Roads To Success 3.2

Hamburger University

Jerry Caven continued with his busy life, not giving much thought to the McDonald’s Corporation and its ailing Boise franchise.  However, it eventually became obvious that McDonald’s was thinking about him.  Bernie Baxter returned to Boise to meet with Jerry, explaining the advantages of running the franchise and urging him to purchase it.  Bernie saw something in Jerry, and he wanted to see him running the restaurant.  Jerry again explained that he had no extra money with which to purchase a franchise.

Bernie Baxter returned to Chicago but soon returned to meet a third time with Jerry.  This time he came with a life-changing offer.

“He said that he had talked to Ray Kroc who was then the president and largest stockholder of McDonald’s,” Jerry divulged.  “Mr. Kroc said that if you will resign your teaching job and come back to attend, and graduate from Hamburger University in Chicago, he will give you this restaurant.”

Ray Kroc was working as a multi-mixer milkshake machine salesman when he met the McDonald brothers in the late 1950s, selling them eight of his machines for use in their hamburger restaurants.  Buying the company from the brothers in 1961 he was in the process of building it into the most successful fast food business in the world.

“Of course I don’t think Ray Kroc had ever given a restaurant away up to that point, but they badly wanted to see an operator in that restaurant” Jerry commented.

Jerry discussed the offer with Muriel, and having been raised in a Christian home, he included prayer in his decision making process, as well.  “I had become a Christian at a very early age,” Jerry explained.  “All of our business decisions we pray about.”

Jerry’s deliberation and prayer led him to one conclusion; McDonald’s offer was simply too good to refuse.  He realized, too, that this new venture was not without great risk.  He would have to resign from his teaching position and it was the only job he had.  In an admirable leap of faith Jerry resigned from his teaching job.  His employer did not take it well.  “They warned me that once I failed in the hamburger business they wouldn’t hire me back,” Jerry said.

Ignoring the warning and mustering what little courage he could, Jerry left for McDonald’s corporate headquarters.  “The plane got over Chicago and I actually felt sick to my stomach,” Jerry told me during his interview.  “What have I done?”

But there was no turning back and Jerry spent the next three weeks learning the McDonald’s approach to the fast food business.  Some of what Jerry learned didn’t do much to quell his fears.  “At Hamburger University they explained to us that a unit could not break even unless it was doing about $60,000 in sales a month.  And the previous month, before I took over, this unit had done about $12,000,” Jerry explained.

Jerry realized that he’d have to work hard to turn his McDonald’s unit around.  Returning to Boise, he literally moved into his new business.  “It had a basement,” Jerry recalled.  “I actually brought my cot into the basement and I stayed there twenty-four hours a day.  I lived there for a while.”

Making his new business a home away from home was a sacrifice, but one that would eventually pay off in a way Jerry never foresaw.

© 2012 Philip Kassel