かれこれフランチャイズに携わって30年。
ほんとに長い。。
私とフランチャイズとの関わりのスタートは、
当時岡山に2店舗しかなかったサンマルクだ。
いまでこそブランドとしては「サンマルクカフェ」が有名だけど、当時は「ベーカリーレストラン サンマルク」
600坪の敷地に100坪の建物を新規で建てるという初期投資2億円の超高投資フランチャイズだった。。
そのフランチャイズの開発支援業務。それが最初のフランチャイズとの関わり。。
ここで生まれた開発ノウハウは、その後のガリバーや牛角やまいどおおきに食堂、銀のさら、グルフパートナー等々の手掛けたフランチャイズの加盟開発に活かされていった。
→フランチャイズの加盟開発を行うとはどういうことか？
私は加盟開発の立場もそうだが1996年に自分で創業した会社でこれらのフランチャイズ加盟店になることも経験している。
→フランチャイズに加盟してフランチャイジーになるとはどういうことか？
また牛角においては当時総本部が非常に小さかったので、一都三県以外のエリアの８０％近い広範囲なエリア（青森〜沖縄）のフランチャイズ本部の権利（エリアのマスター権利）を買い取ってフランチャイズ本部事業も経験した。
当時は総本部が一都三県しか対応しなかったので、商品の仕入れもメニューも物流も立地開発も本来総本部でやるべき業務をエリア本部でゼロから構築していた。
それはそれで非常に勉強になった。
→フランチャイズ本部を立ち上げるとはどういうことか？
話は変わって、
最近、YKKの吉田オーナーにYKKが自社経営するカフェで偶然会った。
非常に気さくな方で、1時間以上お話させていただいた。
創業時からの経営理念は「善の循環」
非上場のオーナーカンパニーだが、ファスナーのシェアは世界一。
窓サッシにも事業拡大して、世界に７０カ国、１１９社のグループ連結売上は約８０００億円。
さらなる事業展開を見据えている。
ブラジルに１０km×２０km（何エーカー？？）のコーヒー農園もお持ちだ。
山手線の内側よりも大きいという。。
なぜコーヒー農園なのかと言うお話も非常に面白かった。
「善の循環」非常にシンプルでわかりやすい経営理念。
フランチャイズもまさしくそう!
業界知識のない人や企業（加盟店）が、その道のノウハウのある企業（本部）からノウハウ供給をうけて事業を立ち上げる。本部はその対価としてノウハウ代をしっかりいただき、加盟店のためにさらに強い本部を作り上げていく。
まさしく Win Winの循環で「善の循環」そのものだ。
最近、フランチャイズの加盟店様にお会いして思うことは、成功している加盟店企業、オーナーには共通する項目が多い。
自分でゼロから業態をつくりあげるパターンと違い、フランチャイズに加盟することはメリットが多くある。
一番のメリットは、本部が過去に経験してきた成功や失敗、それらの経験も時間も買えるということだ。
今、流行っているから、ブームだから、行列ができているから、マスコミに取り上げられたから、有名な大手企業が展開しているから。。。
こんな理由で契約する加盟店はまだまだ、視点、経験が浅いと言わざるを得ない。
本来、フランチャイズに加盟するメリットは先にも話した、成功と失敗と時間を買うこと。
ならば、徹底的に本部を、担当SVを、担当部署を、そして社長を使い倒さないと加盟する意味がない。
加盟してすぐに自己流。
自分のエリアはこうだから、もっと品数を増やして客層の幅を増やしたい。。。
わかるけど自店をアレンジするのはもっともっと先で良い。
まずは、本部を徹底的に使い倒すこと。
これが一番大事。
私は過去にラインセンスで成功したチェーンを知らない。
ある一定の取り決めを守ってくれたらあとは全部自由。
看板も商品も全部自由。何を提供しても良い。
本部に申請の必要すらない。
これでは成功するわけがない。
本部は単なる商品の卸部門となる。。。
最近はライセンスで展開したいという本部も多いようだ。
フランチャイズにする自信がないからか、責任を取りたくないからか。。。
いわずもがな こんな本部には加盟しないほうが良い。
加盟したら、徹底的に本部のノウハウをすべて吸収し、吸い尽くす。
成功も失敗も吸い尽くす。
本部が過去に失敗したことを経験しなくてすむというだけでも大きなメリットだ。
フランチャイズに加盟したのに独自のノウハウで独自にやろうとする人や企業がいる。
そんな人は最初からフランチャイズには加盟しないで、自分で業態をゼロから作れば良い。
これはほんとにセンスがいる仕事でなかなか素人にはできないのだけど、、
独立起業して３年後に店が残って入る確率は、フランチャイズ店に比べると半分以下らしい。それはそれでよく理解できる。。。
最近、沖縄に行った。
私が牛角のエリア本部を経営しているときの加盟企業訪問だ。
もう加盟して１５年以上になるようで現在１２店舗を沖縄で店舗展開している。
牛角３０坪クラスで全店月商１０００万円超え、最高店舗は１６００万円。。。
しかも営業時間は１７時〜２４時。
牛角全盛期以上の高額売上だ。
インバウンドの影響も大きいと社長は謙遜していたけれど、この企業の成功の本質を私は知っている。
当時エリア本部の代表としてこの企業には何回も足を運んでいたし、本部経営を離れてからも幾度となく足を運んでる。
最初は当時の東京の牛角店舗に惚れて加盟を頂いた企業だ。
今も変わらず、この企業の牛角はあの当時のままだ。
最近の牛角の店舗は居抜きでファミレスみたいな店舗も多い。
そうなるとメニュー構成もファミレスみたいにならざるを得ない。
昔からある郊外型ファミリー焼肉のちょっとだけおしゃれ版みたいな。。。
この沖縄企業は店舗内装、業態コンセプトは昔のまま。籠もり感のある古木と和紙と間接照明。
食べ放題やビュッフェは当時からたやらないと決めていた。
（これは私も経営は離れていたけど当時から大賛成）
非常に経営に芯がある。
沖縄は本土とは位置的に隔離されているので、自分たちだけでブランドイメージを作りやすかったということもあるのだろう。
今も牛角ブランド守り続けてくれている感じがして非常に嬉しかった。
ブランドは、創り上げるのには非常に労力と時間がかかるけど、壊すのは一瞬で壊せる。簡単に壊せる。
以前の牛角がブレイクしたときのような、あたらしいコンセプト、マーケットにあった新しい焼肉屋がそろそろ現れる頃だと思う。
いつの時代も全く新しい業態はそんなに多く現れない。
既存の業態の掛け合わせやマッシュアップで業態が創られることが多い。
そんな新しい業態を探す、もしくはそんな業態をあたらしくフランチャイズ化するのも私達の仕事です。
