Chris Malcolm, Managing Director –
Clark Rubber To most it remains just that; a wish. Because when it comes down to the wire they simply have not got the courage to make the hard decision, to take the risks. To put it simply; they do not have what it takes.
But there are others who at some stage in their lives see the opportunity to gain their independence and grab it with both hands. Some succeed and some fail.
Recently, at the Clark Rubber Conference and Supplier Expo, held at the Sofitel, Melbourne, we all celebrated our success — our success to date!
It has been 13 years since I negotiated to acquire the Clark Rubber brand from Pacific Dunlop. Everyone else who was offered the deal simply looked at it and didn't know what to do. In the case of Clark Rubber we were talking about a business that in its time was a very serious and successful business to the family that owned it. It was the take-over by a public company that brought its downfall.
From my point of view it was just the kind of challenge that my entrepreneurial nature saw as an opportunity to achieve my own independence and recreate something that had great potential for success if done the right way.
And as everyone now knows, I chose franchising as the vehicle on which to build the future of Clark Rubber. To achieve my objectives I invested every last penny I owned and borrowed as much as the bank would give me to get the business started.
Looking at the overall results to date, everyone will agree that Clark Rubber can be seen as a great franchise business success story, culminating in Clark Rubber winning the '2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers Franchisor Of The Year Award' ahead of some of the best known and largest franchise systems in the world. This award is not the final destination of where we want Clark Rubber to be, however, it confirms that our model and system is heading in the right direction.
There are no short cuts to success, however, franchising gives you the best chances. It provides you with cumulative knowledge and experience in every aspect of your business. From people who have gained their experience over many years, have been through the school of hard knocks, are passionate about their work, committed to ensure your success and eager to pass on to you the essential knowledge you need to help make you a good and successful retailer.
Despite Clark Rubber's success to date, we refuse to stand still and accept the accolades — we are committed to taking the business to the next level. We are focused on refining the Clark Rubber business tools, investing in the business and its people. Over the next 12 months, we look forward to meeting our business objectives:
We have developed a greater level of leadership and accountability through the appointment of our new General Manager, Corina Vucic, who is already bringing about exciting changes to the business.
We have developed and will implement a much more aggressive and retail focused marketing campaign, spending a total of $10 million.
We will continue our already successful Communications and PR campaign that is lifting our customer top of mind awareness and developing brand awareness.
We will develop better and more structured training through our retail training organisation and will give more resources to the training area for both franchisees and Clark Rubber staff. One of the benefits of having a structured training program will be that franchisees will be able to offer traineeships to certificate level to staff, thereby improving their skills for the business and being able to retain staff longer by helping to develop a career path.
We will continue to further develop our relationships with our suppliers and employ extra product administrative staff as we look to develop the product and explore direct importing opportunities.
The next twelve months will be the year of IT communication as we invest millions of dollars over the next five years putting in place better communications and better management systems that will enable us to reduce our operating costs and deliver better services to our franchisees. One of the most significant benefits from the new IT program will be our ability to help those stores that are struggling with cash flow and struggling with the management of their back office by offering them the opportunity for the back office to be managed via IT by our Accounts Department at the Franchise Support Office.
We are focused on supporting our franchise owners to grow their sales, to grow their business and therefore their profitability. We are focused not only on working with those stores that are wildly successful, but also on the average store and, most especially, on those stores that are struggling.
These objectives contribute to the continued success and strengthening of the Clark Rubber brand. They also provide the platform for our objective to have 100 stores nationally by the end of June, 2008.
Whilst success is to be recognised and celebrated, it is also a warning that if we allow success to go to our heads and fail to see it for what it is; a mere fleeting moment in the cycle of our business life. It is a celebration of the past, not a guarantee for the future. It is only a sign post in the road ahead; it is not the destination itself.
To achieve that, there is much more work yet to be done. I do not believe that we can ever reach our destination as it is a constantly upward moving target.
We have only two options; to keep on moving forward, or move backwards, but we can never stand still.
This article appears coourtesy of Clark Rubber.
27-Aug-2007