Andrew J. Sherman

Quite a nice book on franchising and licensing as ways to build a business and franchising was one of the ways that we encouraged service businesses in Australia to expand internationally when I worked with Austrade. This book is written pretty much exclusively from an American perspective but most of the principles are fairly universal: "A commitment to quality, fairness, and effective communication among franchisors, and franchisees are universal key elements of a successful franchising program.
The book is divided into five primary parts.
1. Management systems focuses on human resources, operations, and quality control concerns.
2. Legal and strategic issues focuses on regulatory and contractual issues....of concern to the early-stage and growing franchisor as well as protection of intellectual property, compliance systems and dispute management .....of concern to the mature and established franchiser.
3. Sales and marketing strategies, focuses on domestic and international sales and marketing strategies
4. Financial strategies focuses on key issues for franchisors at all growth levels ....such as capital formation, and mergers and acquisitions.
5. Alternatives to franchising explores licensing, joint ventures, distributorships and multilevel marketing structures.....with special focus on the two primary types of licensing: technology licensing and merchandise licensing.
I notice that his table 10.1 covering franchising around the world doesn't mention Australia ..although Australia in 2016 had double the number of franchise systems that France has .....the most significant player in table 10.1....and Australia had 79,000 units operating as franchisees in 2016...nearly as much as the top 4 countries in table 10.1. (I'm not sure where Australia stood in 1999 when this book was published but my recollection is that Franchising was already fairly well developed in Australia by then. Maybe just an oversight by Andrew Sherman.
Generally it seems like a pretty good reference book....especially for the franchisor. But it should also be read by the prospective franchisee so that they can see things from the franchisor's perspective and thus make themselves more attractive but also be aware of the pitfalls.
Happy to give the book 4.5 stars because my version is so old. I assume that there are later versions. I checked it out via Google and there is certainly a version published in 2011 and it is VERY different. (Upfront there is a very clear focus on identifying and capturing the intellectual capital assets of a business. Increasingly there has been recognition that the true value of a business doesn't lie in the bricks and mortar but in the intellectual capital (both human and technological)). I totally agree.… (more)