Switch Hitters
“You have to invest
in the success of
others. I consider
our franchisees to
be our partners.”
—John Metz
lot of other franchisees who didn’t have that waiver and
lost everything,” he says today. “It didn’t affect me financially, but I thought it was a travesty—kicking some good
people when they were down.”
Based on that experience, as well as that of being a
franchisee for multiple brands, Metz is convinced he can
do things better as a franchisor—a lot better. “I felt there
needed to be more disclosure and cooperation between
the franchisee and the franchisor, which is exactly how
we do it now,” he says.
Still a franchisee of several hotel brands as well as 36
Denny’s and a Dairy Queen, Metz says he’s been called a
“rogue” franchisee over the years because he has “pushed
the envelope” on what franchisors were doing to support
him as a franchisee. “But I did it within the system,” he
says with a grin. Today, as a franchisor, he is well-pre-
Mutual Respect
Jim Rudolph, vice chair and minority owner of Rita’s
Water Ice Franchise Company (about 550 franchise locations in 18 states), says that although franchisee interests must be a priority for a franchisor, the franchisor’s
role must be respected.
“When I was a franchisee, there was no way I was
going to pay the royalties
and then not listen to my
franchisor,” says the former franchisee of Wendy’s,
Chuck E. Cheese’s, and
other brands. “Yes, I wanted
to go beyond that—to be
even better—but I always
did it within the boundaries of what my agreement
required.”
For Rudolph, the “zeezor” relationship boils down to three essentials. “I say
it all the time: it’s about trust, respect, and belief. And
it has to go both ways—100 percent. If we can do that
together, we’ll have a great relationship.”
pared to deal with any future rogues of his own, but he
has bigger things in mind as he works to fine-tune and
rebuild a brand.
Metz brings a canny insider’s knowledge of what it takes
to implement change in a system—especially when there’s
a price tag attached. For example, he took an innovative
approach to making system-wide menu changes at Hurricane Grill & Wings. “Instead of sending a memo to everybody to buy this and that, we sent out the equipment
they would need. We want to be consistent, and it’s hard
for anyone to refuse to conform when someone is sending
you the piece of equipment you need to do it,” he says.
Then there’s the big picture: money. “The fact that I
never could grasp was that I, as a franchisee, had more
money invested in the company than anybody at corporate.
There were bureaucrats and corporate executives making
decisions based on the benefit to the franchisor—not on
how it affected the bottom line and the franchisees,” he says.
“As a franchisor, you have to keep all your stakeholders
in mind—your owners, employees, franchisees, and suppliers. You have to invest in the success of others. I consider
our franchisees to be our partners. If they have financial
difficulties, we try to solve the problem. If we can’t, we
grant royalty relief for underperforming franchisees. It’s
the right thing to do.” n
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