McDonalds

Today McDonald's operates in the global quick service restaurant industry business. McDonald's was the pioneer of this business and it was McDonald's which made the quick service restaurant business a global industry by creating a huge global commercial empire. Currently McDonald's ranks 114th in the list of Fortune 500 companies and thanks to its pioneering processing and standardized approach to the commercial production of fast food, McDonald's has placed the quick service restaurant industry amongst the big economic driving force industries such as steel and automobiles.

Raymond Kroc the founder of McDonald's had the vision of a chain of fast food restaurants in every American State and in the world as well. He wanted his fast food restaurants to serve quality food according to fixed standards and specification. When Kroc started business in 1955 there were other well established fast food chains in United States, amongst the most widely known were A&W, Dairy Queen, Tastee -Freez, and Big Boy, Burger King then known as InstaBurger King was just starting out. There were many things which separated McDonald's from its rivals. Raymond Kroc's goal was to create world wide fast food chain whereas the rest of the major fast food chains were not so enthusiastic about expansion. Other fast food chains which operated on a franchise basis viewed their operators as customers and only reaped benefits without providing much guidance relating to operation, promotion, sales strategy, financing and food processing. Raymond Kroc extended his hand to operators of franchised McDonald's restaurants by treating them like trading partners in every respect of the business. This close relationship with operators ensured that McDonald's restaurants in any State in the United States would serve food according to fixed specification and quantity. Raymond Kroc did more than by just give advice regarding process management he allowed his operators to exercise their innovatory skills relating to every aspect of the franchise business. McDonald's had set new standards for the fast food industry by selling a branded service not just patented food recipes and formulas. (Greatest Business Stories of All Times)

McDonald's trademark competition edge was its process management approach in which the company literally put hamburgers on the assembly line. For McDonald's outlets to succeed they had to attain perfection by breaking the labor into parts and fine tune every aspect of hamburger manufacture. This approach