An Experienced Hand: Great Clips CEO keeps the Momentum Rolling Forward

Name: Rob Goggins
Title: President & CEO
Company: Great Clips, Inc.
Units: 4,442
Years in franchising: 22
Years in current position: Since Jan. 1

Jan. 1 marked a new start for more than just the year for Rob Goggins. It’s when the longtime Great Clips leader stepped into his new role as president and CEO of the Minneapolis-based brand. He replaced Steve Hockett, who retired after more than 35 years with the brand.

Goggins says, “As CEO, I’m passionate about protecting and growing our culture at Great Clips by living our values and removing obstacles, so our teams can stay focused on franchisees and the work that drives growth and strengthens the Great Clips brand for the long term.”

During the past seven years as president of Great Clips, Inc., Goggins helped guide the brand’s growth while overseeing operations, technology, business intelligence, talent, learning and development, legal, finance, and marketing and communications. He was behind a series of initiatives designed to modernize the system, improve operational performance, and better support franchisees, stylists, and customers. Under his leadership, the brand launched its ReadyNext text alerts, an improved mobile app with more than 25 million downloads. He also expanded virtual training options for stylists and rolled out a refreshed salon design across the U.S. and Canada.

“My leadership style is rooted in clarity and accountability,” he says. That means a focus on continued improvement and an emphasis on strategy, people, and culture. All are important when leading a brand that has more than 4,400 salons throughout the U.S. and Canada. The system has roughly 600 franchisees who employ more than 30,000 stylists.

Goggins honed his knowledge of the brand over nearly 20 years by serving in leadership positions such as chief operating officer, senior vice president of real estate and development, and vice president of development.

He says Great Clips will stay focused on intentional, franchisee-driven growth. That includes using the brand’s size and bargaining power to serve franchisees, and high-profile sports partnerships with the NCAA and NHL to keep the brand top of mind with customers. He also highlights the brand’s value, convenience, and digital innovations.

“Ultimately, our focus is on sustainable growth that strengthens the brand, supports our franchisees, and drives long-term customer demand,” he says.

LEADERSHIP

What is your role as CEO? As I step into my new role as president and CEO at Great Clips, Inc., it is my responsibility to set the strategic direction and continue to grow Great Clips’ position as the world’s largest salon brand. Achieving this requires a focus on strategy, people, and culture. My focus is and always will be continuous improvement, pushing myself and our team to learn and grow.

Describe your leadership style. I focus on building strong relationships, asking thoughtful questions, and listening carefully so that I can fully understand the people and the data behind the decisions that need to be made. I’m also deliberate in how I lead. I gather relevant information and think before acting. I’m willing to address difficult issues directly rather than avoid them. Finally, transparency matters to me, and I believe it is an important part of being a leader, especially when decisions are hard or unpopular.

What is your biggest leadership challenge? In a franchise system with more than 30,000 people, there are naturally many voices and perspectives. That diversity of input is so valuable, but it also means it’s usually impossible to satisfy everyone. The biggest leadership challenge is making thoughtful decisions while ensuring people feel heard. I’ve found that when people know their input was considered and they understand the reasoning behind a decision, it builds trust, alignment, and belief in our vision.

Where is the best place to prepare for leadership: an MBA school or OTJ? I’d say on-the-job experience. While formal education is valuable, I place far more emphasis on work ethic, critical thinking, listening and relationship-building skills, willingness to challenge the status quo, and a proven ability to deliver results. For me, leadership is earned through action and impact, not the letters after your name.

Do you want to be liked or respected? I don’t spend much time worrying about being liked or respected though ideally both come naturally. What matters most to me is working with smart, dedicated people who aren’t afraid to challenge one another in constructive and respectful ways so that we can achieve our objectives.

Advice to CEO wannabes: It’s too early for me to say! What has worked for me personally shows up in my previous answers to questions. While I’m assuming those same skills and traits will serve me well in the new role, feel free to call me in a few years when I’ve been in the CEO role for a while. Maybe I’ll have some other insights.