業態の強みだけではなく、本部経営者の経営思想、これも非常に大事です。
芯（心）のある加盟企業と芯（心）のある本部経営者とのつながり
【理念なき企業に成長なし！】
そんなツナガリを日本と世界で創り上げていきたいと思います。
どうぞよろしくお願いします！
AssentiaHoldings,Inc.
Akira Tsuchiya
English ↓
No growth for a company without a philosophy!
I have been involved in franchising for 30 years.
That's a really long time.
My involvement with franchises began with San-Marque, which at the time had only two stores in Okayama,
At that time, there were only two stores in Okayama.
Nowadays, "St. Mark's Cafe" is a well-known brand, but at that time, it was called "Bakery Restaurant St. Mark's".
It was an ultra-high investment franchise with an initial investment of 200 million yen to build a new 100 tsubo building on a 600 tsubo site.
I was in charge of supporting the development of the franchise. That was our first involvement with a franchise.
The development know-how developed here was utilized in the subsequent franchise development of Gulliver, Gyukaku, Maido Ookini Shokudo, Gin-no-sara, Gruff Partner, and many others.
→What does it mean to be a franchisee developer?
I have experience in franchise development, but I also have experience in becoming a franchisee of these franchises through the company I founded myself in 1996.
→What does it mean to join a franchise and become a franchisee?
In Gyukaku, the total headquarters was very small at the time, so I also experienced the franchise headquarters business by purchasing the franchise headquarters rights (master rights for the area) for a wide area (Aomori to Okinawa), which was almost 80% of the area outside of Tokyo and the three prefectures.
At that time, the general headquarters handled only Tokyo and three prefectures, so operations that should have been handled by the general headquarters, such as product purchasing, menus, logistics, and location development, were built from scratch at the area headquarters.
That was a great learning experience.
→What does it mean to establish a franchise headquarters?
Let me turn to a different topic,
Recently, I ran into Mr. Yoshida, the owner of YKK, at a cafe run by YKK.
He is a very friendly person and we talked for more than an hour.
Since its founding, YKK's management philosophy has been "the cycle of goodness.
Although it is a privately owned company, YKK has the world's largest share of the fastener market.
The company has expanded its business to window sashes, and the consolidated group sales of 119 companies in 70 countries around the world amount to about 800 billion yen.
The company is eyeing further business expansion.
He also has a 10 km x 20 km (how many acres?) coffee plantation in Brazil. He also has a coffee plantation in Brazil that is 10 km by 20 km (how many acres?) in size.
It is said to be larger than the inside of the Yamanote Line.
