Did you know that McDonald’s Big Mac and Filet-O-Fish wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for some creative franchisees? AllBusiness.com did and recently set out to find if franchising and innovation go together like two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a sesame seed bun.
“Some franchisees, and some franchise systems, are more effective when franchisees can innovate,” says John Hayes, a franchise consultant, former franchisee and franchisor, and author of several franchise-related books. “More often, however, when franchisees have to search for answers or experiment, the results are likely to be frustrating and quite often the franchisees lose money. Innovation belongs to the franchisor and it's the responsibility of the franchisor.” However, that’s not to say that innovation on the franchisee level hasn’t happened successfully. In fact, franchisee input was the driving force behind the aforementioned McDonald’s menu items as well as Domino's Pizza’s new American Legends pizza line and line of breadbowl pastas which was developed and tested by a Los Angeles franchisee. At WSI, an Internet consulting franchise, innovation is so highly valued that an international excellence and innovation conference is held annually to recognize franchisees who have provided internet marketing solutions in their local markets around the world. In addition, Ron McArthur, president of the franchise, personally meets with the top 30 revenue producing franchises eight times a year to discuss ideas. And 90 percent of the products and services within the WSI e-marketplace have come from franchisees. “New franchisees are trained on the basics of business but innovations are introduced on a quarterly basis to ensure that we are offering the latest and best internet marketing processes to end clients that deliver results,” says McArthur.
There’s an old adage that says two heads are better than one. If that’s true, then it naturally follows that hundreds or thousands of people can make one system run better than just one. But be sure to first research what policy the franchisor has in place for accepting new ideas and then, only after you’ve demonstrated that you can follow the system at hand, introduce your idea. Because, when it comes to innovation, not everyone sees it in the same light.
Photo: Ron McArthur of WSI.
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