Word: kroc
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Stephen Bechtel, construction magnate --Leo Burnett, advertising genius --Willis Carrier, maker of air-conditioning systems --Walt Disney, creator of animation and multimedia empire --Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co. --Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft --A.P. Giannini, architect of nationwide banking --Ray Kroc, hamburger meister --Estee Lauder, cosmetics tycoon --William Levitt, creator of suburbia --Lucky Luciano, criminal mastermind --Louis B. Mayer, Hollywood mogul --Charles Merrill, advocate of the small investor --Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony --Walter Reuther, labor leader --Pete Rozelle, football-league commissioner --David Sarnoff, father of broadcasting --Juan Trippe, aviation entrepreneur --Sam Walton, Wal-Mart dynamo...
...glorified people who have become grotesquely wealthy and downplayed their negative impact on society. In many cases the detrimental effects have far outweighed any benefits incurred. Sam Walton created a company that has destroyed thousands of small businesses. Ray Kroc and McDonald's have given us unhealthy, tasteless food and a lot of low-paying jobs. Worst of all was your choice of builder William Levitt and Levittown's clone houses. Similar suburban developments have resulted in the paving over of thousands of acres of farmland and forest. These people were not visionaries; they were opportunists who diminished the American...
...free to run the business his own way, but he never changed the fundamental format that had been devised by the brothers. Kroc added his own wrinkles, certainly. He was a demon for cleanliness. From the overall appearance, to the parking lot, to the kitchen floor, to the uniforms, cleanliness was foremost and essential. "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean," was one of his favorite axioms. He was dead on, of course. The first impression you get from a restaurant, through the eyes and nose, is often what determines whether you'll go back...
Still, it's likely Ray Kroc would have moved on to something else if he had found a better idea. Even after McDonald's was well established, Kroc still tried, often with dismal results, to move forward with upscale hamburger restaurants, German-tavern restaurants, pie shops and even theme parks, like Disneyland. He always had a keen sense of the power of novelty and a strong belief in himself and his vision...
Like many of America's great entrepreneurs, Kroc was not a creator--convenience food already existed in many forms, from Howard Johnson's to White Castle--but he had the cunning ability to grasp a concept with all its complexities and implement it in the best possible way. And that's as American as a cheeseburger...