MANAGEMENT

Favorite management gurus: Do you read management books? I enjoy reading management books, and when I read, I generally reach for nonfiction. A few of my favorite management books include:

• It Worked for Me by Colin Powell
• The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey
• Execution by Larry Bossidy
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (The title is a bit off-putting, but the principles are priceless and timeless.)

What makes you say, “Yes, now that’s why I do what I do!”? It’s when I see anyone in the Great Clips system work hard and achieve an ambitious goal. Recently, a franchisee of ours shared a heartwarming story of one of his employees buying her first home after working her way up to a leadership role in his organization. I sent her a personal congratulatory note. Those kinds of stories are extremely inspiring.

OPERATIONS

How is the economy driving consumer behavior in your system? Like many franchise systems, our franchisees continue to navigate sustained cost pressures in their organizations, including labor, rent, utilities, insurance, and ongoing technology investments. Over the past several years, this has resulted in haircut price increases across the system, which consumers are noticing as they more carefully evaluate how and where they spend their discretionary dollars. Through our conversations with customers, they largely understand why prices have risen, but they are increasingly focused on receiving clear and consistent value in return for the higher prices. In response, our focus as a system is on strengthening the Great Clips brand and delivering on the elements of the haircut experience customers tell us matter most. These elements include a welcoming salon environment and staff, the ability to save time and money, and confidence that they’ll get the haircut they want every time they visit a Great Clips salon. In today’s economy, value, convenience, and consistency aren’t “nice to haves”; they’re essential, and that’s where we will continue to invest to give consumers confidence in choosing Great Clips for their haircuts.

Are your franchisees bullish or bearish about growth and adding additional units? Our franchisees are decidedly bullish on growth. As Great Clips, Inc., continues to strengthen the brand and support long-term expansion, franchisees are investing meaningfully to bring the brand to life in their local communities. This includes opening new salons and upgrading existing locations to our new Greenlight design, making technology investments, signing new leases each year, relocating salons when appropriate, and paying strong multiples of earnings to acquire neighboring salons from retiring franchisees. This level of investment reflects real belief in the brand and the model. As a result, the Great Clips system continues to grow across the U.S. and Canada, including increases in the number of stylists, active leases, and the net number of open salons. Most importantly, that growth is being supported by rising comparable customer traffic across the system.

TECHNOLOGY

How have your company’s tech tools changed over the past five years? At Great Clips, Inc., we continue to innovate around our core offering of convenient haircuts, so we are in a constant state of evolution and revolution when it comes to technology in our system. In the past five years, this evolution has led to a new consumer-facing website and app along with a new customer database platform and investments in AI, data privacy, and salon scheduling tools. Technology and data have become incredibly important in the Great Clips system, and I don’t see that diminishing in the future as it’s foundational to our business.

Are you using AI? How? We are actively using AI across the business both through our vendor partners and within Great Clips, Inc., to improve decision-making, efficiency, and outcomes for our franchisees. Today, AI supports several areas of the business, including real estate, marketing, recruiting, operations, and business technology services for franchisees. We also use AI tools to support our internal technology and development teams. We’ve added Headcount at Great Clips, Inc., to strengthen our AI expertise and ensure we’re investing thoughtfully and strategically.

On a personal level, I stay closely engaged on the topic by working with an AI consultant on a quarterly basis to inform our long-term strategy and actively read up on AI developments and test new tools, so we stay practical, not theoretical, in how we apply the technology.

How did/do you create a culture where use of technology advancements is welcome and used? You have to lead by example and recognize those who are on the cutting edge and doing things that add true value for the Great Clips brand. For instance, we have an AI Explorers internal group that tests and deploys different tools at Great Clips, Inc. This group presents to the executive team so that we can learn from them and implement their recommendations.

