Ray Kroc

The parking lot was always full, but revenue wasn't growing.

They dug into the books and found two problems.

First, the teenage crowd was driving away families.

And second, despite a menu of 25 items, 80% of sales came from one thing, the hamburger.

In the autumn of 1948, the McDonald's brothers did the unthinkable.

They closed the doors of a successful business.

They fired the car hops.

They shut off the grill.

For three months, the building sat dark while Mac and Dick redesigned everything.

They approached the kitchen like industrial engineers.

They went out on the tennis court behind their house with red chalk and drew the exact dimensions of the kitchens on the pavement.

They marked where the griddles would go, the fryers, the prep tables.

Then they brought in their employees to simulate making burgers, pretending to flip meat and dress buns, moving through the chalk outline like dancers rehearsing choreography.

When two workers bumped into each other, Mac and Dick erased the chalk and redrew the station.

They kept adjusting until the movement was seamless.

When they reopened in December 1948, the operation was radical.

They slashed the menu from 25 items to 9.

They cut the price of a burger in half.

And they made a decision that seemed crazy.

They took away the customer's ability to choose.