Arby’s largest franchisee (more than $900 million in sales),
he also owned two other franchise brands: Mrs. Winner’s
Chicken & Biscuits and Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken,
with both corporate and franchised stores.
In November 2008, Umphenour was named CEO of
Focus Brands, the Atlanta-based franchisor and operator of more than 3,300 Carvels, Cinnabons, Schlotzsky’s,
Moe’s Southwest Grills, and Auntie Anne’s. Big change?
Not so much as it might appear.
“Everything I’d done for 32 years had prepared me for
the franchisor role,” he says. “In the last two or three years
at my old company, I had presidents of two brands under
me, as well as 775 Arby’s units, so I had already begun the
transition to franchisor leadership. Since I still think a lot
like a franchisee, I could easily identify with the needs and
wants of our 1,100 franchisees at Focus Brands.”
As a franchisee, Umphenour was something of a “benevolent dictator,” he says today. “But when I became a
franchisor, I became an influencer and a facilitator. When
you’re dealing with your franchise partners, they are independent business people who run their own show. We
may control the brand, but we don’t control our partners,” he says.
Some leadership traits and values have remained constant through both his franchisee and franchisor roles.
“It’s always been about having integrity, working hard,
building teams and relationships, and doing what you say
you’ll do,” he says. “As a franchisee, I was always serviceminded toward our guests. Now, as a franchisor, I’m service-oriented toward our franchise partners.”
The leader he has become to his brands’ franchisees
has been lent credibility by his decades as a franchisee.
“Contrary to a lot of the leadership at some brands, I have
had the experience of making payroll and making a business successful. My franchisees know I’ve walked in their
shoes, and that it affects the way in which I lead and work
with them,” he says.
“The right kind of leadership for me as a franchisor includes setting a good example and influencing franchisees
to do the right thing for the brand and for themselves.
Now I have only one purpose: to help my franchise partners make money. If they do well, all our other problems
go away.”
Big hat, bigger picture
Gordon Logan, CEO and founder of Texas-based Sport
Clips (840 locations in 38 states), always saw his role as a
franchisee as more than just taking care of his own units.
“As a franchisee for Command Performance Styling Salons, I was actively involved in the Chapter 11 process as
a member of the creditors’ committee. We renegotiated
the franchise agreements and the franchisees came out of
“Successful
franchisors are
sensitive to the
needs of their
franchisees, but
also recognize that
the good of the
system as a whole
takes precedence
over... individual
franchisees.”
—Gordon Logan
Franchiseupdate I ssue I , 2012
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