I put these in order by date. Bear in mind that after June 2001 the company was no longer under our management. But I'm very pleased by the current crop of media articles. It makes me especially happy to see how the owners, employees, and franchisees of Great Harvest have kept "the freedom thing" as strong as ever.
This award is based on a survey of all the franchisees. It's the fifth year in a row that Great Harvest received the honor.
Fast Casual is a restaurant trade magazine; this is a good, short article about the franchise and the concept.
Clipped from the article:
“Democratic workplaces operate on the principles of freedom rather than fear
and control,” explains Fenton. “Democratic companies understand that the future
of business is less about pomp and more about participation..." At Great
Harvest Bread Company, headquartered in
I especially liked this article. A clipping:
"... In fact, Salis' franchise agreement doesn't specify much. The 206
bakeries in the Dillon (
"This flexibility contradicts the core idea of franchising: to build a
brand by copying a carefully controlled system. CEO Mike Ferretti says Great
Harvest, founded in 1976 by a couple in
Another recent article featuring Great Harvest along with several other franchises which also use a freedom approach. Especially interesting to me since when we sold the company in 2001 we had been running the business this way for over 20 years, but nobody else in franchising was talking like this. So it's fun for me to fast-forward and see the idea working in other franchise systems.
This article was a complete surprise to us, coming out as it did after we had already left the business. Notice we are the only married couple on the list -- click on our link at #18 to read the article itself.
This story was very specifically about our personal work style, not about the company per se. It takes the form of an e-mail conversation between myself and the author, Michael Hopkins. I like it, but it's fairly long; in the original magazine with pictures and everything it ran seven pages.
This is the same cover article I featured on my resume page, about the learning community. Even though it's old now, if you were to read only thing on this list, this would be it.
Clipped from the article --
"As the cover page of the Great Harvest franchising contract states in big, bold letters:
ANYTHING
not expressly prohibited by the language of this agreement
IS ALLOWED
"Why does Great Harvest flout the cookie-cutter conventions of franchising? Partly because of the personalities of its founders. But the company also finds that freedom in franchising inspires ways of doing business that ultimately benefit every member of the system.
"We are a richly cross-linked community," says
An earlier article, still a favorite of mine because it was the first to really go national, which was very exciting for us. It went out on the Associated Press and from there found its way into newspapers all over the country.
Tom was the top person in our company hierarchy, right beneath Laura and myself. I love this book for two reasons. From beginning to end it perfectly explains the essence of the company. And at the same time Tom himself is a wonderful person, a fun writer, a careful observer, and an original thinker. I can open this book just about anyplace, read a couple pages about stuff that actually happened to me -- I was there -- and yet walk away with a completely new take on things.
Thomas Petzinger did a weekly Wall Street Journal column called "The Front Lines," and this book is a collection of his observations. Chapter 6, "Nobody's as Smart as Everybody," begins on page 146 and explains Great Harvest's unique franchise agreement. Another good section about us begins on page 168. Here's an excerpt from the editorial review on Amazon:
"A columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Petzinger spent three years
traveling across
A cute little paperback, only 90 pages long. It isn't about Great Harvest or myself per se, but quotes me here and there to teach good time-management principles.
My college degree was a BS in agriculture from
We have two daughters,