“Change processes, not standards. Change behavior, not people. Change results, not goals.”
For the most part I think we did this in Great Harvest. We continued our evolution toward a more program centric franchise and away from one-off solutions. We continued our reach for excellence and consistency through more consulting around best practices for our whole wheat bread stores and for reaching out to listen to potential solutions on a variety of issues.
We continue to look at everything we do almost every time we do it and ask ourselves how we can do it better. Each of us can always be better and that is a good thing to remember.
And, when presented with challenges in how we do things, I think we had a very good, fun and successful year doing all of the above. Each time we had a chance to rework something we took a long view and redid processes, behaviors and results without lowering our standards, changing our goals or driving unnecessary turnover in our team.
I can honestly say the franchise office team had the best year I have seen out of my 12 years with them. The way they worked together and drove success was incredibly gratifying for me. I am not sure how many CEO’s talk about how proud they are of their teams but this one will and does.
I think the lesson to be learned from our 2012 is that if you believe in people, put the right team in place, keep blowing things up until everyone is engaged, and take the time to say thank you for a good job (and mean it) then you have been successful.
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Resolving to open a small business in 2013?
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