Some heavy hitters are starting to embrace the idea of transparency. In business. In life. Heck, even in our Government….
A rather powerful logo.
Here is what our 44th President says about transparency;
“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” Website
That’s a pretty serious shift in thinking, wouldn’t you say? Now, it certainly won’t happen overnight, and some will argue that nothing has changed. (You can comment on it if you want)
I have a sneaky suspicion that my fransparency initiative may not be an overnight sensation either. There’s bound to be push-back. But….from who?
Interestingly enough, some like-minded franchise professionals like the folks from Franchise Foundry, AllBusiness.com, and Business.Gov, have had posts concerning this issue. (In the past couple of days)
From the Franchise Foundry blog;
“Becoming more transparent means you open the channels of communication. It means being brutally honest with your franchisees and potential franchisees. It means having to give the microphone to your worst critics. It means letting everyone comment and even blog about what your company is doing right AND wrong.
It is a strange and abrupt reversal of most corporate values, and for many of the “old school” franchisors it feels very unnatural. So to help facilitate the level of transparency that franchisors will need to embrace over the next few years I’ve written the 5 rules for being a transparent franchisor.”
Interesting. Read the rest. It’s even more interesting.
Business.Gov and AllBusiness.com bloggers got into the action, too. Today.
From the Business.Gov community blog; (Caron Beesley)
“Franchisors and franchise associations are very good at persuading would-be franchisees that franchising is generally a lower business risk, than independent business ownership. But is it? Ask any franchising expert or experienced franchisee and you might hear a different story.” More
The article was even re-posted at the AllBusiness franchise blog, which is run by the highly influential Rieva Lesonsky. (Rieva had the tiny and unimportant job title of Executive Editor over at Entrepreneur magazine for years.)
From the AllBusiness.com blog;
“Business strategist coach, Mark Munday, discredits much of the reported “hype” surrounding entrepreneurial franchise success rates, and points to research by Timothy Bates, a Wayne State University Economist.
“After four years, only 62% of franchised businesses had survived, while 68% of independent small businesses were still open for business.” (From the Bates study)
Read the rest of this post, here.
I tell the folks that I help find franchises for that they could actually fail, if they buy a franchise. Who else does?
I’m not going to engage in franchise industry bashing. I’m just sayin…
