I experienced a familiar thrill as I walked through the door.  The taxi was coming back for me in 60 minutes so I needed to move quickly.  While my formal mission in Canada was to deliver two conference presentations for Stuart Erskine, CEO of Declare Brands, I had snuck off to indulge my travel fetish. Read entire post

A long standing franchising colleague, Stephen Giles, emailed me the other day saying he was amused to receive some information about a course promoting "emotional intelligence" as the new big thing in corporate leadership. Stephen commented it sounded very familiar to what we have been teaching at the Franchise Relationships Institute for the past 23 years. Read entire post

It would be pity to mistake Anzac Day as simply another holiday rather than a tribute to generations of young people, perhaps the same age as some of your own family, who have given their lives so we can enjoy our freedom and our privileged lifestyle. If Anzac Day is about anything, it’s about gratitude and generosity. Read entire post

My last tip referred to some US trends that provide a peek into the future of Australian franchising. One of these is multi-unit franchising. A couple of weeks ago over 1,000 multi-unit franchisees and franchisor executives came together in Las Vegas to learn and share ideas at a special multi-unit conference. I asked one of the presenters, Steve LeFever, for his top three take outs. Read entire post

You haven't heard from me for a few weeks as our CEO, Karli Furmage, and I have been at the International Franchise Association Convention and subsequently working with several USA clients. Because the USA franchising scene tends to be the shape of things to come, I thought you might enjoy a summary of some observations and trends. Read entire post

The job of a leader is to make good decisions, particularly when the economy is soft, as it is at the moment. In the franchise relationship the franchisor is the leader. While this tip is especially dedicated to senior franchisor executives, anyone facing an important decision will find it useful. Read entire post

Welcome to 2013. Achieving greater balance seems to be on people’s minds at the moment so I thought I’d start the year with a tip on this. Read entire post

Do you think it’s possible to make money and make a difference? I’d like to think so because it is an important part of how we do things at FRI. I certainly know many franchisees and franchisors we work with feel the same way. Read entire post

Twelve months ago we closed our Brisbane office and gave our team the option to live wherever they wanted. Six people, including me, immediately moved to be closer to family or friends, spreading our team to Perth, Gympie, Surfers Paradise, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Coolum. We've had many questions from clients and colleagues on how our virtual office is working, so I asked Karli Furmage, our CEO and instigator of this initiative, to share her thoughts. At this point I'll hand over to Karli... Read entire post

Do you ever get annoyed at people who are different to you? Mr What and Mr How were long time, successful business partners and very different from each other. Mr What was obsessed with results. "What's the goal?" he would often ask. Approach him and his first question would be "What do you want?". He liked to make quick decisions and implement them. Because of his blunt, pushy nature Mr What wasn't very popular with staff, although he was respected because he got things done. While Mr What would stomp around the business, often with a flushed face and furrowed brow, checking on what was happening, Mr How had a different approach. Read entire post