Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2013 | Page 82

FranchiseMarketUpdate
By Darrell Johnson

The Swahili Lesson
A “lingua franca” for franchising is on the way

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wahili is a language used throughout Eastern Africa. It is a lingua
franca—a language used to make
communication possible among
people not sharing a common mother
tongue. Some of the Swahili vocabulary
derived from Arabic and European languages over many centuries of contact
with traders, empire builders, and others. It
was the only way commerce could be done
without lots of miscommunication that led
to mistakes and misunderstandings. While
its origin traces back to a single tribe, today
it is used by more than 140 million people
across many countries.
What does this have to do with franchising? Franchising has many constituencies
inside and outside of the execution of the
business model. We are all familiar with
those operating inside the business model.
Some of those trying to communicate about
franchising from outside include the media
and legislative officials. Unfortunately, many
of the constituencies on both sides of the
business model speak different languages.
Ask someone to define what a failure is, or
what an area developer is, within a particular
franchise system. Lacking a common set
of definitions, we are causing ourselves a
considerable amount of confusion and often discomfort.
Is it time for franchising to learn from
history and tackle this problem? I think the
answer is that we have to for the good of
the business model. Take what is perhaps
the single most important topic of franchisee success or failure. Even though the
media and legislators argue about and use
data to support their positions regarding
franchisee success or failure, no one seems
to know what the definitions should be,
let alone the right data to use in assessing
such outcomes.
Some say franchised small businesses
are more successful than non-franchised
businesses. Others say the opposite. They
can’t both be right. Census data on small
businesses in general shows that fewer than

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Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue IV, 2013

half were still alive after 5 years, whether
the definition was “new establishments”
or “new firms.” If that is the bar used to
defi