Shane Parrish

Millions of people arrived from Southern Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere had introduced cuisines that had nothing to do with potatoes.

Fries alone couldn't sustain a subsidiary on the other side of the world.

So they diversified.

McCain Australia moved into frozen vegetables, then frozen pizzas, then frozen prepared dinners.

And because they had zero brand recognition in these new categories, Harrison plowed every dollar of profit straight back into marketing and advertising, racing to build loyalty before competitors noticed what was happening.

McCain didn't just survive Australia.

It became the dominant frozen food brand across multiple aisles, not just the French fry aisle.

By the early 1980s, McCain Foods was no longer a scrappy Canadian startup.

Sales topped over a billion dollars in 1985.

and they had plants in eight countries producing frozen fries, vegetables, desserts, pizzas, juices, and oven meals.

They had the financial muscle now to enter any new market without betting the farm, but the biggest market on earth was still barely touched.

In January 1981, Harrison sat down and wrote a strategy memo.

He took stock of the company country by country.

The United States got one sentence.

I think we should try to find another food company in the US that is profitable, pay the top price, and move it into our business.

That sentence would take 16 years to be executed.

They waited for the right opportunity.

And patience was not a quality anyone normally associated with Harrison McCain.

But he understood that he'd be competing in a way that he never did before.

Everywhere else, McCain had been creating markets.