Be where the action is. That’s the advice of Guy Russo, managing director of K-Mart Australia who before he turned around the fortunes of the retail giant had spent years in executive roles with McDonald’s.

Russo was a keynote speaker at the National Franchise Convention 2013 at the Gold Coast and had some simple words of advice for the assembled delegates.

He shared with the audience that his first experience of franchising was through his taxi driver father getting behind the wheel of his taxi every day to build his business.

Sarah Stowe, editor of Franchising magazine, caught up with him afterwards to find out more.

The three day National Franchise Convention was organised by the Franchise Council of Australia.