McDonald's: Behind The Arches

Kroc, like the best entrepreneurs this country has produced, was a believer. Love refers frequently to Kroc's "missionary zeal," and that is probably an apt description of Kroc's drive to motivate employees, bankers and consumers to believe in the 15-cent hamburger (that price stuck for nearly two decades). Like most successful entrepreneurs, Kroc also rode a social wave. In this case, it was show more a wave away from the dinner table and into drive-ins and later fast-food restaurants. show less

Mr. Love, a former senior editor of Business Week, is not so successful in putting McDonald's in the context of wide business and economic trends. What does the success of McDonald's say about the service sector's dominance of our economy? What social and economic changes made this possible? Other key questions are begged - in particular the crucial one of nutrition. Here Mr. Love again show more repeats the corporate line, listing all the good things in the products without mentioning the fat - 15 to 20 percent of its beef alone - and additives. show less