Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2013 | Page 24

Grow Market Lead
about Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players ever, emphasizing
the fact that Jordan missed 26 gamewinning shots—among the 9,000 he
missed—in his career.
The “secret sauce of success,” he
told the room, is “your innate ability
to move other people to action.” And
while each person has a different call
to action, the most effective way he’s
found to reach people is through the
power of narrative.
“I’m a storyteller—that’s the secret sauce,” said Guber, 71, a lesson
he learned only in what he described
as “the third act” of his life. We’re all
emotional creatures, he said, and a good
story has the power to “emotionalize”
the audience you’re trying to reach,
whether in movies, sports, or franchising. “You want people to feel it,” he said.
“That’s the way we’re wired. Hits are
born in the heart—not the head, and
not the wallet.”
Guber, who is involved in the food

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Franchiseupdate Iss u e II, 2 0 1 3

“Success is the
ability to go from
failure to failure
without losing
your enthusiasm.”
— Peter Guber

business at his sports arenas as co-owner
of the Golden State Warriors and Los
Angeles Dodgers, had some relevant
advice for the attendees. Answering
his own question about how he sells
out games at his arenas. “It’s not the
food, it’s the experience,” he said. He
has the players meet the fans when they
come in, and he focuses on perfecting
each moment of a customer’s visit. “At
a restaurant, every detail counts; the total experience counts,” he said, adding
that for Wolfgang Puck, every night is
opening night.

Guber also cautioned against overreliance on digital technology—something he knows plenty about as a movie
industry executive and producer. “You
have to move people to action, and
digital technology will not do it. Don’t
surrender your humanness to digital
technology. You will lose over time.”
Next on the agenda was an in-depth
session on the Affordable Care Act.
Panelists included Jeff Lungren, director of congressional and public affairs
for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce;
Christy Williams, COO of the National
Association Management Group; and
Mike Kahley, senior vice president of
the Lockton Companies, which provides
insurance, benefits, and risk management services. The panelists explained
various aspects of the law as it stands
today, how and when it will be implemented, the upsides and downsides of
different responses to the “play or pay”
option, and the effects the act will have
on franchisees, depending on how the