Book review: McDonald's Behind the Arches, John F. Love

Mmm...I'm lovin' it! I am not shy to admit to absolutely loving McDonald's. I fell in love with McDonald's on my first ever overseas trip to London in 1996, and had a Big Mac meal.

I found this book at a second hand book store and was enthralled from the first chapter. It's one of those books that I wanted to get through as quickly as possible to see what happens next, but not wanting to get through it too quickly as you really get to know the characters, which you'll miss when the book is finished.

At some point in the future, possibly, maybe, I would like to look at franchising options for Reputation Matters and if anyone got franchising right, then McDonald's are the blue print of doing this, and doing this well, and from whom I would like to learn as much as possible. The fact that they made their money from land ownership and not selling hamburgers is genius!

The crux of a well oiled machine, especially when it comes to franchising, or even different branches, is have proper systems in place. Even though McDonald's have very stringent systems and processes in place, they still allow their franchisees to be creative an innovative.

This book focuses on all the different possible aspects of running a business. Even Ray Kroc had his issues with partnerships (clearly happens to the best of us!). Interestingly at some point he had doubts about franchising because it comes with a host of different issues that come into play, which is definitely a good lessons to keep in mind. However, he later realised the importance of being partners towards the same goal

It also looks at the importance of communication, PR and marketing. What I really appreciated  was the value they saw in communication management, and aligning it to executive decisions and high level involvement.

They also realised the importance of engaging with the media, to be proactive and not ignoring it, especially during a crisis.

Definitely a book that I would recommend and read again - there are a lot of great lessons to be learnt.

9/10