In today’s increasingly competitive franchise landscape, the role of the franchisor has evolved from merely being the brand guardian to becoming a strategic driver of unit performance.
More than just offering operational support and training, the franchisor must act as a catalyst for results—empowering each franchisee with training, data, product mix strategies, market intelligence, and tools that directly contribute to the success of the entire network.
According to the Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF), the franchise sector generated R$ 240.6 billion in revenue in 2023, a 13.8% increase compared to the previous year. However, behind this growth lies a rising demand for professionalized management.
Franchisors that stand out in this environment are those capable of providing a support model that goes beyond the basics—one that incorporates technology, data analysis, and strategic monitoring of unit-level performance indicators.
A study by Deloitte, titled Global Powers of Retailing, already pointed out that data-driven organizations can make faster, more informed decisions, reducing operational errors and increasing return on investment.
This applies directly to the franchise model, where standardization is important—but personalized monitoring of each unit is essential to ensure consistency and sustainable growth.
In this article, we will explore how the franchisor can play an active role in unit performance and how the smart use of data can transform this journey, creating value for the entire network.
What is the franchisor’s role in network management?
The success of a franchise network doesn’t depend solely on the quality of the product or service offered. It is directly tied to the management model adopted by the franchisor and the central team's ability to guide, support, and monitor the performance of each franchise unit.
Traditionally, the franchisor’s role was focused on ensuring operational standardization, providing training, and creating institutional marketing campaigns. However, as the market has become more dynamic and competitive, that role has evolved. Today, the franchisor is seen as a strategic partner—responsible for leading the network toward operational efficiency, innovation, and consistent results that justify the franchisees' investment.
Some of the key responsibilities expected from a franchisor in managing the network include:
Knowledge transfer
The franchisor must structure and continuously update operational manuals and processes, ensuring that all franchisees have access to the knowledge that underpins the brand’s value proposition.
Technical and managerial support
This ranges from helping choose the business location and setting up the store to providing guidance on financial management, local marketing, and human resources.
Performance monitoring
With clearly defined KPIs, the franchisor tracks unit performance, identifies deviations, proposes corrective actions, and pinpoints success patterns across the network.
Brand culture management
Keeping franchisees aligned with the brand’s core values and mission—especially in growing networks—is one of the franchisor’s greatest challenges.
This new positioning demands that the franchisor operate with a systemic vision and adaptive capacity, promoting a smarter governance model based on data and ongoing collaboration with franchisees. The more mature the network becomes, the greater the expectations placed on the franchisor to act as the leader of the franchise ecosystem.
Challenges faced by Franchisors in the pursuit of high performance
As the franchise market matures and becomes more competitive, the pressure on franchisors to deliver concrete and sustainable results also increases. More than just expanding the number of units, the real challenge lies in ensuring standardized and profitable operational performance across the entire network — and this requires overcoming a series of complex obstacles.
1. Lack of visibility into unit results and difficulties
Many franchisors still operate with manual reports, fragmented information, and no consolidated performance indicators. Without access to reliable and up-to-date data, it becomes very difficult to identify bottlenecks, anticipate risks, and proactively support franchisees. The lack of visibility into results, efficiency, and unit/regional performance limits strategic analysis and reduces the franchisor’s ability to take corrective action. This makes the franchisor reactive rather than proactive, weakening its ability to develop franchisees. Needless to say, the situation worsens when the network fails to incorporate data into its growth strategy from the outset.
2. Difficulty maintaining standardization at scale
Ensuring consistency in processes, customer service, and the overall brand experience becomes more challenging as the network expands. The franchisor must ensure that growth does not compromise brand consistency — which requires strict control and systems capable of supporting scale. Without data, there is no control; without control, there is no performance.
3. Resistance to innovation from franchisees
Not all franchisees share the same level of management maturity or openness to change. The introduction of new tools, routines, or metrics may face resistance, making it harder to implement improvements proposed by the franchisor. This challenge calls for continuous communication and training efforts, supported by a clear change management and culture evolution strategy.
