Throughout the film The Founder, one concept reigns supreme. That concept is none other than innovation.
In the movie, innovation is ever present. We see it especially with the McDonald brothers. They managed to improve upon the concept of a classic drive in to the point of creating one of the largest companies on the planet. They do all of it through innovation. The McDonald brothers did not invent the concept of a restaurant. Nor did they create the hamburger. They just improved those ideas. They found a way to change the processes of making hamburgers to the point that it offered more value to the consumer.
This is incredibly interesting because of the way it happened. The McDonald brothers were simply people with dreams. But they took the time to put in the work behind the scene to find out how to innovate. Often times innovation doesn't come from thin air. Innovation usually stems from careful and analytic decision making. Dick McDonald was the catalyst for this. He looked at their sales and was the first to realize that over 80% of their total sales came from only burgers, fries, and soft drinks. This was the first step in the innovation that became fast food as we know it today.
After analyzing their business model carefully and finding cause enough to change their restaurant, only then did they start innovating. They increased the speed of production. They standardized their process, allowing for workplace specialization, and when gaps in the current range of tools were present, they created new tool resources to assist them.
All of these different aspects created the innovation that is McDonalds. Without the society around them, they would have never succeeded. Innovation impacts society in huge ways. As consumers go about their lives, they are naturally drawn to the "best" things. Whatever their qualifications for "best" are, that is what they chose. Therefore, innovating and creating a better something that is more valuable to the consumer is what ensures that customers choose to spend their money with you and not the next person.
This then reflects back on how society supports innovation. After someone is able to successfully innovate, the customers support the innovator financially by purchasing their "better" thing. This leads to the opportunity to innovate further. In the beginning, the McDonald brothers only innovated after mild success from their other ventures. They needed financial means to be able to divert attention into their innovations. This is the cycle that innovation exists in. A new innovation leads to increased profits, which lead to more innovation.
However, all of this is predicated on the idea of the ability to offer something in a new and better way that provides more value to the consumer. If the consumer does not see the innovation as an innovation, then society can completely stifle the idea into nonexistence. A great example of this is after the grand opening of the original McDonalds. After unsuccessfully trying to convince the public to adapt to their new way of business, and almost failing after the onset of thousands of flies, they were only able to call their idea an innovation after the public returned to their restaurant the following day. Thus we see that society is actually the one who determines the success of an idea. Without society, there is no innovation. But with innovation, society can prosper.