Book Review: The Burger King by Jim Mclamore

About:

The Burger King: A Whopper of a Story on Life and Leadership by Jim Mclamore is a retrospective of Burger King’s co-founder and CIO. In the book, Mr. Mclamore traces his rise to riches from his humble beginnings, with lessons he learned in life and business along the way.

• 304 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ TMA Press
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1642502820

My rating for The Burger King – 4
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More books by Jim Mclamore*

Thoughts:

I enjoyed the book’s aspects of the business and the author’s early life. I enjoyed most of the book, his history, background, the people he met and how he built a company that’s still flourishing today.

The Burger King by Jim Mclamore is not just for those interested in the restaurant or franchise business, which there’s a wealth of information about, but also about leadership and the fruits of hard work and honesty. This is not a self-help book by any means, but a cautionary tale and lessons in failure.

Once Pillsbury entered the picture, the book stopped being very interesting. Mr. Mclamore bemoans all the mistakes Pillsbury’s executives made, and blames himself for either selling or not doing enough to stop them. At least he is honest about his own failings as a leader.

The writing is uninspiring and repetitive, however the detailed history of Burger King and an analysis of its performance was fascinating. Many parts of the story fall flat though, which is too bad because the story is interesting regardless but could have been outstanding. I thought that many insights were lost, and his regrets did not come across as hard as they must have been.

I’ve read a bunch of business books, this one stands apart because Mr. Mclamore died soon after it was published and had nothing to lose or gain from it. It’s a great source for anyone who wants to get into the business, but as a book it’s just OK.

Buy The Burger King from Amazon.com*
More books by Jim Mclamore*