As vice president of concept development at HMSHost, Novack has his plate full, and seems to relish every bite.
Eddy Goldberg
Customer loyalty cannot be bought. Loyalty is created by great experiences. And loyalty is lost by poor experiences--or loyalty is lost to a competitor who takes care of customers better than you do.
Jack Mackey
As we have highlighted throughout 2007, the change in the economy we anticipated is finally upon us.
Dean Zuccarello
Against a background of greater economic uncertainty in 2008, will franchise development become more difficult?
In a word, yes. To be clear, the franchise business model is alive, well, and growing. This decade's accelerating growth in units and expansion of companies embracing the franchise business model are testament to that. However, it appears that more challenging times are awaiting us in 2008. Here are some of the reasons—and suggestions for what franchisors can do.
Darrell Johnson
For months, media headlines and story lead-ins have been filled with dire warnings and inflammatory statements about the economy.
Phrases like "the road to recession," "dollar debacle," "subprime mortgage implosion," "housing meltdown," "credit crunch," "trading scandal," and "rogue trader" combine with 600-point intra-day swings in the Dow and volatile economic news to bombard our senses almost every moment of every day.
Carol Clark
"I love the action of the restaurants and the strategy of the real estate. This is the jackpot business for me," says Mike Scanlon, president and CEO of Thomas and King in Lexington, Ky., where he opened his first Applebee's in 1988.
Eddy Goldberg
For Bill Gellert, who currently owns and operates 14 franchise units across three brands, with a fourth on the way, business is "a constant mixture of fear and excitement." And he loves it.
Eddy Goldberg
Growing up with a father who owned a Burger King gave Will Bigham an early look into the back room operations of fast food franchising, laying the groundwork for his own career.
John Carroll
When we visited with Hank Huth last year, the franchising veteran was keeping busy overseeing his 23 Blockbuster Video locations and 7 Palm Beach Tan units. He had an eye on expanding his Palm Beach Tan portfolio and he did just that in 2007, adding 3 more and winning the company's 2007 Developer of the Year Award. But that's not all he's been busy developing.
Kerry Pipes
John Prince has done a lot in his 66 years. He's been a radio talk show host, reporter, stockbroker, and even ran a small hot dog and soup stand. He's worked at SmithBarney, Citibank, been a multi-concept owner, and even started his own franchise brand (more on that later). He's seen franchising from more than both sides now.
Eddy Goldberg
Of course, not all events are worth the same price, but many executives often respond as if they are. Stressed executives can exhibit the same heart rate increase, elevated blood pressure, and hormonal release when running late for a meeting as if confronted by a thug with a knife. The human toll is the equivalent of paying $1,500 for a $50 sweater. Do that too frequently and your resources will be spent. Take similar exhaustion across the organization and the tally becomes astronomical. Many distressed companies not only fail to realize how distressed they are, but also how much that distress costs them in productivity and profit.
Cathy L. Greenberg
Florida-based businessman Peter Economys and New York entrepreneur Rob Tobias have a very special talent important to area developers: they're champion multi-taskers. But the concentration and mental agility necessary for the success of any area developer is doubly important for them--because each oversees multiple concepts.
Debbie Selinsky
When Pat Williamson was a sophomore at the University of Georgia in 1969, he was home from school one weekend and heard about a summer job opportunity. A Frito-Lay route man stocking the shelves in Williamson's father's retail store had asked if there were any kids looking for a summer job. Williamson's grandfather overheard the request and passed along the info to young Pat.
Kerry Pipes
Everywhere you look jobs are being replaced by new technologies and automated systems.
We book our own airline tickets online. We fill our own gas tanks and pay at the pump. Touch screens at the neighborhood deli allow us to punch in our sandwich and beverage order. We can pick up a rental car and check into and out of a hotel without ever interacting with any of the providing business concern's employees. And don't even get me started on automated voice call-directing systems.
Mel Kleiman
When Steve Foltz graduated from Eastern Oregon University in 1985 he thought he might be interested in city or government work. To bide his time and help pay bills while he was interviewing for jobs during the day, he took a night job at Rax Restaurant in Portland.
Kerry Pipes