closely involving employees as a natural extension of that,
weaves Buffalo Wild Wings franchisees into the communities
where they live and work. Customers connect to the concept of
family-owned and operated. The family’s name and the brand
become synonymous with giving back and supporting the local
area.“For us I think it’s gone a long way, just everyone knowing
it’s family run. Everybody can contact any one of us at any time.
I think the company loves to see when their owner’s involved.
It goes a long way,”Caleb Ward said.
JK&T Wings, like all Buffalo Wild Wings franchises, takes
pride in the communities where they live, work and play. The
involvement speaks volumes to those who frequent BWW
when the company supports local schools, nonprofits and businesses.“I think that name always parallels us with that brand
we’re involved with, so the Carmody-Ward name, we take
pride in that. All of our facilities and our operations, those of us
involved with the brand feel our last name is tied to those locations because of the involvement we have in the community.
We get entrenched as much as we can,”Jeff Carmody said.
The care, love and support poured into each B-Dubs®
fosters the feeling of family, giving Buffalo Wild Wings a
competitive advantage, and setting the brand apart. Through
compassion for the communities where they operate, franchisees are ensuring the brand continues to grow and thrive for
generations to come. S
JESSICA LOEDING is the FBS director of communications and
managing editor of SCORE. You can reach Loeding at 678-797-5160
or [email protected].
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SCORE | 2016 Issue 2
every once in a while, an experience would slip into the conversation and we’d have to correct ourselves right away so we
could enjoy being together as family rather than as co-workers,”
Gayle Schmidt said.
Caleb Ward echoed the sentiment, saying a properly
structured organization and a separation of work and family
can create a successful business culture.“You know what you’re
getting with family. You know how each other operates and you
can work together to accomplish your goals. Whether you agree
with one another or not, you’re going to do what’s right for the
company and do what’s right for what you’re trying to achieve.
It’s always good knowing that you can do it and leave it at work
and have family time, too.”
Building an internal culture around the basis of family,
THE
family vacation somewhere warm.“As the company’s gotten
bigger, it’s gotten more spread out and you don’t get to spend
as much time with people, so when we do our general manager
trip, it allows us to kind of just catch up with everybody, get
everybody in a relaxed environment and be able to socialize
and kind of build camaraderie and have a good time. That’s one
of the things I look forward to every year,”Brian Carmody said.
Make no mistake, going into business with loved ones is
not for the faint of heart. Because it can be easy to take frustrations out on family, patience is a must. Because a family business becomes part of life, one needs to be mindful not to let the
business override the workings of the inner family.“We made
an agreement that on holidays when we got together that we
would not discuss the business at all. That may sound easy, but