RWC Blog

When I stepped into a senior management role in 1999 to manage a national franchise, the (pre-existing) Strategic Plan that I reviewed to “get my bearings” as far as SWOT (Strengths/ Weaknesses/ Opportunities/ Threats) was concerned trumpeted a very clear message: “the chain stores are dominating the retail space in the N.Z. market“. Why is it that where brand awareness and market share is concerned retail chains tend to consistently outpace franchises in most cases ?  The answer lies in…

In my view, the single most important commercial objective that should be stated in the Strategic Plan of every Franchise operation should be to increase/ improve the level of unity/ solidarity that exists between Franchisees. The more that Franchisees can be influenced to work in the same common direction doing the same/ similar things, the greater will be the commercial impact of the franchise brand in the public arena. I have proven this to be a fact many times over…

Having being exposed to a variety of franchise structures to date, I now tend to think of a franchise business model as being more about a spectrum than a single choice of commercial operation. At the far left-hand end of this spectrum is what I term a “Buying Group”, in the middle is what I term a “Franchise-Cooperative” and at the far right-hand end of the spectrum is what I term a “Pure Franchise”. A) Some of the Typical Key…

During a Regional Business Advisor role that I was fulfilling during 2016 in the Hawke’s Bay region I had a few clients who were becoming interested in enlarging their bricks and mortar footprint and brand representation by franchising their business model. After explaining some of the finer points of operating a franchise these people started to realise that to go from a single business unit to operating (or at least overseeing the operation of) multiple business units is easier said…

First blog for 2018… A section in my second book (which I hope to publish during 2018) deals with how to shape a high-performing franchise operation when a portion of the franchisee population simply doesn’t want to practice the behaviours that you (as the senior manager/ franchisor/ directors) are trying to introduce – to no avail. The inspiration for this section of work comes from having managed a national (N.Z.) franchise operation; where around only 1/3 of the franchisee population…

This presentation: Collaboration Will Prove to be NZs Saving Grace …was inspired by a communication I received from a student yesterday about their uplifting experience from discovering that one of N.Z.’s largest companies is poised to re-structure how its management team functions in 2018 so that greater collaboration between department representatives occurs. This “re-modelling” has been inspired by the successes a bank in Holland has achieved through configuring its teams to work in small groups to perform project-type work. During 2017…

Last week I accompanied my young teenage son on a school camp to Tihoi Venture School – located near Kinloch, Taupo. This relatively remotely located camp offers a phenomenal set of outdoor learning experiences for those who stay here.  From my perspective, as a teacher/ parent/ manager, it was interesting to see the degree of emphasis placed upon involving the student group in activities that were focused on strengthening relationships…collaboration and cooperation. Knowing that collaboration and cooperation is also a…

During 2017 I taught a tertiary (university) level ‘Strategic Marketing’ course and ‘Branding’ course at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT). Throughout the delivery of lectures in the case of each course, I repeatedly encouraged students to apply their “imagination muscle” – to think about the respective assessment exercises with an open and explorative mindset. A number of students responded to this challenge with real vigor, and in 2 cases such was the quality of their work that – with…

As I’ve illustrated to a range of different leaders over the course of time, if we want New Zealand to pick-up its game and really thrive, then those people who are responsible for leading our country and those who are responsible for leading organisations/ other people should be basing all of their decisions/ actions on the following very simple yet very practical “sensibility filter”… Is the decision/ action that I’m about to make/ take going to “enable” or “disable” the…

From the various people who I interact with in my life it is clear to see that employers remain wary of employing young people/ graduates. One key reason for this caution is the concern that many employers have, that younger people either don’t have or are losing or have lost the ability to verbally communicate with others. The preference of a large faction of people in their twenties to use digital devices for virtually all of their communications is having…