How to refresh your Franchise Advisory Council

Franchise Advisory Councils and other types of consultative committees provide franchisors and franchisees with important opportunities to collaborate, pressure test new initiatives and maintain a culture of continuous improvement. However, they can become ineffective if good processes are not reviewed and maintained.

Here are a few tips to keep your FAC in good shape.

#1: Review your Charter

A good charter is short, practical and written in plain English. It should not read like a legal document. Ensure it clearly states the purpose of the FAC, its powers, the roles of members (including the franchisor), how people should conduct themselves, how meetings will be chaired, agenda guidelines, and how communication will flow back to the network.

#2: Check for common dysfunctions

The three most common dysfunctions we see are The Nodding Dog (it’s just a rubber-stamping exercise for the franchisor); The Gripe Session (an excuse for franchisees to beat up the franchisor team); or The Political Old Guard (long-standing franchisees using the FAC to protect their own self-interests).

#3: Select and train Chairs with care

Our research consistently shows that a competent Chairperson is the single most important predictor of success. A good Chair manages the process and engages everyone in the meeting. These skills can be learned. By the way, we recommend a joint Chair and Vice Chair model shared by a franchisor executive and a franchisee.

#4: Induct members into the process every year

Members need to be clear on what is in the Charter and how to bring their best self to meetings. We find that commitment can wane over time, and members can start to take meetings off track if there is not a regular reminder of why the FAC exists and how the meetings should be run.

#5: Remain clear on expectations over power

This is the most common area where problems emerge. Over time, franchisees sometimes start to believe they should be setting strategy and policy, instead of influencing and advising. Worse still they can start to demand that a franchisor team reports to them. Obviously you can’t have two management teams running a business, so clarity on this is vital.

#6: Have clear and balanced membership

While most FACs define franchisee representation in terms of geograpahy, the diverse profile of most franchise networks today make this an ineffective model. Better your FAC is represented by the types of franchisees you have. Consider representation by such things as tenure, size of business, culture, gender, multi vs single unit, product mix of business, and regional vs metro.

#7: Review your code of conduct

Ensure you have guidelines to prevent some of these common types of bad behaviours:

• Being late or unprepared for meetings.
• Being distracted and not participating fully (e.g. driving or having the camera off).
• Being rude and disrespectful of people or processes.
• Focusing on problems rather than solutions.
• Representing feelings and beliefs as facts and evidence.

These are just a few of the areas the FRI team covers when we review an existing FAC. If you think your existing FAC could do with a refresh or would like help to get one established in the right way, contact us here to arrange an initial discussion.