Movements or Franchises? What do you see as the differences?
In the Church today we talk a lot about movements of all kinds be they church planting or discipleship or whatever. Society talks a lot about movements - healthcare, environmental, etc. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot and my conclusion is that a lot of what we call movements is really franchising. Nothing is wrong with franchising - but in the end, it gets lots of customers but never goes viral. McDonalds is a franchise - not a movement. Fast food is movement. Even in Istanbul and China I’ve seen “fast food” written on signs and billboards. We define fast food globally in very different ways country to country - but the concept of getting food fast is very much alive. So, what are some of the differences:
1. Movement is decentralized and takes on many forms and is very narrow and clear - burgers and fries. Franchising is the packaging, processing, and marketing of the products from the movement: McDonald’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chik-fi-a, Bob’s Texas BBQ & BB.
2. Movement has many ways of doing a single thing - franchising has one way and process for doing a single thing.
3. Movement is driven by many leaders, players, actors - as in Iran - who is the head of the democratic movement? Franchising has one big dog calling all the shots - as in the religious and secular leader of Iran.
4. Movement is driven by people to people relational marketing and communication. Franchising is driven by global marketing and brand strategies.
5. Movement has a vision that changes life. Franchising has a product that makes someone rich.
We could go on and on and on - and there are many things we can and should learn from franchising in structure and communication. To throw it all out the window would be stupid- but to not see the bigger picture of where something could be going and not be in line with that and facilitate that - for those of us that are dreamers - is the end of our dream.
There are more, these are just some things in the differences - what differences do you see?
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Mar 23, 2010 at 08:47 AM
Bob,
I love the differentiation. I would add that a movement can't be killed by removing one of its parts. If McDonald's went bankrupt today, it would not kill the fast food movement. In fact, that death might just propel the movement further by encouraging new growth.
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