In a Smart Company article by James Thomson called MP renews calls for investigations into mistreatment of Bakers Delight franchisee, he quotes:

NSW parliamentarian Joanna Gash has renewed calls for the Australian Federal Police to launch an investigation into accusations Bakers Delight and ANZ bank colluded to put a franchisee out of business.

Quoting emails between the franchisor and the bank, Gash alleges:

On Monday, Gash revisited the case in Parliament, producing emails from Bakers Delight chief financial officer Richard Taylor and ANZ executives that she says shows “plans had been conspired to terminate Ms de Leeuw’s franchise well ahead of time”.

The bank and franchisor deny all the allegations.

This is the first public AUS public allegation of the key franchisor:franchise banker relationship that I identified and wrote about in a 2005 paper for Industry Canada called Franchising Opportunism [free download]. Read more »

Top marks to Jim Coen at Franchise Perfection for bringing up a very important topic.

He posted a great article called Franchise Statistics Debunked Again! on his Let’s Talk Franchising blog and Blue MauMau.

I could not agree with him more: I get really, REALLY irritated when self=serving numbers are thrown around. The unsubstantiated drivel that comes out of the United Kingdom is especially horrendous.

Jim:

These misrepresentations just bug the hell out of me. I first wrote about it back in 2006

Those bogus statistics seemed to go away after that article. Well they are back in full force all over broker websites:

I have never been able to substantiate any of the statistics below or find the study where they came from.

Thanks for Michael for picking it up on his weblog under False Franchising Numbers. It reflects very badly on the listed websites and consumers should vote with their feet.

• A professional does not knowlingly misrepresent facts. Only deal with pros like Jim and Michael.

We have been here before with baby milk, pet food and Sudan Red (see more here). Not to mention the execution of the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration. But the current baby milk powder crisis shows that there is still a serious supply chain risk, and that companies need to proactively protect their brands – and their consumers. The current, Sanlu, scandal has now become front page news around the world. Reuters reported on 17 September:

“China’s quality-control regulator ordered the recall of 69 infant-milk products made by 22 dairy companies after samples were found to be tainted by melamine.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine ordered the “immediate’’ destruction of the products, it said in a statement on its Web site.

Infant formula contaminated by the industrial chemical has been linked to 1,253 cases of infant kidney stones, killing two.

But how did it happen. Just like our firm found when investigating the background to the Sudan Red crisis on behalf of big foreign brands, it seems to have come down to a dangerous mixture of desire for profit and lack of risk management process, and too much trust. Reuters notes: Read more »

During boom times, deal-making is relatively easy. A rising tide lifts all boats … and the knowledge that there are lots of opportunities out there makes some negotiators forget that the deal is a way to get value, not an end in itself. You don’t have to look as far back as the excesses of Enron to find examples of deals not worth the paper they were written on. Consider the sub-prime loan debacle. Or think about private equity deals based on 5:1 leverage and lots of cheap debt. Or look inside your own business at the deals that looked a lot better on paper than they have turned out in practice.

During a downturn, things change. As the frenzied pace of a frothy market slows, there are

fewer opportunities, and every deal matters. This tends to make sales and business development negotiators more desperate and anxious to close deals and hit their numbers. Those on the other side know this and take advantage of their new leverage. Negotiations become more difficult, and pressure on the deal makers to deliver increases. In a downturn, there will be fewer deals, so each must be done more carefully to ensure it actually delivers value.

We’re not talking about the kinds of deals where you can just sign it, or click “send” and be done. Our focus is deals where after you sign there is still lots to do to realize any value and where you need the other side to work with you, exercise good judgment, and occasionally even do something not strictly required of them. For those who negotiate deals where implementation actually matters, during a recession what you can’t afford is deals that fail. Here are a few ideas to help make every deal count:

1. Consult broadly: It is tempting, when pressing for a quick close, to limit those in the know. But when you can’t afford deals that don’t work, you can’t afford to keep those who have to implement them in the dark.
2. Make risk management a joint activity: During difficult economic conditions, risk is going to be on your minds. But if you don’t discuss it, constructively, as a shared business problem, you will either (a) ignore it, to your detriment; or (b) try to protect yourself unilaterally, by demanding all manner of indemnifications and limitations on liability (the top two negotiated terms, according to the latest survey of the International Association of Commercial Contract Managers). Together, you may find strategies to prevent the problem or to mitigate its impact.
3. Don’t extract overcommitments: Negotiators often feel compelled to get whatever they can. In a downturn, your counterpart might be just desperate enough to promise you the moon and even agree to penalties for failing to deliver. But strong contract language doesn’t actually get you the results you need. Good due diligence and insisting on realistic commitments is what pays off after the ink is dry.

Danny Ertel and Mark Gordon of Vantage Partners are co-authors of The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate When Yes is Not Enough.

Fast and personal customer service is what I insist is core to being an effective 21st century recruiter. Every candidate should receive a personal response customized to their questions and needs. Candidates should be sold positions on the basis of the goodness of their fit in the position and to the degree they exhibit the skills and competencies needed.

Yet, many recruiters are challenged to provide this level of service. Here are a few quotes from recruiters: ‘I have received almost 500 resumes. Over 90% of these people are not qualified or not what my company is looking for.’ Another said, ‘I have been overwhelmed with candidates. Some fit our needs, but most don’t even take the time to read the job description…I wish I could reply to every candidate, but if I did, I would not be doing my job!’

Candidates, on the other side of the fence, say, ‘Now, as a candidate going through a very bad dry spell in finding recruiting work, I rarely experience this common courtesy among recruiters who post jobs that don’t exist and fail to follow simple due diligence.’ And this: ‘I’m a downsized corporate executive who has been repeatedly appalled by the way companies and recruiters are treating candidates.’

Read more »

Myplay.com is a redesign and re-branding of Sony’s Musicbox site which showcases SonyBMG’s artists, providing free access to their videos, music and photos. Users can create lists of their favorite artists as well as review their music and embed widgets of their favorite artist’s content into other sites. Sony Musicbox was originally implemented by the Lullabots who provided the base framework for this redesign. Thanks to their diligence and teaching as well as excellent tools provided by Earl Miles (Panels 2, Views and Nodequeue), three people (Suzi Arnold, Jerad Bitner and David Burns) were able to accomplish this task in just over a month.

This case study documents how the site is put together, and provides implementation details on how we’ve combined numerous important contributed modules to build a “next generation” Drupal site.

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