Chapter 5, Melting Pot Summary and Analysis

Ray Kroc is hostile to big government and this is reflected in his decentralized, entrepreneurial business model. However, McDonald's management has no steady politics. Really, nothing about McDonald's is monolithic. Instead, Kroc wants to hire people who are extremists, capable and focused on their own phase or area. He wants people who perform their jobs well. Kroc is a management genius.

Kroc assembles one of the most diverse collected of managers in an American business. Their personalities differ and they have substantial freedom to make their own decisions. Kroc is not a corporate dictator as many imagine. However, he does mandate cleanliness and general fastidiousness, along with personal codes of conduct. He often terminates people on the spot for violating them, although more often than not these are mere threats. Poor performance is really what gets people...