I came
across with the successful story of world famous franchise and thought of
sharing with you why all of us are learning leadership under one common roof
called AIESEC. You probably have already guessed it correctly, yes! It’s
McDonald Inc.
Leadership
determines the effectiveness and the potential impact of everything that you
involve in life, be it in AIESEC, or family, schools, universities. Question is
how do you rate your own ability to lead and more importantly, how do people
rate you?
In 1937,
two young brothers named Dick and Maurice, both equipped with high
entrepreneurial spirit, came across with an idea that worked. They opened a
small drive-in restaurant in Pasadena, located just east of Glendale. People in
Southern California had become very dependent on their cars, and the culture
was changing to accommodate that, including its business. They were constantly
seeking for changes, reducing costs, improving the speed of the service. Then,
in 1948, their intuition told them that times were changing and they made
modifications to their restaurant business. They eliminated carhops and started
serving only walk-up customers only. They streamlined everything and reduced
their menu so that they could only focus on selling hamburgers. At one point of
time, the brothers’ goal was to fill each customer’s order in 30 seconds or LESS. Thus, the kitchen
became like an assembly line, where each employee focused on service with
speed. As the business flourished, the two brothers were indeed really rich in
the town, by the mid-1950’s, annual revenue hit $350,000, and by then Dick and
Maurice split net profits of about $100,000
each year. Dick and Maurice had hit the great America jackpot, and the
rest, as they say, is history, right? WRONG. The McDonalds never went any
further because of their weak leadership.
Due to the
exceedingly great reputation of the two brothers dabbled in Food and Beverage,
many people from all over the countries wrote to them and even called them to
get best advice from the two gurus. So, that led them to the idea of marketing
the McDonald’s concept. To the brothers, it looked like a way to make profit
without having to open another restaurant themselves. In the years that Dick
and Maurice McDonald had attempted to franchise their food service system, they
managed to sell the concept to just only 15 buyers, only 10 out of them
actually opened restaurants. And even in such size enterprise, their limited
leadership and VISION were hindrances.
In 1954,
the brothers hooked up with a man named Ray Kroc, who had been running a small
company he founded, which sold machines for making milk shakes. He knew about
McDonald’s. The restaurant was one of his best customers. And as soon as
visited the store, he had a VISION for its potential. In his mind he could see
the restaurant going nationwide in hundreds of markets. When you joined AIESEC, you must have seen some pictures of yourself
growing and thriving under the atmosphere of AIESEC. And you should have known
the reasons behind the motivation to grow and develop. Such reason is meant to
be kept close to yourself, and the only reason that fuels you when you are
mentally exhausted. So, activates the vision back and make it happens.
Similarly to Kroc’s story, he soon struck a deal with Dick and Maurice, and in
1955, he formed McDonald’s System, Inc (later called the McDonald’s
Corporation).
This is not the time to slacken. Life’s
greatness just started. As an AIESECer, we are always on the outlook of
like-minded people/member [TMP/TLP]. Thus, Kroc immediately bought the rights to a
franchise so that he could use it as a model and prototype. Then, he began to
assemble a team and build an organization to make McDonald’s a nationwide
entity. He recruited and hired the
sharpest people he could find, and his team grew in size and ability, his
people developed additional recruits with leadership skill. At this point,
you can see our AIESEC UM and McDonald shared several common points. Like McDonald’s earlier success created by
Dike & Maurice, AIESEC UM was a TOP GUN LC last term 2011/2012, and the
efforts were implemented during Jiong Kit’s term 2010/2011. But such
achievement was just a milestone that indicated AIESEC indeed DID well. When I
ponder again why do I get such an awesome team, I know it’s because my
predecessors’ leadership attracted these bunch of great people, you must agree
with me. We, the powerhouse of term 2012/2013, are to define and plan the steps
for future term after term.
In the
early years, Kroc sacrificed a lot. Though he was in his mid-fifties, he worked
long hours just as he had when he first got started in business thirty years
earlier. During his first eight years with McDonald’s, he took no salary. Not
only that, but he personally borrowed money from the bank and against his life
insurance to help cover the salaries of a few key leaders he wanted on the
team. Kroc’s example may be too much for
a university student. We can’t entirely invest our time solely on AIESEC works,
can we? Time management, prioritizing skill and team management become our
biggest challenges YET, our greatest learning curves. His sacrifice and his
leadership finally paid off. In 1961, for the sum of $2.7 million, Kroc bought
the exclusive rights to McDonald’s from the brothers, and he proceeded to turn
it into American institution and a global entity. Today, the company has opened
more than 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries.
Be proud of
what AIESEC UM had achieved, and be equally excited about the goals that we set
too. We are able to translate the dreams into reality, we seriously could. At
the end of the day, I envision our AIESEC UM will be widely known in UM
(Widespread presence) and outside UM (colleges/companies/NGOs that we approached
and serviced) and all of the youths, even other organizations see AIESEC as an
avenue to gain valuable personal development tools (Maximizing members’
learning curves). If AIESEC UM achieved these 2 main goals, this is a group’s
success, which brings a deeper meaning than a personal success. Group success
is founded upon leadership ability. Without leadership ability, a person’s
impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership.
Max Lee
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