Marty Mason is a great franchise ambassador. The regional manager is a Bakers Delight superstar who goes above and beyond for his franchisees. And that’s why he scooped a slot in the Top 30 Franchise Executives 2019 report.

Here Marty Mason takes the Inside Franchise Business Q&A…

8 questions for a Bakers Delight superstar regional manager

1. How do you sustain your motivation?

I just don’t dwell on what happened yesterday. Of course I take the time to understand and learn from it, but don’t over respect it or allow it to affect tomorrow negatively. I’m genuinely excited about the direction of the brand and can clearly see the relevance that Bakers Delight will have with consumers in 2030.

2. How do you define your role?

It’s all about execution. It’s that simple. My micro definition to execution is having a developmental focus on people. We are in the people business and it’s important not to forget that.

3. What makes you good at your job?

I start very early and work late, I work extremely hard. I don’t believe in a perfect work life balance for myself……there is only what works for me. Not many people understand this, but I genuinely love what I do, so going to work isn’t a negative for me.

When you’re so focused on winning it’s hard to lose….but when I DO lose I work even harder. I haven’t met anyone that has been successful and hasn’t worked for it.

4. How have you gone above and beyond your role for your franchisees?

I honestly believe that most people in Bakers Delight do this every day. The support our franchisees get from our HQ is phenomenal.

If I had to pick one example, I would refer to a recent incident when we literally saved a franchisee’s house [from repossession] after he experienced mental health problems. My team and I helped operate the business across seven days for four months and helped position the business for a sale under extremely unfortunate circumstances. This included us getting down on our hands and knees scrubbing floors, walls and equipment and covering baking shifts early in the morning.

The CBA even thanked us for how we handled this.

You know there are so many things we do daily and just don’t think about it. We just do it.

5. What achievements are you most proud of as a field manager?

There are so many things to be proud of:

• achieving the fastest growing MAT (moving annual total) in Australia for two years
• opening two new sites within six months (Birtinya and Hope Island Marketplace)
• having the best product quality two years in a row (judged at our regional bread shows)
• having the highest completion rate on our online learning platform Breaducate.

6. What do you do for your franchisor that is unexpected?

I start earlier than everyone else.

7. What do you get from the franchisor that allows you to achieve?

Patience. The executive team is extremely patient with me and allow me to execute my strategy. I have made many mistakes along the way and the support I get from the entire executive team is something that I would not be good at reciprocating.

We always talk about acting with urgency in Bakers Delight as one of our values, so it’s seems crazy that the thing I love most about my executive is the opposite. However this approach has benefited me enormously.

8. What goals are you setting for this year and beyond?

Macro goal is to increase market share to 20 per cent. This is an extremely long term plan that I will continue to work on. The supermarkets own most of the market so it’s a pretty simple strategy. Steal it back.

Micro this year is to deliver an operational change to reduce the networks COG’s by $1.5 million and at the same time further improve the product quality through innovation in equipment.