Lead

Everyone loves a good comeback story, and I am honored and humbled to be at the helm of a classic turnaround tale.
Norman Brinker, the casual dining innovator and icon behind Bennigan's, was a wonderful friend and mentor in the business. Thirty-five years ago, he and a team of hard-working executives, many of whom grew within the business and later became CEOs of concepts we know today, built a successful brand with great integrity. When I took over as chief executive of Bennigan's Franchising Company in May 2011, I had nothing but respect for this beloved brand and the franchisees who invested their money and talents into it.
Like many casual-themed brands, Bennigan's became a victim of brand drift over time, moving away from the core elements that made it famous in the late 1980s...

"All of us do not have equal talents, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents."John F. Kennedy

"Our people are our greatest asset."
If somebody were ever to build the Hollow Business Phrase Hall of Fame, this one stands right up there with "Your call is very important to us." Everyone says it because it makes sense. Yet when times get tough, too many businesses abandon investment in their people. Studies and surveys for years have shown that business leaders recognize the value of training. You don't need me to regurgitate these consistent findings to tell you something you know is true.
Developing your internal employees and your franchisees should never be viewed as a cost center. Like marketing communications, when done properly, it is an investment in your business's future success that is directly measurable...

There's something to be said for having walked for years in another person's shoes, for having come up the ranks to a leadership position. Empathy and understanding come to mind, as well as the hard lessons that can be gained only from years of hands-on experience. That's one big reason so many successful franchise executives agree that their past (and for some, still current) lives as franchisees have informed the way they lead their brands. We asked five franchise executives to tell us how their past experiences as franchisees inform their role as franchisors today.

Kevin Cushing began delivering newspapers in Chicago when he was in second grade. He eventually delivered more than one million. "I knew I had to get those papers out or the readers would not know what was going on in their world," he says.
Lofty goals for the lad, who says it was during these early years that he became what he calls "a lifelong small businessman." Today Cushing is CEO of Salt Lake City-based AlphaGraphics, where he has held the reins since June 2004.
Cushing graduated from college in 1978 and began working with a shopping center leasing company called Terratron, which oversaw retail properties in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Some of the shopping centers' tenants were independent restaurants, and when they would go out of business Terratron needed something to replace them...

Leadership is a fundamental ingredient for the success of a franchise concept. When franchisees invest in a brand, they are casting a vote of confidence in the leadership team. After all, if the franchisees don’t believe in the leadership team, why would they put their financial resources at risk with the brand? So, what might a franchisee be looking for in terms of brand leadership?
The franchisee’s first impression may be of the leadership styles of the CEO and executive team. Is there any one right or best leadership style? The short answer is “no.” Every leader, in some form or fashion, blazes their own trail. But at the root of great leadership must be the belief that before you can lead others, you must lead yourself, and hold yourself accountable for your own actions and decisions...

EarthFruits Yogurt pursues its dream

Welcome to the final installment of "Anatomy of a Franchise Start-Up." EarthFruits Yogurt, which began its journey in mid-2010, now has one and a half years under its belt. Over the course of this series, I've done my best to give you a transparent glimpse into our new system. In this last article, you might begin to draw your own conclusion as to whether or not we have any chance of achieving our lofty vision of becoming the "Starbucks of the Frozen Yogurt Industry."

Franchising sounds great: you go first
Few of us would disagree that franchise sales in today's economy is challenging at best. But how much more so for a new and emerging brand that few have ever heard of? I believe the economy is definitely creating challenges for those looking for franchise financing, but it also has created unprecedented levels of interest for those looking to break their reliance on the job market by being in business for oneself...

In 1985, after committing to play for the powerhouse University of Michigan Wolverines, high school football senior John Rotche suffered a career-ending spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic. Although the prognosis from the doctors was bleak at best, many weeks later Rotche regained full movement and was able to walk out of the hospital, with doctor's orders to avoid contact sports.
Recognizing his potential, legendary Coach Bo Schembechler named Rotche a member of his coaching staff, making him one of the youngest coaches in the NCAA. When Rotche graduated, he left with a degree in sports management, a Rose Bowl ring, and a life-altering philosophy on inspirational leadership. He believes sports has helped shape him into the leader he is today...

