diffusions

I went for a walk at Tinchi Tamba yesterday. Very nice spot to get away with your thoughts for a few hours. Plenty of wildlife including mosquitoes.

Here are some photos.

I’ve got some personal stuff happening at the moment that is taking up a lot of time. Things should be back to normal soon.

Thanks.

I was witness to an interest situation last week. A franchisee was removed from an outlet and after removing his property from the safe, spun the combination lock. Sounds ok, does it.

Problem was neither the franchisee nor the franchisor knew the combination. Apparently, the franchisee only ever used a key to lock the safe. It took a safe cracker only 40 minutes to get the combination!

Should the franchisor have had the combination to the safe in the first instance?

An opinion piece by Chalpat Sonti of The Age on the waiting game that the Australian Franchising segement is playing while the “federal joint parliamentary committee’s report into improving the franchising code of conduct lies gathering dust”.

Touchs on the Jim’s troubles.

I had the pleasure of hearing Tom Potter speak on Tuesday evening.  He offers a very interesting and frank telling of his experiences as a franchisor.  Tom also seems very interested in sharing his knowledge and experiences.  He has compiled many of his stories from his time at Eagle Boys in his new book.

I asked a couple of questions, but the most relevant are around selecting the right people to join you in a system.  Tom recommends using a Myers-Brigg Type Indicator test on potential franchisees.  You can compare this information to a selection of exisiting franchisees so that you can get a bedtter idea of how a potential franchisee might perform.

Tom also suggested that any serious franchisor will establish a board of advisors or directors very early in their lifecycle.  He also credits biannual skills audits of the board as being crucial.

If you ever get the chance to hear Tom speak, you should definitely make the most of that opportunity.  Crusty Devil is Tom’s latest venture.

The ACCC Alert system has just informed me that:

The franchisor of G.J Gardner Homes, Netdeen Pty Ltd, and its directors, have given court enforceable undertakings after an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation into allegations that the franchisor had misled former franchisees.

The full press release is available here.

Thanks to Mark from Red Monkey Coaching for the heads up.

Prof. Lorelle Frazer writes on her blog about how third parties fuel conflict  within franchise systems:

The research shows the involvement of third parties (such as franchise brokers) in the recruitment of franchisees appears likely to generate unrealistic expectations on the part of franchisees and should be carefully managed by franchisors.

After working as a representative for a large supplier to many foodservice and FMCG franchise systems, I think that the role of the suppliers could be further investigated.  My employer has a focus on “getting what we pay for” and I am sure that by policing compliance to trading terms, the supplier can often act in a way that might appear to the franchisee as an extension of the franchisor.  In the area of compliance, at least they have similar goals.

Franchisors often negotiate supply agreements on behalf of their franchisees and some, but not all systems get paid a rebate based on group sales.  This creates a scenario where the franchisor becomes interested in ensuring that they maximise their revenue from supplier rebates, perhaps at the expense of the overall system or even the needs and wants of the franchisees.  Remember also that most franchisors in this sector also charge royalties based on sales.

I remember dealing with one outlet that was actively resisting a change in the system’s preferred supplier from the market leading supplier to the second placed one.  The franchisee’s opinion was that while the new arrangement was significantly cheaper from a cost perspective, the decrease in sales volume wouldn’t cover the difference in their earnings.  The franchisor actively discouraged them from them sourcing products from the previous supplier, and while it was never explicitly said, it was implied that the franchisor was endeavouring to maximise their supplier rebates.

Both the franchisee and the franchisor were being quite reasonable in their desire to improve their individual profits, but I do wonder if the supplier’s rebates made up for the decrease in royalties from sales?  Was the extra money worth the conflict?

It rasies the question also of what the role of the franchisor is.  Are they there to maximise their profits directly, like in the case of the supplier rebates? Are they there to increase their profits indirectly by building value in the system and generating additional sales for the franchisees?

On the back of Jody preparing her business to franchise, I’ve got back to school to learn more about franchising.

I am currently enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Franchising program run by Griffith University.  I’ve certainly been impressed with the quality of my fellow students, the faculty and the the learning methods.  The franchising unit that I am part way through has been superlative with relevant, engaging guest lecturers at every seminar and a really interesting group of fellow students.

Griffith have invested a lot into the the franchising sector by establishing the Asia-Pacific Centre for Franchising Excellence.

If you are remotely interested in Franchise operations, either as a Franchisee or a Franchisor, then you really should consider this program.

I’ve decided to try running a blog again.  It will be interesting to see how things evolve as I record my thoughts on the areas that I am interested in.

For example, my current interests lie in franchising, sales, customer service and relationship management.

Thanks for checking me out.

Dan