Thread by @chrishlad

McDonald's sells over 6 million burgers every day.

But why should you care?

Here are 5 lessons worth their weight in grease and why it matters👇

1) Kill Choice

“If we gave people choice, there would be chaos."

Originally, "McDonald's Barbecue" serves pulled pork sandwiches, burgers and more.

But the McDonald's brothers start inspecting receipts to find best sellers.

And they cut the menu from 25 to 9 items.

Why this matters:

So you have a clothing brand that sells 100 options of t-shirts and sweatshirts.

I land on your website and have no idea what to buy.

If I have this problem, other people do too.

So you can analyze what sells best and cut the rest.

Choices kill profits.

2) Standardize It

McDonald's standardized every order.

For example, a hamburger would be served with mustard, ketchup, onions and two pickles.

And the ketchup squirt would come from a mechanical condiment dispenser

The same squirt every single time.

No more. No less.

Why this matters:

Anytime you repeat the same process, you have an opportunity to standardize it.

it could be how you look for a job.

Or how you interview.

Standardizing a process lets you focus on what actually matters...

The task itself.

3) Henry Ford of Hamburgers

Ford famously creates the assembly line to mass produce cars.

Early on, McDonald's closes for 3 months to pivot from BBQ joint to hamburger factory.

Which includes a choreographed assembly line for food prep and delivery

The Vision:

• grill 40 patties in 110 seconds

• make 900 servings of fries in 1 hr

• give a customer a meal in 20 seconds

Why this matters:

Uber started as a limo service.

Twitch started with @justinkan broadcasting his life on the internet.

McDonald's started as a barbecue restaurant.

Don't get married to your original idea.

4) Win on Price

Original prices are

• 15 cents / burger
• 10 cents for fries
• 20 cents for a milkshake

Competitors charged almost double.

But the assembly line cut costs to make these prices profitable.

And they made up the difference with volume.

5) A Real Estate Biz that Sells Burgers

A milkshake machine salesman named Ray Kroc starts selling to McDonald's in the 1950s.

He loves the business so much he becomes a franchise owners.

And eventually he buys the whole business from Richard and Mac McDonald for $2.7mm.

But there is a big problem.

Kroc originally earns 1.4% of profits from franchise owners.

The money math just didn't work.

So he makes a change.

Kroc starts buying plots of lands and leasing them to franchise owners.

The owners become tenants who pay monthly rent.

Kroc earns consistent cash right away which lets him buy more land.

And the cycle continues today with over 40,000 locations!

An early executive at McDonald's Harry Sonneborn said it best:

"We are not in the food business.

We are in the real estate business.

The only reason we sell hamburgers is because they are the greatest revenue producer, from which our tenants can pay us rent."

Why this matters:

Amazon is not just an e-commerce marketplace.

They are a logistics company with the best warehouse and delivery systems in the world.

How can you unlock your own biz by seeing it differently?

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