The Theory Of Evolution – Improving A Franchise Network From Within

Andrew Emmerson explores how a franchisee should evolve their chosen brand

After a few years of running your business as a franchisee, you may see opportunities for the brand to improve or evolve. Indeed, franchisees are often the source of most innovation within a brand. They are closer to the customer than the ‘corporate’ employees and have so much more at stake; it is your money and savings that have bought the business and you have much to gain from any improvements.

So if you have a great idea to evolve your business, how do you make it happen? I would suggest you have three means to make positive changes to your franchise and get it approved by the business owners:

• You can influence central policy
• You can work on it collaboratively with your local franchisee colleagues
• You can give it a go yourself

I’ll explain each approach in turn and how it may work with the franchisor.

Most mature franchise systems have a process by which the corporate management will meet with their franchisees as a group. This can be via district or national meetings, annual conferences or through committees of franchisees working on a specific discipline or project. These forums can be a perfect opportunity for a franchisee to help evolve their brand.

It will suit the franchisor to try new things with willing and engaged franchisees, so these forums can be a way to get new ideas turned into actual programmes that impact the day-to-day business. It can sometimes be the case that franchisors will fund some of these trials to see if they will work across the system as a whole.

These forums can also be an opportunity to constructively criticise an existing process or programme. Good franchisors will want to know if and why some of their initiatives aren’t working. I’d advise any critique to be positive and not personal.

Sometimes an informal approach may be required. The social aspect of franchisee meetings and conferences will allow time for franchisees to meet with company employees and directors outside of the formal meetings. These occasions can be used to give feedback and make suggestions on how the business could improve. Don’t miss the chance to do this if you have something you need to say or a good idea to share!

Another way to help evolve your franchise is to work with your fellow local franchisees on a particular problem or opportunity you might have identified. Most franchise systems are set up to prevent local competition between franchisees. As such, the person in the next town or district will not be your enemy. They will be facing the same challenges as you and may suggest great ways to improve your business from their experience.

I have seen several examples of local groups of franchisees working together and finding ways to improve their collective businesses. When franchisees join forces to come up with marketing initiatives, for example, and share both their time and insights it can lead to astounding results. Indeed, often these ideas eventually become national policy.

The final way to evolve the business could come from giving it a go yourself. This method is more of a challenge as you are in danger of being seen as a ‘problem’ franchisee by the business owners and could face sanctions for not complying with the brand standards.

This is how I’d suggest you overcome this perception: if you spot an opportunity to evolve the business, make sure you are maintaining the integrity of the brand, not taking it off in an inappropriate direction. Your idea should be something that the brand might probably get around to anyway, but has just not done it yet! Some examples could be adding functions and room service to a budget hotel operation or adjusting the menu items in restaurant brands that the customers didn’t really need or won’t notice losing.

My point is that the changes you make must be seen as positive opportunism and not outright mutiny!

Explain to the franchisor why you would like to make the change and the benefits it may bring to the entire system. The idea should come from a love of the brand and not as an act of defiance. This is a very subtle point but it can make all the difference if you want to secure the endorsement of the franchisor.

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Andrew Emmerson is the co-author of ‘Franchising: How both sides can win’. He has held senior positions at a number of franchise companies around the world

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What is The Franchisee Network? 

The Franchisee Network is a new initiative designed to help existing franchisees build connections with other business-owners from a diverse mix of franchise brands. It will allow you to learn from and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs as you navigate the challenges of running your own business. Find out more about joining The Franchisee Network here.