Mama Fu's Franchisee-Turned-Franchisor On New Role


A leader is formally defined as a person who guides or directs a group. In growing up, however, leadership is typically correlated with the first one to make it across the monkey bars in kindergarten, or later simply leading by example in sports, school, or social circles.
In the business world, there are many more definitions of leadership we have all seen and heard, such as leaders surround themselves with quality individuals; have the ability to make rational decisions in emotional situations; possess an undying passion coupled with an acute ability to motivate; and have high levels of integrity and a well-defined moral compass. I am not truly sure which is correct, or even if leaders themselves know what it takes to lead, as they just do it...

Amit Kleinberger rattles off the business start-ups he's launched like a general listing the cities he's seized. There was the chain of cellular phone equipment stores, a window and glass distribution company in Los Angeles, and the assisted living building for Alzheimer's and dementia care.
He got each of the operations up and running and then sold them, restlessly moving on, looking for a new mission: that one big concept he could take global.
Then he got very, very interested in a partnership where he had invested a significant amount of time and money. Menchie's, a self-serve frozen yogurt concept, had all of one store open when Kleinberger got involved with the original two partners. It was close to four years ago when he decided to lead the company forward...

EarthFruits Yogurt Café's HR recipe

It's not our products. It's not our price. Pay attention as I'm about to lay out our secret competitive weapon right here for all to see. Are you ready? It's our people!
Okay, not exactly a revolutionary strategy, but how many companies actually transcend their category through their customer service? I might be getting ahead of myself in the sequential story line, but we actually made a five-store franchise sale to a franchise prospect who completed the entire discovery process with a leading competitor and was given a contract to execute. Although she was passionate about the other concept, she realized she had been going to several of their yogurt shops at least five times a week for two years, and their employees never even bothered to learn her name, let alone her favorite products and preferences...

Differentiating from the start(up) in a red-hot category

In this issue's glimpse into a franchise start-up, I'll share the challenges and the victories I've encountered in attempting to differentiate our emerging EarthFruits Yogurt brand within its red-hot category and the resultant commoditization occurring within the space. I'll also make the case for augmentation of critical staff members through outsourcing for non-recurring functions, in order to get a better end result while preserving precious capital.

Evolution, not revolution
Starting with our product development, we are the first to admit that we are not rocket scientists. We aren't creating any new products or services here as frozen yogurt has been in the marketplace for decades...

Five precepts for franchise executives

By its very definition, the word "leader" evokes the concept of change. Leaders take us toward or away from something, into a new reality. But change is almost always frightening, and leaders have to persuade their teams that the risks are worth taking, that the work is worth doing, and that the payoff will improve their lives. I've been through that process many times, and I'm here to tell you that it can be done--and that you can do it, too.

At three of the companies I have led--CA One Services, Popeyes, and Dunkin' Brands--I began by looking for the epicenter of the brand, the hidden or ignored "strategic heartbeat" that could be leveraged into a new or more powerful product or service...

When Shelly Sun and her husband JD founded BrightStar, their full-service healthcare staffing agency in 2002, the concept was rooted in their experiences searching for quality care for JD's sick grandmother. "We were managing multiple relationships and thought how great it would be to have one company handle the entire continuum of care," says Sun, CEO of BrightStar.

In forming the company, she conducted research on aging and health trends and drew from her background as a CPA, corporate controller, and executive at two major insurance companies. And after she and JD became franchisees for two hotels, a Choice Hotels property and a Carlton Suites unit, Sun began to see how well franchising would work for their emerging concept...

In early 2008, Moe's Southwest Grill was still something of a newcomer in Mexican fast-casual segment. But in the eight years since it had been founded, not much new work had been done on either the restaurant prototype or its menu. So when Focus Brands acquired the franchisor in August 2007, then CEO Steve Romaniello reached out to Paul Damico to see if he was interested in not just running the brand, but freshening it up and reenergizing it.

Recession or not, Damico was determined to hit the ground running. After gathering his executive team, he not only uncorked an aggressive game plan to grow the company at an unprecedented rate, he fine-tuned the brand's look and feel to ensure same-store sales were on the way up.

"I spent 14 years with the Host Marriott organization working on travel plazas and airport development," says Damico, who was formally trained as a chef before he chose to dive into the world of franchising...

It was my first week as COO of Sopra Brands. My job was to oversee the company's existing franchise brands (no small task), and to oversee the development and implementation of a brand-new frozen yogurt franchise from its inception--in a crowded category, during a full-blown recession, for an opening date that was already months behind schedule.

I've spent decades in the franchise business, holding responsibilities for everything from branding, marketing, training, operations, franchise development, and more. And Sopra is no stranger to franchising. They own several successful established franchise companies, but these were established chains that were acquired and had existing teams, products, and systems with programs already in place...