One of our franchise partners forwarded me this article. I was ecstatic to have some feedback on the blog and he suggested I use this article as inspiration for my blog this week. I was excited about it for two reasons, one was that our franchise partner engaged with the blog and two was because this particular franchise partner is one of those “thinkers”. A multi-store operator with diverse experience who “gets it”.
Thinkers are a rare breed in our world of franchising. Franchisee’s often only ‘think’ about what the franchisor is doing for them but rarely do we hear feedback from franchisee’s about what they can do for the franchisor or themselves. In any franchise system you will find that the “thinkers” are the ones who excelerate (urban dictionary, look it up!) in the system. They are the ones who are the half-million dollar thinkers that are thinking outside and inside the box to excel in their business, to challenge themselves to hit the next level. The trick is to train the non-thinkers to become thinkers and utilizing the thinkers in the system to help do that. I find thinkers are also, all too often, leaders.
So, like the author of the article asked, What kind of ‘thinker’ are you?
- Donald Cooper, MBA, has been both a world-class manufacturer and an award-winning retailer. He speaks and coaches internationally on marketing, management and business excellence.
Donald can be reached at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada. To read more of his articles, go to www.donaldcooper.com and click on “Free Articles”.