Few entrepreneurs can claim to have actually changed the way we live, but Ray Kroc is one of them[1]. He is known as the father of McDonald’s which is a real disruptive innovation in the food industry, and Ray fully illuminated what entrepreneur spirit was. He was firstly impressed by the effectiveness of the operation in a small restaurant run by brothers Dick and MacDonald since the restaurant only served a few items but focused on the food quality.

However, this was only the predecessor of the McDonald’s we know today.Ray based his business philosophy on the 3-legged stool principle: one leg was McDonald’s, the second, the franchisees, and the third, McDonald’s suppliers[2]. It was making a difference in these three aspects that motivated the innovation.

Ray was famous for his QSCV concept – Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value. Although these elements are fundamental in running a restaurant, Ray was the first one to placed significant emphasis on them. He required all the restaurants strictly stick to them and he himself would keep a hawk’s eye over the McDonald’s restaurants, even phoning the manager to remind him to pick up the trash, clean his lot, and turn on the lights at night[2].

Besides, he wanted to serve food in a consistent flavour, like cheeseburger should be tasted just the same in Alaska as they did in Alabama. To achieve this, he allowed franchisees to put their strength into individual innovation as long as they could follow the basic principles. I believe this is also an innovation in corporation management. Ray gave franchisees more freedom and more creativity space which resulted in the born of many new types of McDonald’s most famous menu items – like the Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish and the Egg McMuffin[2].
As far as I am concerned, McDonald’s has been popular around for more than a half- century, its competitors like burger king, pizza hut, A&W, are catching up in an amazing speed. Since McDonald’s business model is easy to be imitated, how to keep the leading position is a question that worth considering. Maybe another revolution is in the air. Who knows?

http://www.amazon.ca/Grinding-It-Out-Making-McDonalds/dp/0312929870

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history/the_ray_kroc_story.html

http://www.claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197544

In sum, Jimmy choo’s IPO is a mixed blessing, but personally I prefer to say that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Going public may not damage their prestige but make them better off so long as they have a precise orientation on their different kinds of products. Say ,being more proficient in Perfume, bags and clothing,then promoting them in less luxurious prices  by relying on its strong brand name. What’s more? These things, unlike shoes, are not that require a close-to-perfect for customers[1], so a kind of design will fit far more shoppers than shoes do, thus reducing the cost.As for their shoes, just keep targeting at high-level customers. Or even cut down their inventory and make it a hunger-marketing model. As Somebody said: Scarcity does seem to feeding the frenzy.

We know[2],Jimmy choo’s profit margin lags behind other more diversified rivals, but this is acceptable. Compared with other luxury brands, like LV, Gucci ,Jimmy choo has a much shorter history and less products categories and sub-brands. So it might be an urgent task to diverse their products and enhance the brand name apart from their reputation in shoes.

Secondly, IPO will help them gain more capital in expanding retailer stores[3]. According to the Bloomberg Businessweek[4], people in China are familiar with this luxury brand, but there are a few physical stores in Chinese Mainland, which makes the luxury shoes inaccessible thus losing abundant of market shares. So instead of keeping conservative, accelerating its development in Asia as well as maintaining its high-brand image might be a wisdom choice.

Classmate’s blog https://blogs.ubc.ca/nodokahashimoto/2014/09/25/21/