Management Principles in 'The Founder': Leadership and Business Growth

This essay delves into contemporary management policies and theories within the context of the movie 'The Founder,' a biopic about Ray Kroc and the McDonald's fast-food chain. It explores Kroc's entrepreneurial journey, highlighting his divergence from traditional management education through perseverance and determination. The analysis contrasts the McDonald brothers' focus on quality with Kroc's emphasis on quantity and rapid expansion. Furthermore, the essay examines Kroc's aggressive business policies, risk-taking attitude, and dual role as manager and leader, ultimately revealing a gap between management theories taught in educational institutions and the practical strategies employed in the business world. The student reflects on emulating Kroc's positive attributes while acknowledging the potential pitfalls of overemphasizing global expansion.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND THE ROLE OF MANAGERS
Management and the role of managers
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Gillis, Combs and Yin (2018, p. 18) argued the extensive usage of recent innovative
technologies, aggressive marketing campaigns, strategies and others have completely
changed the status quo of the contemporary business world. As opined by Green (2015, p.98),
these changes in the business model and processes followed by the different contemporary
enterprises have necessitated a change in the management policies as well as frameworks
followed by the same. The end result of this that the management concepts taught to the
students in class is totally different from the ones which are being actually followed within
the spectrum of the professional business world. This paper evaluates the contemporary
management policies as well as theories used in the business world in the particular context
of the movie “The Founder” which is based on the life of Ray Kroc.
The movie “The Founder” (2016), directed by John Lee Hancock, is a biopic on the
life of Ray Kroc, the man who is reputed as the true founder of the fast food chain,
McDonald’s (IMDb, 2019). The movie can be seen as an exploration of the life of Kroc and
also the journey which he undertook to make a small restaurant in San Bernardino into the
omnipresent McDonalds of the 21st century (Hazera, 2017, p.4). Kroc is shown as a fifty year
old salesman who is trying to sell milkshake machines when he accidently stumbles upon the
above mentioned restaurant run by the two McDonald brothers in San Bernardino (Green,
2015, p.98). He likes the fast method followed by the two brothers for the delivery of services
to the customers and after a considerable amount of persuasion is able to gain franchise rights
of the restaurant from the two brothers. The second half of the movie highlights the strategies
as well as the measures which were followed by Kroc for the global expansion of the
restaurant and also to make it the “new church of America” (Hazera, 2017, p.5). Some of the
most important strategies or measures which the movie shows Kroc to be using for the
expansion of the restaurant are franchising, reducing the operational cost, reducing the time

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taken for the delivery of service, use of real-estate business as a means to enhance the
commission earned by the organization and others (Ritzer, 2017, p.659).
The movie under discussion here can be seen as a deep exploration of the notion of
entrepreneurship and also the manner in which individuals can effectively utilize the notion
of entrepreneurship for the establishment of a successful business venture. For example, Kroc
shows a firm belief in the statement “Nothing in the world can take place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent….Persistence
and determination alone are omnipotent” (IMDb, 2019). This idea of Kroc is something
which can be seen as a deviation from the traditional notion held regarding the construct of
entrepreneurship. For example, in the contemporary times one of the most important opinions
held in the present times is the fact that the entrepreneurs should have the right kind of
management education as well as training (Gillis, Combs and Yin, 2018, p. 19). However, the
success gained by the organization McDonald’s and its entrepreneur Ray Kroc through the
active as well as persistent use of the notion of perseverance and determination is in complete
contradiction to the above mentioned idea. More importantly, the journey undertaken by Kroc
clearly hints at the idea is entrepreneurs need to take into effective consideration their gut
feeling and also should be able to identify the right kind of business ideas and that too at the
right point of time (Hazera, 2017, p.4). This becomes especially apparent from the
identification of the future prospects of the business model followed by the two McDonald
brothers back in the 20th century when Kroc met them.
The movie “The Founder” also highlights the different kinds of management theories
or strategies that the diverse entrepreneurs can take the help of for the expansion of their
business (Green, 2015, p.91). For example, the movie clearly indicates that the McDonald
brothers were not keen very keen on the expansion of their business and they even opposed
Kroc for the use of different kinds of measures which were used by him to reduce the

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operational and manufacturing cost of the restaurant and thereby to enhance the profit (Fiore
and Lussier, 2015, p.175). In this regard, it needs to be said that the traditional system of
manufacturing used by the two McDonald brothers depended on the aspect of quality rather
than quantity. However, Kroc was willing to comprise on the aspect of quality and focus on
the entity of quantity so as to reach out to much larger customer base. This can be attributed
to the fact that Kroc firmly believed that the fast delivery of food products which was offered
by the organization under discussion here was likely to help the organization to gain success
rather than the aspect of quality. Once again, it needs to be said that this is drastically
different the management practices followed by the managers of the contemporary business
enterprises who inevitably focus either on the attribute of quality or quantity rather than
having a firm belief on the business model or the nature of the business conducted by them
(Gillis, Combs and Yin, 2018, p. 20).
The movie which can be seen as a drama also reveals the key attributes of a managers
and the kind of relationship that they need to maintain with the employees (Hazera, 2017,
p.6). For example, through the movie it is seen that Kroc follows an aggressive business
policy and also expects the employees to have the same kind of attitude towards the work that
they are performing (Green, 2015, p.118). Furthermore, for the effective achievement of the
business goals he encourages the employees to be ambitious as well as risk taking. As a
manager Kroc is shown to be a risk taking one and also the kind of individual who is not
afraid to listen to his gut feeling. More importantly, Kroc is seen to be taking on the job roles
of both the manager and leader for the effective growth of the business organization (Ritzer,
2017, p.661). These in short are the key attributes of good managers in the contemporary
business world. Thus, in this regard, it can be said that the book is an instruction manual for
the budding entrepreneurs who want to establish their own business. I would like to say that I
want to be a manager like Kroc and embody the positive aspects of his character like

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perseverance, determination, risk taking attitude and others. However, I personally believe
that the weakness of Kroc can be said to be his overemphasis on global expansion which
ultimately lead to the various management problems that the organization is currently facing.
To conclude, there is a gulf between them management theories as well as policies
which are being taught to the students in the various educational institutions and the ones that
are being actually followed in the professional business world. This becomes apparent from
an analysis of the movie “The Founder” which is based on the life of Ray Kroc and the
measures which were taken by him for the global expansion of the fast food chain
McDonald’s in the 20th century. More importantly, the actions of Kroc in the movie clearly
reveals the fact that some of the management policies as well as strategies followed by him
and also the beliefs or the values held by him are starkly different from the ones which are
being held in the contemporary business world.

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References
Fiore, R.A. and Lussier, R.N., (2015). Measuring and testing general fundamental attribution
error in entrepreneurship effecting public policy. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public
Policy, 4(2), pp.171-186.
Gillis, W.E., Combs, J.G. and Yin, X., (2018). Franchise management capabilities and
franchisor performance under alternative franchise ownership strategies. Journal of Business
Venturing.
Green, S., (2015). McDonald's. Bellwether Media.
Hazera, A., (2017). John Lee Hancock, The Founder (2016). Markets, Globalization &
Development Review, 2(4).
IMDb (2019). The Founder (2016). [online] Available at:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2019].
Ritzer, G., (2017). Can there really be ‘True’alternatives within the food and drink markets?
If so, can they survive as alternative forms?. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(7-8),
pp.652-661.