FranDev Players: Lisa Oak, Chief Development Officer of BIGGBY® COFFEE

East Lansing, Michigan-based BIGGBY® COFFEE isn’t just about pouring customers another cup of coffee or frothing the foam on their latte just the way they like it.

If you ask its higher ups, the goal of the 25-year-old chain is slightly more ambitious. 

“The purpose of BIGGBY® COFFEE is to help people build a life they love,” said Lisa Oak, chief development officer, for the company. “It comes through in every aspect of our work, whether we're dealing with franchise owners or home office employees or baristas in the stores. It's all about changing workplace culture in America. Coffee is just a vehicle for that.”

Now, that’s a tall order. 

So 1851 Franchise decided to sit down with this franchise development veteran to get her thoughts on the franchise development arena in the era of COVID and beyond. 

1851 Franchise: Tell me a little bit about BIGGBY® COFFEE history.

Lisa Oak: It goes back to 1995 when [co-CEO] Bob Fish and Mary Roszel [who retired from the company in 2017] created their first coffee shop in East Lansing in an old Arby’s location, right by Michigan State University. [Co-CEO] Mike McFall was an employee there at the time, and Mary said, ‘This guy has promise.’ He was a young guy, headed for academia, actually. So one day Bob and Mike went for a walk and during that walk, shook hands and came back as partners and started franchising. So, fast forward, there are over 240 stores now. 

1851: How did you get started in franchising development?

Oak: I'm a newbie to the leadership team at BIGGBY® COFFEE. I just celebrated my second anniversary as chief development officer, but I've known them for a very long time, because I kind of grew up in franchising, working with Fred DeLuca, the founder of Subway, where I was for 29 years. I started as a summer employee at Subway between my second and third years of law school. I was hired to negotiate leases for new restaurants. That summer job turned into a 29 year career, my most of which was focused on franchise development. 

After I graduated, and passed the bar, I was offered a position in the the real estate division. It was just such a fast growing company, everything moved very, very quickly.  Before I knew it I was a member of the leadership team as head of real estate and realized helping Subway franchisees procure leases for their new businesses is way more fun than working on a slip-and-fall case at 10 a.m, then a divorce case at 11 a.m. Ultimately, my career passion developed into supporting entrepreneurs as they create their versions of the “American Dream”.

1851: What do you think the keys to a consistent franchise growth is?

Oak: Franchisee profitability! It's that hard and that simple! 

Franchisors can't grow if franchisees aren't profitable. So, focusing on the success of the franchisees will help the company grow. We often say ‘revenue solves all problems.’ When franchisees are doing well, they tell their friends and family and that attracts additional buyers. So franchise development — which I'm thrilled to be involved with — gets all the credit but the credit is really to those in the organization, most typically operations and marketing, that are supporting the franchise owners and growing their profitability so that we can continue to sell and develop.

1851: How was 2020 for the growth of BIGGBY® COFFEE?

Oak: This year my team sold 86 franchises in a pandemic. That's crazy! Not only did we sell 86 franchises, but the goal set in 2019 was 50. So they just blew that goal away. One of the things that I'm very proud of is that half of the sales go to existing owners. That statistic to me speaks volumes about Franchise Owners’ satisfaction with the system, support and culture.

1851: What do you think the biggest hurdles are to franchise growth right now?

Oak: That's hard to answer without breaking down various aspects of franchising. There's so many franchise businesses that are doing so well. For example, all the cleaning franchises are doing gangbusters because everybody needs their stores sanitized so that they can stay in business. But if we're talking about the brick-and-mortar, it's always about location. And what we're finding is that the drive-thru and non-drive-thru experience is dramatically different during this health crisis time. So those that don't have a drive-thru are not doing as well as those that do, and some are suffering significantly. 

1851: Are there other ways that the pandemic has affected franchise growth?

Oak: There's so many things that I call silver linings with COVID. The leadership at BIGGBY® COFFEE, and I specifically mean Bob and Mike — we call them “BaM” — because this crisis really shined a light on their leadership skills. A company’s values are really put to the test at a time like this. A company that has strong values, like BIGGBY® COFFEE does, knows exactly what to do in a crisis. If you don't have those strong values in place, you're not going to get it done in crisis. So if you haven't put that hard work in before, you're really in trouble. BaM immediately jumped into action with daily town hall events with franchise owners and just brainstormed through solutions. Nobody had a silver bullet. Nobody had experienced this before. So by having really robust communications and access, we got through it.

1851: Are there mistakes that you see franchisors make when they are trying to grow?

Oak: I think we hit on it: The franchisor’s number one job is franchisee-owner profitability. You can't grow if franchisees aren't successful. That's really hard for young franchisors to balance because when you sell franchises, you get revenue. So it's really tempting to put your focus there. But it's critical to have the focus on existing franchise owner success.