Self-Made Management Titan Teams With Franchise Development Leader

Chicago, IL (October 15, 2009) — Craig Slavin, a well-known innovator, entrepreneur and 35-year veteran in the field of business franchise development and deployment, is pleased to announce that Steven Titus has become a shareholder of Franchise Central LLC.  Mr. Titus is a forty-year senior management veteran for Sears Holdings. Slavin is the President of Franchise Central and inventor of the Franchise Navigator, the only market-validated profiling system that measures the potential of franchise candidates and helps companies optimize recruitment, selection and individual performance. Ove 14,000 Franchise Business Surveys have been conducted by Franchise Navigator.

At the heart of this new partnership is the Franchise Navigator, a five-step process which benchmarks a company’s existing operators, identifies who their high performers are and why they do much better with a particular business model, and redesigns their growth and marketing strategy to recruit new candidates who resemble their high performers. More than 100 organizations are currently using the Franchise Navigator. Slavin invented the Franchise Navigator process nearly 15 years ago and has used it to improve the franchise strategies and bottom lines for such high-profile companies as Sears, Ace Hardware, YUM Brands (Kentucky Fried Chicken, A&W Root Beer, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's), FASTSIGNS, Buffalo Wild Wings, Huddle House, Del Taco and Foot Solutions, just to name a few.

Titus has previously used his powerful people skills and innovative management techniques to boost the operational performance of dozens of business departments at Sears, including the development of new business models, called the Sears Hometown Stores and Sears Appliance Showrooms.

Titus can attest to the effectiveness of the Franchise Navigator, and it was his experience working with the groundbreaking system that compelled him to invest in the company. Titus worked with Slavin beginning in 1994 to re-evaluate and reposition the Sears Hometown Stores, as well as reinvent recruiting materials to attract the right operators, and he saw, first-hand, how the process increased unit sales, optimized efficiency and slashed costs. “Franchise Navigator was absolutely spot on,” Titus said.

“Working with Slavin increased the success rate of Sears’s operators by 35%, which is phenomenal. Even 3–5% would have been statistically important.” With high performers running the stores, average sales increased 38% within 18 months. Titus continued, “Thanks to Craig and the Franchise Navigator, we got the right people who enjoyed the work, and our performance rocketed up. The investment in Franchise Navigator paid for itself many times over. We want to continue to make the Franchise Navigator the industry standard. There really is nothing like it. I can look anyone in the eye and explain what Franchise Navigator did for Sears.”

For more information on the Franchise Navigator, visit www.franchisenavigator.com

For more information on ConnectMe and how it works contact Craig Slavin at craig@franchisecentral.com.  

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