts, and he was completely dedicated to his profession. He was a touch harsh with his
staff in order to assure top-quality work and keep the company's morale strong
(Lakshminarayanan, Best and Maggio, 2022). Individual decision-making talents: The Sigma guideline for becoming a competent
entrepreneur is an individual's decision-making ability. Over the years of his work at
numerous locations and as the CEO of McDonald's, Kroc showed his Excellency in the
decision-making process. Team building and teamwork: It is critical for a company leader or entrepreneur to have
team building and teamwork qualities in order to establish a high level of performance.
Kroc has exceptional team-building skills, which aided McDonald's in expanding and
maintaining its business on a worldwide scale.

 Risk-taking ability: One of Ray Kroc's limited characteristics was his willingness to take
risks. He worked out with risk in his hand the first day he stepped into McDonald's. With
the support of borrowed monies from other individuals, he was able to secure a contract
to grow the firm to new heights.
PART C
The above discussion has clearly showed the number of skills and traits which is needed in a
individual in order to become the entrepreneur. By evaluating the skills of the mentioned
individual I discovered that I have some of these skills that reflecting in my personality. In
regard to this, as the above discussion shows that Ray Kroc has the ability to adopt the risk
willingness in order to fulfil their derived plan. In the reflection I analysed that I also have the
same trait in my personality to take the risk in order to achieve the greater goals in my life. In
addition to this, it will surely help in my future attributes in order to establishes my new venture
in the competitive market (Zhang, and Acs, 2018).
During my college assignments and project we worked in a team in order to fulfil the
assigned task on time. During such period of time I took the effective decision as well as assisted
by teammates to improvise their productivity in regard to their assigned task. Hence such
practice clearly stated that I have the skill of team management and teamwork skill that plays one
of the vital role for an entrepreneur in order to assign the task according to teammate skills as
well as manages them in order to achieve the derive goal more specifically.
An effective entrepreneur are visionary which is clearly stated in the above discussion. In
regard to this the mentioned skills plays one of the vital role in order to analyse the future
opportunities in advance in order to create the more effective operational functions. As it assist in
creating the more effective business plan which further facilitates in earning the high profits. I
clearly lacked by the mentioned skill in my personality. I lacked in seeing the future
opportunities in advance, which clearly showed the major drawback. In regard to this, in my past
activities I predicted the several assumptions wrong according to the scenarios. Hence, these
actions impacted the overall result. Hence, I need to work on my analytical skill in order to get
the more reliable insights of the future scenario. Through such process I can forecast the
opportunities according to the analytical data (Foley, and et. al., 2018).

Conclusion
From the analysis of above report it is clearly analysed that entrepreneur have the number
of skills in their personality such as team building skills, identifying of future opportunity
through their visionary skills. In addition to this, these factors assist the individual to create the
more effective business operations through the use of their entrepreneur personality. Moreover,
the above report also highlighted the self reflection in which skills were highlighted which
matched with the discussed entrepreneur such as risk taking ability and team building ability.

References
Books and Journals
Chen, L., Li, T. and Zhang, T., 2021. Supply chain leadership and firm performance: A meta-
analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 235, p.108082.
Coad, A. and Storey, D. J., 2021. Taking the entrepreneur out of entrepreneurship. International
Journal of Management Reviews, 23(4), pp.541-548.
Filion, L. J., 2021. Defining the entrepreneur. In World encyclopedia of entrepreneurship.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Foley, and et. al., 2018. Is independence really an opportunity? The experience of entrepreneur-
mothers. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Kafetzopoulos, D. and Gotzamani, K., 2021. Effect of Leadership On Bmi and Competitive
Advantage of Smes. International Journal of Innovation Management, 25(09),
p.2150101.
Lakshminarayanan, S., Best, S. and Maggio, E., 2022. MoveAhead: lessons in pragmatism for an
idealistic social-entrepreneur. The CASE Journal.
Vizcaíno, F.V., Cardenas, J.J. and Cardenas, M., 2021. A look at the social entrepreneur: the
effects of resilience and power distance personality traits on consumers’ perceptions
of corporate social sustainability. International Entrepreneurship and Management
Journal, 17(1), pp.83-103.
Wells, S.J., 2021. Women entrepreneurs: Developing leadership for success. Routledge.
Zhang, T. and Acs, Z., 2018. Age and entrepreneurship: nuances from entrepreneur types and
generation effects. Small Business Economics, 51(4), pp.773-809.