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Board meeting duration is an important governance dimension. Previous best practices have covered franchise governance structure fit, governance focus on the future and board meeting regularity. Key here is ensuring adequate time and focus is afforded to the many elements of governance in a regular board meeting. The governance role includes compliance, monitoring and controls, …

History has demonstrated the importance of having an active Crisis Management Plan. This should be regarded as a core franchisor responsibility. While some companies will clearly be more susceptible to potential crises, there are a myriad of situations that could impact any franchise organisation.  Crises could be generated from customer interactions (e.g., food poisoning, poor …

This is a best practice for both potential franchisees and established franchisors. We believe it is best practice for a franchisor to require potential franchisees to seek specialist legal and accounting advice, as a minimum, before signing a franchise agreement. There is research that demonstrates use of advisors to be associated with higher levels of …

As discussed in a previous best practice, we regard Franchisee Business Planning as a critical franchise system management process. We believe comprehensive franchisee business planning to be an important driver of both franchisee and, as a by-product, franchisor performance. Within this we regard a Franchisee Business Planning Template that is bespoke to the business as …

A Franchise Advisory Council (FAC) should involve good franchisee representation. That means that there should be a meaningful diversity of franchisee members on the council. In our view that diversity or representativeness will help facilitate achievement of the FAC purpose. Importantly also, we believe it will help franchisees (generally) see the FAC as a valid, …

This best practice speaks to how franchisors approach the frequent need for change within a franchise system. Change is fundamental to long-term sustainability – and, in franchising, change invariably involves and impacts franchisees. Here we suggest a basic scientific approach to innovation that provides evidence for proposed changes. Franchisees own their own businesses and, while …

A franchisor business has many facets and can be complex and challenging to maximise the performance for both franchisor and franchisees, long-term. Not always, but invariably the franchise support office will comprise multiple staff – each with an important role to play in the functioning of the franchise system. Put simply, everyone employed has considerable …

Field visits are too expensive and too important not to have a valuable outcome. In turn, an important aspect of ensuring a valuable outcome is the development of a formalised field visit output. In general, the output of a field visit should encompass a completed and agreed action plan, as a minimum. In addition, we …

As we state in other governance-focused best practices, franchising by its very nature demands strong governance. All franchisor businesses require good governance, and more focused governance is typically needed to cope with the increasingly changing and complex environment their businesses face. Within governance, meeting regularity speaks to a level of focus and resource on franchise …

This best practice is for potential franchisees. If you are considering purchasing a franchise, then we suggest you place great focus on the potential returns of any franchise you consider. It is important that you don’t get carried away thinking about the type of work of the franchise, without giving adequate attention to what the …