Egnatium is conducting a national recruitment drive for 25 franchisees to head up their businessto-business franchise system in Australia (across QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, and WA markets).

Seminars are being held in capital cities and one-on-one meetings are under way until the end of March 2016. This laser-focused “headhunting” strategy is a decisive approach according to the CEO of Egnitus Franchising, Karen Prescott.

Pre-requisites

Prescott explains, “We are looking for people that have at least 10 years [of] specialist experience in five key areas: strategy, competency, appraisal, learning, or experience management.” 

These areas form the franchise packages offered by the global brand Egnatium and are “extremely attractive for a lot of people. Franchisees are leaving their careers to do something different. It’s not always about coffee. Some people in human resources or a management space are looking for the next step, still want to learn, and take their career to the next level.”

Where did it start?

Egnatium first started out as Insights Matrix, a company founded by Ali Kasa, who has been operating in Malaysia for more than 10 years. The model, based on learning, development, and competency needs, grew to a number of different solutions “each doing a separate thing”. 

Prescott said, 'We recognised it needed to be all under one umbrella.” This took effect a few years. 

“Australia had the best opportunities and best franchising platform. We did that in September 2014, and I started with Egnatium in February 2015, setting up head office, the company, and getting it going in Australia”.

The business model

Prescott is no stranger to business, having operated in QLD for well over two decades. She said, however, “The franchising part requires a whole new heap of support and experts looking at the SME landscape, which is where I step in!” 

She explained the reason why Egnatium is divided into five key areas is that “no one person can be an expert at everything, and it’s too much to take into consideration”. 

The model works to support larger businesses. Prescott added, “We go into companies that have 50+ staff and $1.5M turnover and service them locally. Ignatia (the management company who launched Egnatium) looks after businesses with $5M turnover or more and services them nationally.” 

Egnatium clients are well-established companies that are making a profit but may be stagnant in one area or another, i.e. slow profit vs. increasing expenses or disconnecting within areas of the business.

“We do a health check. Often, the company will have an idea on what area is failing and which of the five areas need attention,” said Prescott. The rollout of new partners post-March will be “pretty fast”. 

“There is no inventory to set up,” and franchisees will undergo 160 hours of competency-based training to fill in any gaps. “Some will be missing small business acumen; some won’t have any idea of project management.” 

Once out in the field, partners are supplied with two leads per day and spend the rest of the day on project management. 

Each of the five state-based franchisees will operate out of serviced offices with a marketing person (can hire a salesperson or administrator) to “bounce ideas off each other.”

“We have a global network and great IT team keeping us up-to-date with global trends. In terms of innovation, no other business in the world is doing what we are doing. Just as Starbucks started as a one-coffee shop, we will be exactly the same thing. It’s very niche,” said Prescott.