4. Low analytical maturity across the network
Even when data is being collected, many franchisors struggle with underutilization. Without teams prepared to interpret information and turn it into actionable insights, the network continues to operate on guesswork — undermining the effectiveness of managerial actions. The franchisor must not only carefully select its franchisees but also keep them continuously trained to become high-performing managers.
5. Lack of strategic indicators for decision-making
Operational metrics like revenue and number of sales are important, but insufficient for comprehensive management. A key question to ask is: Do your franchisees have the best possible data to manage their business effectively? Franchisors must adopt a broader perspective, incorporating metrics such as profitability, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and unit-level performance to guide decisions. Both franchisors and franchisees need numbers that lead to action.
These challenges reinforce the need for a transformation in the franchisor’s role — from brand guardian to provider of strategic intelligence for the entire network. This is where data becomes the key ally in driving performance through evidence-based decision-making.
How Franchisors can use data to boost unit performance
In a market where agility, efficiency, and personalization are key competitive advantages, franchisors that master the use of data have a clear edge over networks that still operate based on intuition. And, surprisingly, many still do.
Well-structured data allows for faster, more accurate decisions with a lower margin of error — a crucial condition for ensuring strong performance across franchise units.
But now, how can your franchise organization implement a new management culture and reap the benefits of becoming data-driven?
1. Developing a Data-Driven Culture Within the Franchisor Organization
Before investing in technology, the franchisor must lead a cultural shift: decisions should be guided by data, not just by experience or tradition. This means leaders, field consultants, and franchisees must recognize the value of data as a strategic asset — and know how to educate franchisees on that value. Change can be painful — for both franchisors and franchisees — and a strong communication and awareness strategy can help ease the transition.
One recommendation is to start with a group of aligned leaders or influencers, forming a committee responsible for guiding this transformation and planning the implementation of the strategy. Without planning and engaged people, nothing moves forward.
2. Data Collection and Organization: The First Step to Generating Value
Unit performance can be monitored through indicators across various areas:
- Financial: revenue, average ticket, profit margin, break-even point.
- Operational: service time, conversion rate, sales volume by product or service.
- Customer relations: NPS (Net Promoter Score), repurchase rate, number of complaints.
- People management: turnover, absenteeism, productivity per employee.
The franchisor must ensure that these data points are collected in a standardized wayusing integrated systems (ERPs, CRMs, and BI platforms). Remember to keep processes well-structured for your franchisees, and avoid letting them execute tasks independently. Well-designed processes that deliver results — when clearly structured and communicated — increase the network's speed and generate relevant information. If you don’t have solid processes in place yet, that’s where you should start.
3. BI dashboards: visibility for agile decision-making
Having good data is foundational, but without accessibility and visibility, even good data can become a burden. Consolidating unit data into dashboards helps franchisors visualize performance by region, unit, period, or product — making it easier to diagnose problems and identify opportunities.
With BI (Business Intelligence) systems, franchisors can:
- Prioritize support for underperforming units;
- Identify internal benchmarks (best practices from high-performing units);
- Test campaigns and actions based on real data;
- Monitor which trainings lead to real improvements;
- Empower the management team with relevant insights, driving innovation and continuous improvement.
4. Predictability and Personalization with the Help of Data Intelligence
With predictive models, franchisors can anticipate consumer behavior trends, forecast performance drops, and act proactively. In addition, segmented data analysis allows the franchisor to personalize support according to the profile and maturity level of each franchisee — essential in networks with broad regional diversity.
Data Intelligence: From Insight to Action
A franchisor’s true competitive edge lies in its ability to transform data into strategic decisions, targeted interventions, and continuous improvement across the network. This is where data intelligence comes in — an approach that integrates technology, analytics, and management to extract real value from collected information.
With structured data (accurate, complete, and up to date), the franchisor can apply different levels of analysis:
- Descriptive: What happened? (e.g., sales decline in a specific unit)
- Diagnostic: Why did it happen? (e.g., low conversion rate and high staff turnover)
- Predictive: What could happen? (e.g., risk of performance drops in similar units)
- Prescriptive: What should we do? (e.g., action plan with short-, medium-, and long-term goals)
This approach helps anticipate problems, adjust course quickly, and make evidence-based decisions — not assumptions.
