Rhoda Olsen: Listening, Collaboration Make Women Great Business Leaders
People, News & Events
IFA presented the 2016 Bonny LeVine Award to Great Clips CEO Rhoda Olsen during the 2017 IFA Convention in Las Vegas. Olsen is a strong advocate for diversity in franchising and works to increase opportunities for women in leadership positions.
By Andrew Parker
While it may be tough to tell the difference between Great Clips CEO Rhoda Olsen and her twin sister, Rhonda, there’s nothing unclear about Rhoda’s impact on women in franchising. Olsen has helped grow Great Clips from around 1,000 salons in 1998 to more than 4,000 salons in 2016. The Minneapolis, Minn.-based franchisor has nearly 100 franchisees who started out in the company as stylists.
Olsen originally got into franchising as a consultant to Great Clips in 1984 after meeting the founders through her brother. She previously worked in human resources and educational training at Land O’Lakes. Olsen developed the first franchisee orientation program and wrote the first operations manual for Great Clips, joining the company on a full-time basis in 1987 as Vice President of Human Resources and Training. She became the CEO in February 2011. Olsen spoke with Franchising World about how her experiences have enabled her to demonstrate franchising's commitment to diversity.
FW: What advice do you give to women in franchising?
Olsen: Women are important to franchising because they have a skillset that works well, with a focus on listening, collaboration and support. The most successful franchisors listen to, and engage with, their franchisees. Mentoring and supporting women in franchising is great because there are so many opportunities — on the franchisee side, on the franchisor side, there are a lot of different career paths. Women sometimes can find more opportunity in the franchise business than in the corporate world.
FW: What traits make women such great leaders and a good fit for franchising?
Olsen: Women are important to franchising because they have a skillset that works well, with a focus on listening, collaboration and support. The most successful franchisors listen to, and engage with, their franchisees. Mentoring and supporting women in franchising is great because there are so many opportunities — on the franchisee side, on the franchisor side, there are a lot of different career paths. Women sometimes can find more opportunity in the franchise business than in the corporate world.
FW: What programs are in place at Great Clips to help promote women?
Olsen: There’s our Franchisee Women’s Leadership Group, it’s a pretty active group, they meet in person once a year with ongoing communication on social media and other methods. At Great Clips, we started with separate women’s leadership programs and have evolved to key leadership programs at the individual contributor level, the manager level and the director level.
FW: Why is it important for franchisees to get involved with the community?
Olsen: Great Clips has always been very focused on giving back, because people want to work for companies that care about the community. First, it’s valuable to employees. Second, it’s valuable to franchisees. Third, it’s valuable for us, because it’s important to work with those in need. We work with veterans and children’s hospitals. There’s a different feeling across the organization when all of us work together to support a group with a specific need, and provide some emotional value by helping others.
FW: How do you explain the franchise business model to potential franchisees?
Olsen: With potential franchisees, we emphasize the power of a large business and strength of a small business. I talk about leveraging the motivation of two groups that come together in a powerful way to achieve both of those motivations, the combination of big business and small business strengthening communities. A franchisor has a motivation to build a strong brand; a franchisee has a motivation to build a successful business, lead a good lifestyle and leave a family legacy.
FW: What can entrepreneurs learn from your story?
Olsen: With potential franchisees, we emphasize the power of a large business and strength of a small business. I talk about leveraging the motivation of two groups that come together in a powerful way to achieve both of those motivations, the combination of big business and small business strengthening communities. A franchisor has a motivation to build a strong brand; a franchisee has a motivation to build a successful business, lead a good lifestyle and leave a family legacy.
FW: What's an interesting fact about you?
Olsen: I’m a twin! And unfortunately, our parents named us Rhoda and Rhonda. Everywhere I go, we’re mixed up and I’m called Rhonda! She’s the older one, by six minutes. Also, Olsen is often misspelled so it keeps things interesting.
Find out more about franchise opportunities at Great Clips by visiting franchise.org/great-clips-inc-franchise and greatclips.com.
Andrew Parker is Editor-in-Chief of Franchising World magazine and IFA Senior Manager of Publishing.