Hello everyone.
I invite you all to watch this pretty nice movie so that you can comment on the blog, thus promoting a good interaction with your virtual peers, and, at the same time, practicing your critical thinking while writing in English.
Here is the link to the trailer: The Final Scene (You can find the film on PopCorn Time ).
Other sites you can watch the movie:
a) Films online
b) Mega Filmes
c) Vizer.Me
d) Megafilmes.Org
In order to have in mind some ideas for comments, I'll post some questions while you watch the movie:
1) How did Ray Kroc get to know about McDonald's restaurant?
2) How was the relationship between Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers all along the movie?
3) How was Ray's relationship with his wife? Did he have friends? How was the relationship with them?
4) Take notes of some difficult situations for both Ray and the McDonald brothers. Was it possible to solve? How?
5) What kind of mistakes do you think Ray and the brothers made?
6) Did you like the story end? Why?
This link shows an interview with the author Lisa Napoli of her book " Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonands Fortune and the Woman Who Gave it All Away". There are some points in the film different from the book. It's also possible to listen to the whole interview. Check it out!
Note: Please try to watch the video and post your comments in 15 days (from July 8th to July 22).
Have a great time having fun and practicing English!
Hope to see your live participation here.
Best,
Flávia
Hello my virtual colleagues. I'm Bruno Chincoa and I'm a sophomore student at Mackenzie Business School and I take part in the university Entrepreneurial League with projects.
ResponderExcluirI'll discuss questions 2 and 3. Since the beginning of the movie, the relationship between Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers was based on mistrust. Ray was very greedy and one of the brothers saw this from the start, and along the movie, the relatioship worsened when Ray founded a new company -Franchise Real Estate - and partially breached the contract with the brothers. This was a critical point of the movie and we could see how the relationship was important for the business.
At first, his relationship with his wife was very superficial, cold and there was not any intimacy. Ray was travelling and didn't stay with her. About his friends, he didn't have close friends, only business interests. Because of that behavior, we couldn't expect anything different in relation to the brothers, which was shown very toxic in business and trade in general.
My question for the discussion is: do you see this toxicity in your business environment? Do you agree with my propositions?
I'll wait for your questions.
Best regards,
Bruno
Hello, I'm Ednisio, and worked as an It Coordinator for many years, and now I'm looking for a new position in the market.
ResponderExcluirI'm going to answer questions 1,2 and 3.
Question 1:
Ray Kroc was the owner of Prince Castle Sales company that provides mixers to make faster milk-shake, and had a sales order for 6 mixers for McDonalds company. So, he called the company to talk about it. Then, Ray went to vist them and marveled at the McDonalds story.
Question 2:
At the beginning, the relationship was good, but after Ray persuaded the brothers to expand their business through the creation of franchising, the relationship became complicated.
I totally agree with Bruno's answer, especially when he said about the relationship based on mistrust, because it is impossible to do business in this condition.
Question 3:
The relationship with his wife wasn't good, because he thought that his wife didn't support his ambitions. In general, I believe Ray should have valued his wife more, and negotiated a better percentage with the brothers.
Do you think that Ray was honest with the brothers?
I'm looking forward to your participation.
Best regards,
Ednisio
Hello guys, my name is Vitor and I'm a portfolio manager at Itau.
ResponderExcluirFor me, the biggest change in the movie is when Harry Sonnerborn's ideas came up to start to buy land and fulfill a long term agreement in order to lease the land to the franchisees. In my point of view, it was an ethical move by Ray Kroc, despite aggressive, because his agreement with the brothers dictated the actions to be taken inside the stores; however, "outside the door", he was able to do whatever he wanted, and probably he leveraged a lot of money to buy the land leased to the franchisees. At the same time, it was a risk for Ray Kroc, because he had to raise a lot of credit from banks. It would be a problem if something went wrong with McDonald's.
Do you agree with my view on Ray Kroc's movement to buy land?
See you around.
Vitor.
Hello Vitor.
ExcluirI agree with you. Look on the bright side: the purchase of the land wasn't a bad business; on the contrary, it leveraged it.
Best,
Ednisio
Hi, I'm Regiane, a Portuguese teacher blogger (go and check www.veredasdotexto.com).
ResponderExcluirI liked the movie in spite of not approving this kind of person's negotiation approach to business. I really hate Ray's behavior in relation to his wife, his way of working, due to his money-and-power-mindset, greed (as Bruno said) and selfishness. People with this profile usually have reproachable attitutes (eg.:he didn't grant the McDonald's profits to his wife).
Vitor, in my opinion, to buy land and lease to the franchisees was the way-out for Ray to have money, because until then, all of his past efforts were useless. If the contract had benefitted Ray from the beginning, probably he would have felt more recognized and wouldn't have resorted to this kind of way-out.
For me, the climax of the movie was when Ray tried to propose a change in the contract related to the profit percentage, but one of the brothers denied it, and said to Ray that "he wasn't with the gun at his head when he signed the contract". At this moment, Ray'd noticed that the contract was unilateral, and from that on, he started becoming more aggressive.
Do you agree with me about the unilateral contract? And what about my view on his behavior towards people?
Hugs to everyone.
Regiane
Hello, Regiane.
ExcluirI partially agree with you because, in my opinion, the contract was drawn up to meet the brothers' needs. When Ray accepted the terms he should know the brothers were the main beneficiaries. Therefore, the contract should always tend to benefit the party who drew up the agreement.
If you put yourself in the Brothers' shoes, how would you draw up the contract? Would you give more benefits to Ray or not?
I'd like to get your answer.
Thanks,
Bruno
Hello Regiane.
ResponderExcluirI agree with you. Look at it this way, at first the contract had advantages to Ray, but after it became bad and I believe that Ray should have all the right to review the contract.
Best,
Ednisio