14 September 2026
People used to joke that Bob Dylan couldn’t sing. Yet in 1980, he won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance for You’ve Gotta Serve Somebody.
It’s a great song with a simple but profound message. Whatever we do, and whatever our role, we are always serving somebody. The question is, how well are we doing it? | It looks like working and communicating virtually will continue for many of us, at least to some extent. The good news is, this offers us all an opportunity to 'go global'. This has certainly helped us at FRI to live our mission (which is to foster the creation of profitable partnerships in the global franchising sector). We feel privileged and grateful to have, this month, reached a record number of people with our virtual presentations and workshops. Keeping to this theme, in this Positive Franchising Update you'll find: - New opportunities to connect with your global franchising peers. - A gift offer to save you energy and put some fun into your virtual meetings. - Fresh insights on trends in global franchising from a recent podcast. Enjoy the read. The FRI Team  |
| JOIN YOUR PEERS IN THE GLOBAL FRANCHISING SECTOR Before sharing our new series of global Franchisor Excellence Masterclasses, here's a summary of what we've been up to this month. Virtual Home Services Summit: This innovative event, organised by our good friend Scott Abbott at ProNexis, enabled hundreds of franchisors and franchisees in North America to come together, share best practices, and hear FRI's Founder, Greg Nathan, deliver a keynote address on Building Profitable Partnerships. This franchisee comment about royalties created a lot of interest on LinkedIn.Philippines Field Manager Bootcamp: Over 100 field managers participated in this virtual Field Manager Bootcamp, led by Kelley Matson and the FRI team, organised by our friends at the Philippine Franchise Association. If you're interested in what happens in these workshops you can check out some of the fun here. San Diego IFA Franchising Convention: The annual IFA Convention starts in a few days. It's a super charged event where 3,000 franchisors, franchisees and suppliers come together for four days to learn and network. Greg Nathan is co-facilitating a CFE workshop, FranTogether: How to Create Healthy Franchise Relations with colleagues Brian Schnell and Evan Hackel - well worth attending if you can make it to San Diego. AND HERE'S SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE CAN ATTEND....We are excited to announce our virtual Franchisor Excellence Masterclass is now available for the Brazil, USA, Europe, South African and Asian time zones. This will enable senior franchisor executives all over the world to connect and share with each other, have direct access to Greg Nathan, and learn from FRI's latest research on how to achieve best practice in franchising. Click on one of these links to get details on the best Masterclass session for you: April/May in Europe/Asia/Africa friendly time June/July in Aussie/Kiwi friendly time |
YOU'LL NEVER HAVE TO SAY "YOU'RE ON MUTE!" AGAIN Hello. I'm Omega Howell, FRI's Marketing and Events Manager. It looks like we're in for another year of online meetings. If you'd like to save energy, and have some fun when your peers start talking while they are on mute, you might enjoy this. We originally hand made these signs for ourselves. But when people regularly laughed and said, "Hey I'd love one of those", we organised a print run. If you'd like one, send me an email with your postal address. A small gift from us to you for being part of our community. |
| EXPLORING POST-COVID TRENDS WITH STAN FRIEDMAN Thanks to our friend Stan Friedman for inviting FRI's Founder, Greg Nathan, to share his insights on franchising trends in this Fundamentals of the Franchise Relationship podcast. Here are eight trends they talk about in this fascinating and wide ranging discussion: #1: In an environment of uncertainty, franchisors need to build confidence and trust in their leadership. Having a competent team, showing care for franchisee success, and being transparent with decision making are key competencies that will help here. #2: Franchise networks provide a great opportunity to create supportive communities. Smart franchisors have processes to encourage franchisees to collaborate and help each other, giving everyone a competitive edge. #3: Business leaders (franchisors and franchisees) that focus on the well being and personal development of their people, not only promote better performance, they also generate greater loyalty - particularly important at the moment. #4: As online shopping increasingly impacts on franchisees with a substantial bricks and mortar investment, franchisors need to ensure franchisees are getting a fair and reasonable split in revenues from local customers. #5: Mergers and acquisitions are happening externally and internally. Franchise networks are merging and strong franchisees are buying weaker franchisees, sometimes keeping them on as partners or managers in multi-unit conglomerates. #6: While there are still difficulties in some regions getting people together face to face, smart franchisors are innovating their virtual meetings by using break out groups, interactive processes, and "blended" formats. #7: The introduction of rapid change has made effective communication more important than ever. Some younger franchisor executives, who have grown up relying on text based communications, are having to relearn the art of conversation to keep franchisees engaged. #8: The stresses and challenges of recent years have caused many people to reassess their values. In particular, there is more of a focus on fairness, generosity and gratitude, with franchisees expecting more care and appreciation from their franchisors. You can hear the full Podcast here. |
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