![Fast food franchise - podcast episode cover](http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/3000x3000/p0b1vllh.jpg)
Episode description
There are more than 36,000 McDonald's restaurants around the world - but if the McDonald brothers had had their way, that might never have happened. Tim Harford tells the story of how milkshake-mixer salesman Ray Kroc turned their burger business into a global giant, and explains the principles that made his franchising model such a success.