Your network or Franchisees provides important strategic business advantages. But it also exposes you to unpredictable and substantial risk from outsourcing decisions made by each individual franchisee.
Despite efforts to standardise policies, processes and supply chains, as independent SMB’s your joint ventures partners and franchisees are likely to create their own ecosystem of supplier relationships – from large national service providers to other smaller, local businesses.
Then, when things go wrong, regulators, press and consumers are quick to hold you accountable. Should a breach occur to valuable Customer or Employee data via a Franchisee or Fourth Party supplier they use, contractual obligations and reparations won’t mitigate the potential damage to your brand.
How can you ensure you can understand and better manage your exposure to fiscal, operational, and regulatory risk from your extended enterprise?
