How Franchising Can Save the World

By Julie McBride for Global Franchise Magazine

​In 2015 the United Nations brought countries together to commit to eradicating poverty by adopting 17 sustainable development goals to achieve by 2030. The goals are ambitious and will require new approaches to solving some of the most pressing problems that plague people around the globe, even though solutions to those problems exist. How does this involve franchising? Read on! 

Why disrupt the status quo?

The technology for meeting basic human needs for healthcare, nutrition, safe drinking water, sanitation, clean energy and education all exist and yet all too often, the solutions are not finding their way to the people who need them. Clearly, traditional approaches are insufficient. President Bill Clinton famously said, “Nearly every problem has been solved by someone, somewhere. The challenge of the 21st century is to find out what works and scale it up.” No-one is better equipped to meet that challenge than people who are familiar with the tools of commercial franchising.
 
Solving basic needs

​Franchising has the potential to increase access to products and services that solve basic needs by scaling the concepts that have already been developed and proven to be both socially impactful on the community, and profitable to the business owner. Franchises of this type are often referred to as ‘social franchises’. In addition to solving social needs, social franchises, like commercial franchises, have the potential to stimulate economic growth by bringing businesses into communities, creating jobs and wealth opportunities and developing building skills that can be transferred outside of the franchise. By doing so, they can also create a middle class. 

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