Franchise Relationships Institute

Our Story

What We Do (and What We Don’t Do)

The Franchise Relationships Institute (FRI) has been in business for 29 years, helping franchise networks to build and maintain profitable partnerships. This is where:

• Franchisees run profitable businesses, serve their customers with passion, and work collaboratively with each other and their franchisor, and
• Franchisors run a profitable business, provide credible leadership and useful support for their franchisees, and have a sound strategy to protect the brand.

Our ongoing research program into the psychology of successful franchising has established us as a global leader in understanding the factors that drive excellence from both a franchisee and franchisor perspective. Most of these relate to leadership, relationship management and cultural factors unique to franchising.

FRI’s research has enabled us to develop franchise specific publications, courses and tools to help franchisors do a better job in selecting franchisees, and maintaining a positive, collaborative culture. Our unique database also enables us to assist franchisors to benchmark their performance on important psychological metrics predictive of long-term success and sustainability.

Half our team have a psychology background and half a franchise operations background. This keeps us grounded and focused on delivering products services that are relevant and effective for our clients. While we serve both franchisors and franchisees, and pride ourselves on our impartiality, it is usually the franchisor that engages our services.

We are not in the business of helping franchisors to maximise short-term profits at the expense of their franchisees, nor of helping franchisees to combat their franchisor. If we believe a client has a destructive agenda we will not work with them, or will first work with them to modify their agenda.

We do not offer general franchise consultancy services. There is an abundance of businesses offering these services. Similarly we do not offer marketing, finance, legal, digital or IT advice as there are plenty of experts in these areas.

What we do is conduct quality research, develop excellent products and deliver inspiring education programs that empower franchisors and franchisees to collaborate and maintain a competitive edge.

FRI has now served over 500 franchise networks in 14 countries. We feel privileged that thousands of franchiser executives and franchisees draw on us each year to inform, inspire and guide their work.