You Need More than Fribbles and Slammers To Compete

Last week I queried on how you intended to make your firm better in 2015. This week, I’ll show you what can happen if complacency sets in and you don’t, even if I use an example outside the accounting profession.

But I’m confident you’ll get the idea.

Many of you who grew up in the Northeast and perhaps more specifically, New England, have undoubtedly at one time or another had the opportunity – or many opportunities as the case may be – to eat at one of the family restaurant icons in that region – Friendly’s.

Begun as an ice cream shop in Massachusetts in 1935, the brick buildings with the familiar red and white signs dotted the landscape - serving meals during all three day parts as well as two of my favorite desserts – Fribble shakes  and the Slammer flavored  iced drinks.  My entrée favorites rotated between their tuna melts and cheeseburgers and when my family owned a summer house in a remote part of Connecticut during the early 1970s, the local Friendly’s was a frequent destination spot.

Unfortunately for the company, little had changed since then. Yes, they refreshed many of the restaurants with remodels and tweaked the menu now and again, but for years they were plagued by service problems that were never truly corrected and carried higher check averages than their menu items should have commanded.

As a result, they were gradually overtaken in market share by far more progressive concepts that regularly fine-tuned their menu items and exuded modern customer appeal and wisely brought it into the 21^st Century.

As evidence, I just learned that the local Friendly’s franchisee in the suburbs north of New York City has sadly, shuttered all 10 of its units and declared bankruptcy – an action I’m certain will occur with alarming frequency among other operators of the concept.

The truth is the company failed to respond to the competitive charges posed by chains like Chipotle and suffered the consequences.

This is why I keep harping on how critical it is to keep your firm fresh and establish points of differentiation.

If you follow the Friendly’s model, you’re probably going to find it very tough to grow organically if your practice looks like an AARP brochure, and if you’re looking toward a merger, then an aging tired firm with a likewise client base will probably not fetch a high multiple. Very few acquisition-minded firms want the headache or the challenge of a fixer-upper.

And if you still remain skeptical, I can point to roughly 10 once-thriving but now vacant buildings as evidence of the dangers of keeping the status quo.