PERSONAL

What time do you like to be at your desk? If I’m not traveling, I’m typically in the office by 8 a.m. However, I like to keep my schedule flexible due to the significant number of meetings and travel that are required of my role to connect with the Great Clips system of roughly 600 primary franchisees. Because of this, I regularly stay engaged beyond standard hours, often working evenings and weekends as needed. I’m lucky that I enjoy what I do and the people I work with, so it rarely feels like work in the traditional sense.

Exercise in the morning? Yes. Four to five times a week.

Last two books read: The last two books I read were A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and Insanely Simple by Ken Segall. I’m currently reading my way through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It’s fiction, which is unusual for me, but people have been telling me for years that I need to read it due to its themes of capitalism, economics, and societal structures. So far, so good!

What technology do you take on the road? I like to keep it to just the essentials: a laptop and my phone. It’s enough to stay connected and productive but not so much that it distracts me from being fully present with the people and conversations that matter most when I’m on the road.

How do you relax/balance life and work? I’ve always enjoyed my work, so it’s never felt like something I need to escape from. For me, balance comes from being intentional about how I spend my time outside of work, and that is usually focused on my wife and our adult kids. I also make time to stay active, read, travel, and occasionally hunt. I’m also in a constant state of trying to learn how to play the acoustic guitar. It’s a very slow process, but I’m up to five songs.

Favorite vacation destination: My family and I love to travel and explore new places, so we rarely visit the same destination twice. There’s simply so much to see. However, the one exception to that for my wife and me is Door County, Wisconsin. Nearly every year, after wrapping up the Great Clips Convention in the fall, we make the five-hour drive there to relax and reconnect. It’s become an important tradition for us.

BOTTOM LINE

What are your long-term goals for the company? At Great Clips, Inc., it is our vision to work together with our franchisees to build the most profitable salons by delivering the most powerful and enduring brand. Achieving that requires investing in our people by developing and inspiring our employees, recognizing those who live our values, and creating an environment where teams can do their best work. From a performance standpoint, the entire system is aligned around the clear, measurable objective of growing weekly customer counts.

How has the economy changed your goals for your company? The economy hasn’t changed our goals at Great Clips, but it has sharpened how we pursue them. The reality is that there will always be external forces beyond our control. Sometimes the wind is at your back, and sometimes it’s in your face. It doesn’t matter. It’s our responsibility to deliver results for our franchisees. I’ve never been in the military myself, but I love the Marines’ motto of improvise, adapt, and overcome as a leadership mindset.

What has been your greatest success? I don’t view success as an individual accomplishment. It’s the outcome of collective effort, trust, and shared accountability. I would say that my greatest successes so far have come from building teams that work together to tackle major challenges or opportunities to deliver real results. Overall, what I find most rewarding is when smart, committed people align around a clear goal, collaborate effectively, and ultimately meet or exceed what they set out to achieve. And while I’m proud of the team’s accomplishments, I tend to focus more on what’s ahead and how we can continue to build on that momentum versus spending time thinking about the past.

Any regrets? As previously mentioned, I prefer to look ahead to opportunities, so I don’t spend much time reflecting on regrets. However, I do still wish I’d convinced my dad to hang on to his 1963 Corvette convertible long enough for me to buy it from him. I still think it’s the most beautiful car design I’ve ever seen! And while I wouldn’t trade the path that led me to where I am today, I wish that I had realized sooner in my career the enjoyment I get from helping others achieve their goals and watching them succeed. Once this realization hit me, it helped shape how I lead today.

What can we expect from your company in the next 12 to 18 months? You can expect continued growth that is intentional, impactful, and designed to drive results for our franchisees. Over the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll continue to leverage the scale of the Great Clips system to keep our brand top of mind with customers across the U.S. and Canada. We’ll also build on the momentum of our major sports partnerships, including the NCAA, NHL, and the College Football Playoff, to connect with fans in authentic, relevant ways. Those platforms allow us to showcase what differentiates Great Clips: our value, convenience, and innovations like online check-in and Clip Notes, reinforcing the consistency customers expect every time they visit.