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As the Chief Growth Officer for Right at Home, Brady Schwab spends a lot of time thinking about the future, especially as it pertains to our rapidly growing network of franchisees.
“We're here to support and nurture their ideas,” Brady says. “So, how do we test them in different markets? How do we refine them? How do we remove complexity from their business operations? How do we enhance the products and services that we provide, and make them scalable and expandable across the network?”
Brady works every day with franchise owners and corporate leadership to weigh these questions. We had an illuminating conversation with Brady about his work with Right at Home, the role of technology in our industry’s growth, and the central importance of human caregivers in everything we do.
Before we look to the future, let’s take a quick look back. Brady Schwab’s journey to Right at Home began in the hearing health care field.
“I was an audiologist,” he tells us. “Testing hearing–’Raise your right hand. Raise your left hand.’ All of that stuff that everybody remembers going back to grade school.”
However, Brady primarily worked to fit seniors with hearing aids. This role led him to a position with a hearing aid manufacturer, where he discovered his passion for business development. So when Right at Home presented a way for Brady to combine his commitment to improved elder care with his penchant for strategic organizational growth, he jumped at the opportunity.
“The core of my experience has been around business development, sales, and really around how to help people age in the fashion that they want to…So, home care was a really natural fit for me. I love what I get to do, and I love the organization I get to be a part of.”
Brady describes his role with Right at Home as cultivating growth–both horizontally and vertically. But what exactly does that mean?
Horizontal growth refers to the ever-widening reach of our home care network. But with more than 750 franchisees across the U.S. and beyond, horizontal growth is about more than simply expanding the Right at Home footprint. As Brady explains, it’s really about answering a key question: “How do we have a Right at Home office closer to more and more seniors throughout the U.S. and frankly, the world?”
Naturally, our franchisees are the driving force behind this horizontal growth. Every new owner and every new territory is an opportunity to bring high-quality home care to more people who need it.
But what about vertical growth?
This is the innovation and ingenuity that can enhance and multiply our work as franchisees and caregivers. As Brady says, vertical growth is all “about how we can be more impactful, more effective, more efficient, and how we can bring more value to the services that we offer under the Right at Home umbrella.”
Brady believes that technology will play a big part in achieving these aims. But, he stresses, the heart and soul of our industry will always be the care, compassion, and dedication of human caregivers.
The future of home caregiving will be defined by what technology can do to strengthen the reach and impact of human caregivers. Brady explains, “I don't think that human caregiving is going to go out of style any time soon…As we get older, I think we want more. We want more human contact. We want more connection.”
Still, he says, “We have to bring technology into the mix, and I think of technology as enabling care, rather than technology replacing care.”
For instance, Brady notes that Right at Home is in the midst of implementing a brand new CRM system through a partnership with cloud-based software leader Zoho. Brady calls it a “seamless technology solution across operations, both at the corporate side, as well as within the franchise system. And yes, there is a tremendous amount of AI built into Zoho.”
Brady believes these capabilities will only strengthen the work of human caregivers, expand their reach, and deepen their impact.
“I think about AI not in terms of replacing people and replacing jobs. I do think that it is going to be the way that we fuel and fund growth going forward.”
In other words, caring and compassionate caregivers will achieve vertical growth by standing atop this technology in the coming years.
Human caregivers are at the heart of Right at Home’s mission. But humans are also a big part of our braintrust. As Brady notes, Right at Home’s Strategic Leadership Council is made up of appointed and elected franchisees from across our network. He explains that this is one of the features that makes Right at Home so unique.
“One of the things that I'm most proud of here at Right at Home is how we work with our franchisees,” says Brady. “The franchisees are closer to the business than I'll ever be. So we go to them for feedback on ideas that we have, and a lot of ideas bubble up from the franchise system.”
It’s this approach that allows Right at Home and its franchisees to grow both outward and upward.
Of course, our franchisees are the number one driver of growth–both those who have been with us for years and those who are thinking of joining the Right at Home network as new franchise owners. “Wherever you are on that journey,” Brady advises, “once again, human contact and connection are paramount.
“With Right at Home,” he continues, “watch our feet. See what we do. See how we behave. See how we engage. See how we treat each other. I think that's the reason I'm a part of this organization. Everybody says, ‘What makes you different?’”
“It's the people.”
Right at Home is in six countries and has over 750 operating locations providing in-home care services to allow seniors and people with disabilities to retain as much independence and dignity as possible.
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