Grow Market Lead
Challenge
the pros
What role does diversity play in
your brand’s recruitment and
development process?
Mike Pearce
Chief Development Officer
ServiceMaster Clean
At ServiceMaster we
highly value diversity.
Diversity has been a
key ingredient for our
successful growth.
Our corporate diversity statement reads
as follows:
“Working with associates and franchisees from diverse backgrounds improves our
thinking, makes us more creative, and allows us to better achieve our collective goals
for our associates, our customers, and our
communities.
Diversity is every way that we reflect
and share our unique experiences. Guided
by our corporate values, we believe diversity and inclusion allow us the best possible
chance to succeed both individually and as
a company.
Embracing a diverse work environment
is key to how we treat our associates, customers, and suppliers. Diversity embodies
all the differences that make us unique,
including, but not limited to, race, color,
religion, national origin, age, sex, familial status, disability status, veteran status,
genetic information, gender identity, and
sexual orientation.”
We have a high percentage of franchises that are women- and/or minorityowned. We also have a large international
base of franchisees representing countries
and regions all over the world, including Japan, Russia, the Middle East, and
Europe. Some of our franchises with
the highest sales volume are owned
by franchisees who bring the greatest
diversity. We believe that through developing a diverse family of franchisees
we are better positioned to serve the
most diverse groups of customers. The
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Franchiseupdate ISS U E I, 2 0 1 4
“We believe
diversity and
inclusion allow us
the best possible
chance to succeed
both individually and
as a company.”
insights we gain from minority- and/or
women-owned franchisees are invaluable to our efforts in gaining market
share and dominating the service industry segments we perform in.
We would be missing so much of
what is possible without the knowledge and culture of many different
groups. We make concerted efforts
both corporately and through franchise
marketing to ensure that the company
and its franchisees are represented by
every point of view in our society and
in countries throughout the world. n
Chris Cheek
Chief Development Officer
Toppers Pizza
Essentially doubling
in size since 2010, Toppers Pizza is one of
the fastest-growing
pizza chains of the past
3 years. At 50 stores,
we are at the beginning of a period of even more accelerated growth. Our goal, to reach 500
pizza stores by 2020, can only be realized by our focus on recruiting new
franchisees that, among other things,
are able to win the pizza delivery competition at the local community level.
If you look at the changing population of the United States in the last 12
to 15 years, we understand and embrace
the strategic imperative that, to be successful in the growth of financially successful new stores, our franchise owners
must be able to bring it with passion
and build something special at the local level. Franchise owners with strong
ties to their local communities should
be better operators of those businesses,
better recruiters of talent, and better
at understanding cultural norms. Our
development philosophy is based on
recruiting the best local owners we can
identify. As our business communities
continue to grow more diverse, our
franchise recruiting must follow suit.
There is an additional aspect of diversity as it relates to our target franchise
candidates. Toppers targets franchise
candidates who desire single units, as
well as multi-unit franchise candidates.
Moreover, we don’t require restaurant
experience to become a Toppers franchisee. As such, we cast a wide net when
advertising our franchise opportunity,
and we process franchise candidates
across a wide spectrum of business
backgrounds.
The intended outcome of this approach is to develop a franchise community that today and in the future will
be composed of owners who bring a
diverse collection of previous business
experiences and success to our brand
and franchise community. In fact, we
currently have in place a program to
match Toppers’ experienced managers as partners with new franchisees
who have passion, local knowledge,
and capital to invest, but lack pizza
or restaurant experience. We call this
the “Topperator” program, and it will
further expand the types of franchisees
we can recruit.
For franchisors looking to grow big
by successfully winning at the local level,
it is a strategic objective to develop a
franchise community of individuals
with diverse backgrounds, experiences,
and size of companies. Our brand will
benefit from the learning and innovation that naturally follows, putting us
on the path to build something special… together. n