The Founder is about a man “Ray Croc” who sees innovation and decides to capitalize on it. Ray Croc is a door-to-door salesman for his multimixer product. One day Ray's product is purchased in bulk by one of the McDonald's brothers in California. When he confirmed the news that they wanted to purchase 8 multimixers he decided he wanted to know for himself what kind of operation was going on. Upon arrival, he discovers a booming business that shows great innovation. Croc Convinces the brothers to start franchising their business and to make him head of franchising for McDonald's. Once Croc has an ample foothold in the business he talks to a man named Harry Sonneborn who convinces him to purchase the land where future McDonald's stores will be placed and lease the land. He is not in the “Burger Business he is in the Real Estate Business”. With his new Business model, he explains the food chain and eventually buys out the McDonald brothers with the capital raised. McDonald's is a perfect example of how innovation affects society and society affects innovation. Innovation drives entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship drives innovation. Innovation can drive consumers to purchase a new product or even dissuade someone from purchasing a product if improperly implemented or isn't consumer friendly. Innovations are all around us, All innovation is the application of technology in a consumer's product or service. A new product can shape the way a consumer currently consumes things and even shape the way a consumer will consume in the future. The McDonald's business model was revolutionary at the time with no other restaurant or fast food joint being able to serve customers as rapidly as them. Today McDonald's
feeds one percent of the general populace globally. Many fast food places have replicated the model but have not surpassed McDonald's in prevalence. Consumers vote on what they want with their dollars. A business’s ethics, values, product, and a multitude of other things can influence a consumer's choice to purchase something or not. A company cannot survive without revenue and revenue comes from the consumers that purchase the product. When a company can produce a product either better, faster, or cheaper than its competitor's consumers will take notice and either buy it or not. If the innovation does not cater to the consumer or doesn't satisfy a consumer's need then they would not purchase the product. If consumers didn't value fast, cheap, burgers from McDonald's they would not purchase them and McDonald's would not be the global fast food industry leader. This is just one industry in a short time span. Innovation or “Creative destruction” happens all the time and can destroy entire industries. The horse and carriage has been replaced by the automobile and the sail by the engine. Consumers follow the path of least resistance like anything. If a product can fulfill a need at an acceptable price it will prevail because it follows the formula consumer value > Value > Cost. Innovation will continue to shape and be shaped by people.