It was very interesting to hear why he chose coffee plantation.
The management philosophy is very simple and easy to understand: "The cycle of goodness.
This is exactly what a franchise is!
A person or company with no knowledge of the industry (franchisee) starts up a business by receiving know-how from a company with expertise in the field (headquarters). In return, the headquarter receives a solid fee for its know-how and builds a stronger headquarter for the franchisees.
It is truly a win-win-win cycle, the "cycle of goodness" itself.
Recently, when I have met with franchisees, I have noticed that successful franchise companies and owners have many things in common.
Unlike the pattern of creating a business from scratch by oneself, there are many advantages to joining a franchise.
The biggest advantage is that you can buy the successes and failures that the headquarters has experienced in the past, both those experiences and time.
Franchisees may sign up for a franchise because it is currently popular, because it is booming, because there are lines of people waiting in line, because it has been featured in the media, or because it is operated by a major, well-known company.
Franchisees who sign up for these reasons are still very inexperienced and inexperienced in their viewpoints.
Essentially, the merit of joining a franchise is to buy success, failure, and time, as I mentioned earlier.
Then there is no point in becoming a franchisee unless you thoroughly use the headquarters, the SV in charge, the department in charge, and the president.
As soon as you become a member, you are on your own.
I want to increase the number of products and broaden the customer base because my area is like this," he said.
I understand that, but you can rearrange your own store much, much later.
First of all, you need to thoroughly use the head office.
This is the most important thing.
I don't know of any chain that has succeeded with line sense in the past.
If they abide by certain arrangements, everything else is free.
The signage, the products, everything is free. You can offer whatever you want.
You don't even have to apply to headquarters.
There is no way this can be successful.
The head office is simply a wholesaler of products.
Recently, there are many headquarters that want to develop under a license.
Perhaps because they lack the confidence to franchise, or perhaps because they don't want to take on the responsibility.
Needless to say, it is better not to franchise with such headquarters.
Once you become a franchisee, you must thoroughly absorb all the know-how of the headquarter and suck it all up.
Absorb all their successes and failures.
The mere fact that you will not have to experience the failure of the headquarters in the past is a big advantage.
There are people and companies that join a franchise but try to do things independently with their own know-how.
Such people should not join a franchise from the beginning and create their own business model from scratch.
This is a job that really requires a sense of style and is not easily done by amateurs, though,
It is said that the probability of a restaurant remaining in business three years after starting its own business is less than half that of a franchise restaurant. That makes sense.
Recently, I went to Okinawa.
This was a visit to a franchise company when I was managing the area headquarters of Gyukaku.
They have been a franchisee for more than 15 years and currently operate 12 restaurants in Okinawa.
All Gyukaku restaurants in the 30-square-meter class have monthly sales in excess of 10 million yen, with the highest restaurant having a monthly sales volume of 16 million yen.
Moreover, business hours are from 5:00 p.m. to 24:00 p.m.
Sales are even higher than during Gyukaku's heyday.
The president was humble enough to say that inbound sales had a large impact, but I know the essence of this company's success.
I visited this company many times as a representative of the area headquarters at the time, and I have visited many times since leaving the headquarters management.
I first fell in love with a Gyukaku restaurant in Tokyo back in the day, and was invited to become a member of this company.
Even now, the Gyukaku restaurants of this company are just the same as they were back then.
Recently, many Gyukaku restaurants have been turned into family restaurants.
This means that the menu structure must also be like that of a family restaurant.
It's like a slightly more fashionable version of the old suburban family yakiniku restaurants.
This Okinawan company has kept the same store interior and business concept as in the past. Old wood, Japanese paper, and indirect lighting with a sense of coziness.
They decided not to do all-you-can-eat or buffet restaurants back then.
(This is something that I agreed with even though I was not in management at the time).
He has a very strong core of management.
Okinawa is isolated from the mainland, so it was probably easier for them to create a brand image on their own.
I was very happy to see that they are still protecting the Gyukaku brand.
It takes a lot of effort and time to create a brand, but it can be destroyed in an instant. It is easy to destroy.
I think it is about time for a new concept, a new yakiniku restaurant that fits the market, like Gyukaku did when it broke through.
There have not been that many completely new types of businesses at any given time.
In many cases, new businesses are created by mashing up existing businesses.
It is our job to find such new types of businesses or to franchise them.
In addition to the strength of the business, the management philosophy of the headquarter manager is also very important.
The connection between franchisees with a core (heart) and headquarters management with a core (heart).
A company without a philosophy cannot grow!
We would like to create such a connection in Japan and around the world.
We look forward to working with you!
Assentia Holdings,Inc.
Akira Tsuchiya