This is a loaded question and one that needs to be carefully considered by both franchisees and franchisors. Although we all understand that it takes time for franchisees to learn the business and be able to implement the system successfully, we often overlook the many learning barriers that franchisees face.
Franchisees, and sometimes franchisors, get frustrated when (in their view) it takes “too†long for the former to produce the desired results. They think that attending training and implementing the steps and tasks required “should†produce results at their determined time frame. When results are not forthcoming, many franchisees blame the system and the franchisor, while many franchisors blame the franchisees.
Both are missing the point. It is not about who is to blame, instead it’s about trying to understand what’s really happening. Assuming that the franchisor has a good system and an effective training program the focus then needs to shift to the barriers to learning and to assisting franchisees identify and overcome them. On the franchisee’s side, a refocus to the internal dynamics is needed to be able to discover what may be preventing results.
A franchise business is more than a collection of tasks, job descriptions, concepts and business related activities. What makes it a system is the way in which all of these elements are brought together. A franchise system is a way of thinking. It is here (in the new way of thinking ) that we find the barriers to learning and thus to implementation. More.