The Franchise Business Consultant (FBC) serves as the primary link between IHOP, Inc. and the franchise community with broad accountability to each constituency. The FBC applies leadership, influence, and functional expertise to create meaningful, productive partnerships with each assigned franchise point of contact. Through these partnerships, the FBC will provide advice, counsel, coaching, and assistance to the franchise owners/operators to impact and improve the sales, profits, and operating standards of the business. The FBC will leverage relationships to ensure achievement of the short and long-term goals of the Company and its Shareholders. The FBC must develop and maintain a strong sense of ownership of the assigned territory and provide leadership to and constant protection of the IHOP Brand.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the franchisee to diagnose barriers which affect performance and assist with developing business plans to maximize improvement (operations, marketing, training, human resources, etc.)
• Collect and maintain an active working knowledge of the key business metrics for their assigned franchisees portfolio of restaurants and use these metrics to analyze issues and opportunities for each restaurant and the franchisee's business as a whole.
• Ensure franchisee compliance with all Standard Operating Procedures, Operations Assessment Report and Mystery Shop standards and develop corrective action plans, milestones and timetables where appropriate
• Remain actively involved with any restaurant/organization that routinely delivers a customer experience inconsistent with the IHOP vision, supporting the definition and execution of a work plan to improve and ensure steady progress toward compliance
• Assist franchisee with assessing talent and bench strength at all levels to achieve short and long term business needs
• Assist franchisees with developing and maintaining a capital plan sufficient to meet all development and remodel obligations
• Serve as franchisee representative and advocate with restaurant support center points of contact and IHOP management
• Employ effective interpersonal and negotiation skills to effectively drive business objectives and manage change
• Fully understand the purpose and benefits of new programs and decisions in order to effectively influence franchisees and obtain requisite buy-in; provide feedback when programs or communication are inadequate
• Actively share and assist franchisees in adopting best practices.

Requirements

• ServSafe or similarly approved training or any other state required compliance training, if applicable
• Minimum of 5+ years in a field operations-oriented leadership role within the food service industry or comparable multi-unit retail industry
• ServSafe or similarly approved training or any other state required compliance training, if applicable
• Proven ability to deliver results, effectively influencing decisions through strong negotiation skills
• Demonstrated ability and experience to consult with and influence business owners. Advanced knowledge of consultative approaches and experience guiding leaders to make better business decisions
• Ability to plan and set priorities to achieve business objectives
• Outstanding accountability and focus skills
• Strong business acumen skills (basic financial skills, use of competitive data, etc.)
• Ability to communicate and present effectively to various audiences
• Excellent time management and organizational skills
• Basic Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to travel up to 60% of the time