Deal with someone who speaks the language, knows the cultural norms, has industry experience, and knows how to do business “on the groundâ€
I wrote my last column on international franchise expansion from a café in the thriving
city of Istanbul, where I confess I didn’t see any Canadian franchise brands and wondered “why not?â€
Come to think of it, I didn’t see many American ones either, although there are plenty of Starbucks and at least one Marks and Spencer, neither of which are franchised.
International expansion of a franchised business is risky, and all the riskier when your international location, or locations, are thousands of kilometres from head office, operate under a different legal system, and customers and staff work in a different language. And there will often be different cultural norms to deal with.
Read Tony Wilson’s full article here.