Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald's

Every day, McDonald's serves food to nearly 50 million people in 30,000 restaurants worldwide. It owns about half of the globally branded, fast food restaurants outside the U.S. In India, you can order a Maharaja Mac with two lamb patties. New Zealand’s Kiwi Burger has a slice of beef and a fried egg. In Uruguay, the egg on the McHuevo burger is poached. With annual sales at the typical outlet averaging more than $2 million, many franchisees have become millionaires. In fact, seven out of 10 current McDonald’s executives began as restaurant “crewmembers” and built their careers through the chain. Ray Kroc, who made McDonald’s the world’s largest fast food company, once said he didn’t know what type of food it would be selling in the year 2000 (he died in 1984), but he was certain that it would be selling more of that food than anyone else. Author Paul Facella worked at McDonald's for 33 years. Albeit with the attitude of a fond insider, he details its history and philosophy, and the lessons he learned from the legendary Kroc. getAbstract relishes serving up this primer on McDonald’s – and in some sense, America’s – way of doing business.