Coalition of Franchisee Associations

December 23, 2022

Mass Exodus - May 2002

In a recap of the year's most important stories, Johnathan Maze featured the relationship challenges in the McDonald's system.

“There’s always a push and pull that exists between franchisee and franchisor,” Kempczinski told investors last year.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

God Bless Mike Anton for speaking up and stating what we all know.

Richard Adams said...

The system has lost a lot of great Owner/Operators.
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Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the diversity push and growth of new Franchisees in the late 90's they might want to go back and revisit how that worked out. Best to grow with business people regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion age etc. buisness people who bring new ideas and are not afraid to give feedback and challenge the status quo.

Anonymous said...

Mcd WANTS

They have carved the Heart & Soul out of this business and ATE it.

They want more kid business, then Fire Ronald McDonald.
They want more family business ,then remove playlands
They want faster D/Ts, then add to the McCafe menu and Add fresh beef.
They want higher Cash Flow, then add Labor to the Dining room to teach people how to use a Kiosk, and do table service.
They want better Operations, then let Operators grow to 20, 30, 40 & 50 Stores.
They want us to give Gold Standard everything, Yet their Communication & Technology is No Standard (total failure)
They want us to give Table Service, yet I would be happy to have people just to give Service.
They want Better Advertising, but Create an Ad Agency from 2 Old Dried Up ones.
They institute PACE in the midst of the WORST hiring scenario in Decades.
They change the Franchising rules and chase many of the best, most experienced operators out of the business
They promise to NEVER use VOICE scores in Franchising evaluations, then do anyway.
They force cost on to the Operators P&L by reneging on their promise to fully fund Archways

Richard Adams said...

"Best to grow with business people regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, age, etc."

No doubt. The challenge with developing a group of "franchisees in waiting" is that they can't bring in an unlimited number of people. If they have too many people in the pipeline some will wait forever, some will drop out, and some will file lawsuits. So, if they bring candidates on board just based on categorization they take a chance on missing out on the next person who might possess the ideal background and experiences.
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Anonymous said...

Yes, and McDonald's would rather grow with new franchisees who meet certain demographics rather than an experienced 30-year McDonald's veteran, who has demonstrated for decades their operational and financial strength but who might be outspoken and challenge the status quo with constructive feedback. They will find a way to make that legacy operator's life difficult within the system.

Anonymous said...

There is something happening, a number of veteran owner/operators have privately voiced their concerns to me in the last several weeks.

Appears to be big changes coming. Maybe change the whole model? No more 20-yr franchise agreements? Maybe year to year? Five years?

That'll surely kill our equity and make sure complete control is achieved.

Richard Adams said...

Year to year? Five years? That's not a franchise, that's an employment contract.

Owner/Operators are smart to be vigilant since they're burdened with a corporate team that doesn't understand franchising, or small business, or free enterprise.

But no system would find franchise investors for such short terms.

Management's challenge: they need to deliver growth for shareholders. If they can't build new stores and if sales flatten out, they'll be tempted to start tinkering with the "business model".

This kind of discussion is why independent franchisee associations are essential.
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