Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2016 | Page 12

ceoprofile

BY KERRY PIPES

GROWTH MINDED
Mark Kartarik manages by walking around – a lot!

T

wo years ago, when Georgetown,
Texas-based Sport Clips prepared
to enhance its corporate team and
boost growth it called on Mark Kartarik,
a salon industry veteran. Kartarik had established himself as a top executive with
Minneapolis-based Regis Corp., where he
served for more than two decades as Regis
expanded worldwide. At Regis, he served
as executive vice president and president
of its franchise division for Supercuts, Cost
Cutters, ProCuts, First Choice Haircutters,
Magicuts, City Looks, and We Care Hair.
Kartarik not only knows the hair care
franchise business inside and out, he has a
reputation for working alongside franchisees, listening to and learning from them
to get a real sense of how things are going,
what they need, and what customers want.
In fact, he is on the road constantly, visiting the brand’s salons and says he’s been
to more then 500 in the past 18 months
and may get even busier: Sport Clips expects to open as many as 200 stores in the
next 18 months.
Technology is at the forefront of the
brand’s strategic initiatives. Kartarik says
Sport Clips is in the midst of launching
a new mobile check-in tool that should
be fully functional by next summer. The
new tool will give clients the ability to go
online and check in using their mobile
devices, tablets, or desktops to view wait
times and choose their favorite stylist at
the touch of a button.

Leadership
What is your role as president? I’m
responsible for overseeing our CIO Dan
Miller, VP of Operations Gordon Edward
Logan, VP of Marketing Martha England,
and VP of Real Estate Greg Smith. I report
to CEO Gordon Logan.
Describe your leadership style. Calm,
relaxed but intense, get the facts, make a
decision, solution-oriented, strategic.
What has inspired your leadership style?
Great leaders I have worked with: Gordon
Logan at Sport Clips and Gordon Nelson
and Paul Finkelstein at Regis.

10

Where is the best place to prepare for
leadership: an MBA school or OTJ? An
MBA is theoretical, even when you attend
business school after some previous business
experience as I did. OTJ is practical and not
replaceable. The best combination in my experience is that one accelerates the other. Any
sort of education is good for any executive,
and I am a firm believer in lifelong learning
and incurable curiosity. (I’m even curious
about who left the “u” out of curiosity.)
Are tough decisions best taken by one
person? How do you make tough decisions? One person should make the tough
decisions after consulting with the most
thoughtful advisors and team members.
Get input, make the decision, and take
responsibility.

NAME: Mark Kartarik
TITLE: President
COMPANY: Sport Clips
NO. OF UNITS: 1,587 (U.S. and Canada)
AGE: 60
YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 20-plus
YEARS IN CURRENT POSITION: 2

What is your biggest leadership challenge? Communicating across a highly
diverse, remotely located group.
How do you transmit your culture from
your office to front-line employees? We
visit our stores on a regular basis. I have
been in more than 500 of our stores in
the past 18 months. We attend quarterly
field leadership meetings for team leaders
(franchisees), store managers, and assistant
managers. In addition we have our annual
huddle where we bring all our managers
and team leaders together with the support team (home office team members)
to a single location for three days of education, communication, team building,
and motivation. Last year we were in San
Antonio and next April we will host more
than 2,700 associates in Las Vegas.

Do you want to be liked or respected?
I’ve learned people will tend to like the
people they respect. I would answer both.
Advice to CEO wannabes: Know yourself. Seek first to understand, then to be
understood. Learn to help and believe in
those around you.

Management
Describe your management style: Managing by walking around (MBWA, Tom
Peters). People will tell you far more in
person than they ever will in writing. Have
high expectations of people. Expect they
will do well and they usually will.
What does your management team
look like? Kind of good looking with really great haircuts. ;-)
How does your management team
help you lead? They are each far better
at their respective jobs than I am and they
lead their teams very well, which helps me
immensely. They also give me feedback
and information, which also helps guide
everyone toward the same outcomes.
Favorite management gurus: Do you
read management books? Tom Peters,
Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, Gary Keller,

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