Have you ever wondered how the McDonald's happy meal became the best -selling meal of all time?
Or who's really behind that bottle of sriracha living in your fridge?
Or why almost every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly?
These are just a few of the questions answered on The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast about the untold origin stories of iconic products and the people who made them go viral.
Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best -selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye?
Or that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala?
Every week on The Best Idea Yet, they'll be digging into a new product and its story, from the Happy Meal to Super Mario Bros.
to Air Jordans and uncovering the actionable business insights along the way.
I'm about to play a clip from The Best Idea Yet while you're listening.
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It's June 19th, 1974, Guatemala City's historic district.
And Yolanda Fernandez -Dicofino is grinning from ear to ear because it's opening day for the very first McDonald's franchise located in Guatemala.
And she and her husband, they own it.
She's turning 40 next month and she's feeling excited for this new chapter in her life, because it's been months of work to get this thing ready to bring in the supplies, to hire and then to train 30, 40 employees, all while raising five kids of their own.
That's a lot. Now, quick side note, McDonald's Corporation, they don't actually own most of the restaurants.
Great point, Jack. That would be the franchisees.
So Yolanda and her husband are small business owners and they put up their own money to build the first Guatemalan McDonald's location.
Basically, they're paying McD's a licensing fee in exchange for the rights to use the McDonald's brand, the logo and all those salty sweet recipes.
El Mac Mos Grande. Did they call that?
Actually, me want to fact check that.
But this is a system that's been in place since even before Ray Kroc, who is the cutthroat entrepreneur and eventually the Mickey D CEO that muscled the McDonald's brothers out of their own company back in 1961.
For that story, you can curl up on the couch and watch a movie called The Founder.
It's a good airplane movie.
I watched that on a flight the other day, but yet he's McDonald's.
They started expanding to international markets in the late sixties, but as of 1974, McDonald's hasn't made a huge dent in Latin America.
So as Guatemala's first McDonald's franchisee, Yolanda or Dona Yoli, as she's known locally, is ready to introduce this fast, this affordable.
This fantastic new food to her community.
Now, the Cofino Fernandez family, they may own the franchise together, but it's Dona Yoli who really takes charge.
She is the fast food trailblazer.
Or as McDonald's employees like to say, she's got ketchup in her veins.
What a great expression, although that can't be good for the blood pressure.
I mean, you may want to see a doctor at a certain point, Jack, but still dona Yoli.
She wants their location in Guatemala to feel like a family owned restaurant.
She does not want this to feel like a chain, but there are a lot of hidden steps that go into creating this kind of environment, like all the details.
So many. You have to nail the soda fountains, the hiring standards, the daily signage, ensure the sesame seed bun is the same density in Guatemala as it is in Grand Rapids.
The idea is you are literally running a business when your franchisee, but since it's a business, you didn't found you got to do everything according to the corporate standards.
And this is why dona Yoli ventures 2700 miles from her home to Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
That's right. Dona Yoli is going to hamburger university.
H you. Nick, I have some questions about this university.
Oh, Jack, you may need to apply, but let's get into it, baby.
hamburgers University, which, by the way, should absolutely be a d1 school, is the brainchild of a guy named Fred Turner.
Now, Fred, he actually started as a grill man and one of the very first McDonald's franchise locations.
But this university he dreams up.
It's actually a training program for franchise owners.
The very first type of training program like this in the entire world.
Yeah, this is the Harvard for hamburgers.
This is the Stanford for fries, man, the Cambridge for quarter pounders, and it all starts in the basement of a McDonald in Elk Grove Village, a suburb not that far from Chicago's O 'Hare Airport.
Now, the students at hamburger University, they earn a bachelor's of hamburger ology with like a minor in French fries.
Jack, would you hang that on your wall?
I feel like that's a good diploma to brag about on my wall.
Yeah, no, but on my brand new McDonald's location.
Exactly, because despite what you may think, hamburger University students there are learning everything from supply chain logistics to management to leadership skills.
And actually, it is really hard to get into hamburger University.
You ready for some stats, man?
Hit me. Okay. Today, the Shanghai campus of hamburger University has a 1 % acceptance rate that's actually lower than Harvard, so I take it back.
I will put that diploma on my wall.
Get it framed. Jack.
Now, when dona Yoli attends hamburger University, she's absorbing everything.
But there is one thing that Yolanda learns at hamburger University that really gets her fired up.
McDonald's is naturally all about delivering a uniform experience for their customers.
That was one of the keys to McDonald's explosive growth in the 1950s.
Exactly, Jack, but the company's leaders they want to quash the entrepreneurial instincts of their franchisees.
Dona Yoli, for example, she knows her community better than corporate does, especially being nearly 3000 miles away in Central America.
So while corporate wants the fries always fried at a certain temperature and the patties all to be the same weight, they also want a franchise owner to pay attention to their customers, right?
Yeah, and if they get a great idea, they want the franchisee to take initiative.
Well, that's exactly what dona Yoli does.
She heads back to O 'Hare passes through the same terminal as the Macalester family and then spends the whole flight to Guatemala City thinking and she is more energized than ever because when she lands, she thinks she's got it.
But she has no idea that her brainstorm on that plane is about to make fast food history.
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