The Franchise System with the Best Franchisees Wins.

At the pace of today's global communications, establishing and maintaining a competitive edge requires instant response to anything that affects the market environment. E-learning holds the key.

The latest business axioms play off the bumper sticker "he who dies with the most toys wins." From this, business pundits have coined the company with the best suppliers wins," "the company with the best employees wins" and in franchising, we might add "the franchisor with the best franchisees

Establishing and maintaining a competitive edge in today's world of instantaneous access to information requires companies to respond in nano-seconds to changes in their business and market environment. Whether launching a new product or instituting new procedures, change is rapid and constant.

To manage the need for speed, yesterday's bureaucratic layers of management is being replaced with structural systems that facilitate the decision making process at all levels of the organization. And, equally important, once decisions are made they can be effectively and efficiently communicated and implemented in record time.

As decision-making authority moves down through an organization the need for effective education and training at all levels moves up the hierarchy of corporate essentials.

The franchise system with the "best" franchisees will be the system with the most educated and trained franchisees. Franchisees who understand the culture and overall objectives of the company, understand the marketplace and the positioning of the brand within the market, who know their competitive advantages and their competitor's strengths as well as their system's operational standards and procedures are franchisees who will be able to make sound decisions and build value in the brand.

Technology has given franchisors the tools they need to develop the "best" by replacing many traditional training programs with e-learning or distance learning. E-learning has proven effective with adults because it inherently works in accordance with the way in which adults learn. According to Frank Hoag of Coalescent Learning, an e-learning company based in Birmingham, Mich., "Learning is a constant process. Think about how you learn. You read an article or see something on TV, you discuss it with a colleague and you assimilate it into your bank of knowledge. Adults tend to learn and remember new material when they can relate it to something they already know and when they use it immediately."