Segmentation and personalized support for Franchisees
Not every unit requires the same level of attention. With data intelligence, franchisors can create smart segmentations (based on revenue, time in operation, location, etc.) and tailor their support to match the unique needs of each franchisee.
This makes the relationship more efficient, focused on real needs, and capable of delivering better results. The franchisor must take the lead: providing data, interpreting results, and guiding franchisees on the best actions to take — building a network that grows and evolves together.
Data intelligence positions the franchisor as a true ally in each unit’s growth journey — delivering far more than manuals and technical support: it delivers actionable intelligence.
An excellent example of applying data intelligence in a franchise network is Stúdios Mormaii. Before implementing BI, the operation suffered from slow report updates, high risk of errors due to manual data extraction, and a lack of insights to help franchisees manage their studios.
After adopting BI, the franchisor gained a complete view of the network, quickly identifying areas of concern — such as units with low conversion and sales rates. Easy, fast access to information helped improve the relationship between the franchisor and its franchisees.
→ Check out the full case study
The Franchisor–Franchisee Relationship in the Data Era
Digital transformation hasn’t only impacted the internal processes of franchise networks — it has fundamentally changed the relationship between franchisors and franchisees. While this relationship was once often one-sided and based strictly on operational rules, today it must be more collaborative, transparent, and data-driven.
In a scenario where decisions need to be fast and well-founded, franchisors that share strategic information with their franchisees help build a more engaged, cohesive network aligned with collective growth goals.
1. Building Trust Through Data Transparency
Trust is one of the pillars of any healthy franchise network. When the franchisor shares dashboards, goals, and analyses in a clear and accessible way, franchisees feel they’re part of a solid and professional structure. This reduces noise, prevents distrust, and strengthens the partnership bond.
2. Data as a Tool for Engagement and Motivation
Showing franchisees how they are performing in comparison to network averages or set targets can be a powerful tool for motivation and benchmarking. Access to data allows them to identify their own areas for improvement and be inspired by the best practices of top-performing units.
3. Digital Maturity as a Competitive Advantage
Not all franchisees are equipped to handle complex data and reports. That’s why the franchisor must invest in continuous training, creating a culture where the use of information becomes natural and beneficial for all profiles across the network. This may include:
- In-person or online training on KPI analysis;
- Support materials explaining how to use dashboards;
- Consultative support to interpret data and plan actions.
4. Co-Creation of Evidence-Based Strategies
By involving franchisees in data interpretation, the franchisor promotes a co-creation model for solutions. Instead of simply imposing rules, the franchisor listens, analyzes collaboratively, and develops action plans that are more realistic and adapted to each unit’s local context. This also increases franchisee engagement, as they feel part of the change.
5. Strengthening the Network as a Smart Ecosystem
When data flows in an integrated and collaborative way, the entire network becomes stronger. The franchisor gains greater strategic control, franchisees gain autonomy with accountability, and the end customer experiences more consistent, higher-quality service — which directly impacts business results.
Conclusion: The Franchisor as a Key Driver of Unit Performance
The franchisor’s role is undergoing a significant transformation. From being a provider of basic support, the franchisor is evolving into a center of intelligence and performance — capable of leading the network with more informed, agile, and strategic decisions.
In this new context, using data is no longer a competitive advantage — it’s a necessity for those who want to remain relevant, scale sustainably, and ensure the profitability of franchise units.
For this shift to happen in a structured way, the franchisor must invest in technology, analytical culture, and efficient monitoring processes. At this point, partnering with a specialized business intelligence consultancy — like equal BI — can significantly accelerate this journey.
Experienced consultants help assess the network’s maturity level, structure data collection and analysis, build custom dashboards, and support your company through the management transformation process.
With this support, the franchisor gains a complete view of the business and begins to lead the network with greater accuracy, efficiency, and measurable results.
And you? Do you want to turn your franchise network into a market leader and have your franchisor brand recognized for high performance? Count on equal.
