IFA Adopts a New Strategic Plan to Protect, Enhance and Promote Franchising

Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the May 2016 issue of Franchising World magazine.

By Robert Cresanti, CFE

It was my pleasure to spend time with so many of you at IFA’s Convention in San Antonio in February. It was extraordinary and outstanding in every regard. Thank you for helping to make my first convention as CEO so memorable.

With a near-record crowd and educational sessions that provided a host of new ideas, best practices and emerging trends from top-notch keynote speakers that stretched our thinking and imagination, #IFA2016 was a great success by any measure (See more coverage of the convention on page 82 of the April 2016 edition of Franchising World).

In addition to the educational activities at the convention, important association business took place at the committee and board levels. A key outcome of this year’s IFA Board of Directors meeting was the passage of a new Strategic Plan for the association that maintains our longstanding mission to Protect, Enhance and Promote Franchising.  

A Strategic Planning Committee headed by IFA Chair Aziz Hashim developed the new plan, along with a team of industry leaders, including: Mike Isakson, CFE, IFA Past Chair, Chair, IFA International Committee, Chair of Educational Foundation Strategic Planning Committee; Darrell Johnson, CFE, FRANdata CEO, former IFA Board member; Matthew Patinkin, multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee (Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Red Mango Frozen Dessert and Jamba Juice) and co-founder and owner of Double P Corp., and IFA Board member; Meg Roberts, CFE, President of Molly Maid; Steve Romaniello, CFE, Managing Director of Roark Capital Group; Michael Seid, CFE, CFWshops, IFA Board member; Tony Valle, CEO, College Pro Painters; and Simone Wu, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & External Affairs for Choice Hotels International, IFA Board Member.  

The intent of the plan is to better focus our goals and priorities to align with our financial and staff resources against the areas that most impact our community. At under 300 words, the strategic plan is streamlined and focused around three strategic priorities: Advocacy — Influence and Awareness; Growth — Sustainable Franchise Business Growth; and Performance — Economic and Organizational Performance.

In regards to the Advocacy priority, we will continue our efforts to increase engagement through IFA’s grassroots program, the Franchise Action Network, to help tell lawmakers why laws and regulations that attack the franchise model are not good for the thousands of communities they serve across the country. In addition — as you likely have heard IFA Chair Aziz Hashim promote — we will launch an initiative to proactively tell the franchise story by highlighting the importance of franchising to global, national, state and local economies, and the business ownership and upward mobility it offers. This initiative will leverage new data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau that will show the growth of franchising from 2007 to 2012 in each congressional district in the country and include job, establishment and economic impact growth figures. New research is also helping us craft the right messages to better be able to educate media, policy makers and consumers about franchising.  

We expect this new initiative to be launched this summer. To be successful, we will need the help of IFA members across the board to extend the message to your customers and others through the many outreach programs executed by your companies. The program will provide the tools you need to be a vocal advocate for franchising.

Under the Growth and Performance priorities, the strategic plan focuses our resources to help IFA members foster consistent and sustainable franchise systems and to enhance OUR member value proposition. We will accomplish this by developing and delivering programs and services that help franchise companies grow in ways that strengthen the franchise model at the same time.

IFA’s new strategic plan will guide everything we do as an organization. But as Winston Churchill said: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” I can assure you that we are focused on the results needed to keep the franchise model viable and sustainable for our members.