Training | People Development | Franchising
A franchise company is, at its core, a training company. That’s not a metaphor. It’s the truth.
Training is how the system gets transferred from the franchiser to the franchisee. It’s how standards are maintained. It’s how culture is built. And yet, I’ve seen franchise companies cut training budgets the moment things get tight — as though knowledge is a luxury rather than the foundation everything else rests on.
I once heard of a professional CEO who, upon joining a franchise company, immediately stopped all ongoing franchisee training. His logic: they were trained at the beginning, so why keep investing? The founders were horrified. And they were right to be.
Here’s the real question: would you rather retain untrained, uninformed people out of fear that trained ones might leave? Or would you rather build a team so capable and so valued that they don’t want to go anywhere?
When I was a Master Licensee for Copy Club, we hired a Director of Learning with a PhD in Education. He didn’t just deliver training — he transformed it. He shifted the focus from dumping information onto people to actually measuring whether learning and performance improvement were happening. The difference was profound. Franchisee satisfaction increased. System compliance improved. And prospective franchisees took note of the seriousness with which we approached their development.
A few principles I’ve held onto ever since: initial training must cover the entire business — not just the product or operations. Ongoing training must happen consistently, in short, regular doses. And training must be developed by people who actually know how to teach, not just people who know the subject.
For franchisees: even if you’re not involved day to day, attend the training yourself. Understand the system from the source. Because if you don’t, you’ll make decisions based on filtered information from employees — and that’s a recipe for drift.
Leadership sets the culture. If you value learning, your people will too. And that culture — of continuous improvement — is what separates thriving franchises from struggling ones.
— Harish Babla | Managing Director & CEO, Pure Nectar Global
📘 From the book: Lessons Learned, Wisdom Gained — My Journey in Franchising
#Franchising #PureNectar #Entrepreneurship #BusinessLessons
