Comments on: Can you make a better burger than McDonalds?

By: Andrew Fairley

Andrew Fairley — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:20:20 +0000

According to George Ritzer, McDonald’s success is based on four key pillars: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control through technology. A big mac is cooked in the most efficient way possible, unit sizes are standardised so cooking time can be easily calculated, products are predictable (i.e. a big mac in London is the same as a big mac in New York), and human error and judgement calls are eliminated through technological functions (e.g. fries are cooked using a timer which automatically lifts them out of the oil when done).

The challenge is how can you apply this to a product that is highly complex with far greater variables, meeting a far greater range of needs?

By: Matt Chatterley

Matt Chatterley — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Very true. Of course, if you had an amazing burger, I’m sure you’d do pretty well – but scaling up/out a successful high quality enterprise is far from easy at the best of times!

By: Hazel Edmunds

Hazel Edmunds — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:34:28 +0000

Couldn’t have said it better myself! I think many business managers forget that scaling up the business means outsourcing or hiring – either way it will take you away from the creativity that made you start the business in the first place and into the management of the beast you have created. Of course, you could try outsourcing the administrative management but then you’d lose control, or would you?