Mike Vacy-Lyle Key insights from the 2017 FNB Franchising Leadership Summit South Africa’s exponential franchises took centre stage at the 6th edition of the annual FNB Franchising Leadership Summit held recently at Indaba Hotel in Fourways, Johannesburg.  Themed “exponential growth”, the Summit coincides with the world-wide commemoration of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), which celebrates the remarkable contribution of entrepreneurs to the global economy. The 2017 Summit focused on unpacking four perspectives of exponential growth, namely: entrepreneurship, brand, employment and personal growth. Mike Vacy-Lyle, CEO of FNB Business, says, “The franchising sector has some great examples of businesses demonstrating exponential growth like the success story of unique local brands such as RocoMamas. The franchising sector is remarkably resilient and should be celebrated, hence we felt it was important to use Global Entrepreneurship Week to highlight the contribution of th...

Morne Cronje Lessons from 2016 FNB Franchising Leadership Summit Unless franchise business owners start thinking out of the box and embrace the disruptive forces of innovation, creativity and technology, they risk losing market share and ultimately their existence. Themed “Disrupting the future of franchising”, the summit focused on how the concept of disruption is changing the business landscape, not only in South Africa, but across the globe. While disruption aims to break traditional stereotypes in the business world it also presents opportunities in tough economic times when consumers struggle to make ends meet and are constantly looking for value for money. Morne Cronje, Head of Franchising at FNB says as a thought leader and advocate of innovation in South African business, we successfully hosted the 2016 FNB Franchise Leadership Summit. Franchise owners were challenged to find niches within their own industries and further enlightened on how embracing disruption could possib...