{"id":280173,"date":"2020-05-01T01:07:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T01:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/?p=280173"},"modified":"2024-05-06T16:03:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T16:03:15","slug":"franconnect-ceo-shares-leadership-advice-and-more-with-franchise-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/franconnect-ceo-shares-leadership-advice-and-more-with-franchise-times\/","title":{"rendered":"FranConnect CEO shares leadership advice and more with Franchise Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"hero-content-section\">\n<h4>FranConnect CEO Gabby Wong talks to Franchise Times.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"hero-form-section \">\n<div id=\"hs_cos_wrapper_module_15815106437831087_\" class=\"hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_inline_rich_text\" data-hs-cos-general-type=\"widget\" data-hs-cos-type=\"inline_rich_text\" data-hs-cos-field=\"form_section_content\"><strong>(HERNDON, Virginia) May 1, 2020 <\/strong><strong>\u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Recently, FranConnect CEO Gabby Wong sat down with Franchise Times editor Laura Michaels to chat about leadership, advice, favorite foods and more.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Read the full interview below or directly on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.franchisetimes.com\/April-2020\/FranConnect-CEO-shares-leadership-advice-more-in-Grab-Bag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #dd5f13;\">Franchise Times<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who would play you in the biopic about your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would be flattered if Tina Fey played me. She\u2019s amazing, she\u2019s a groundbreaker, the first female head writer for SNL. She\u2019s sharp, funny and just so witty.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you were to open a franchise, which would you choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have to give the caveat that we love the franchise model and all our customers. If I had to pick, it\u2019d be something in personal service. Probably fitness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the weirdest thing you\u2019ve ever eaten?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is easy for me. My father is from China and my mother is from France, so I grew up eating very strange things. I\u2019ve eaten cow heart and bone marrow and cow tongue \u2026 just about every part of the cow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s your guilty pleasure?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have a 6-year-old daughter and she loves Moriah Elizabeth. She\u2019s a crafter, she has these YouTube videos on squishy makeovers. Squishies are these little soft toys and she takes used ones or ones that were donated a makes up different creations, painting them, whatever. We\u2019ll watch them on Saturday mornings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you could dis-invent one thing, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nothing, I love innovation. Even if there\u2019s something that\u2019s not used how it was originally intended, I think innovation is so important. I wouldn\u2019t get rid of anything.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What superhero power would you like to have?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, the Wonder Twins! Do you remember the Wonder Twins? They can just adapt into anything. So, I\u2019d want the ability to adapt very quickly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s your favorite travel destination?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a lot of places. We have a very large location in New Delhi, India, and I\u2019ve been there three times in the last year. It\u2019s so rich in culture, but it\u2019s not an easy place to travel to. But really, it\u2019s so rewarding. Sixty percent of our company is there and I\u2019ve made it a focus to have an executive presence there.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to be a writer and I knew I wanted to go into business leadership. I come from a family of doctors, my dad was a doctor, and there was probably an expectation that I\u2019d go into medicine, but it just was not for me. I think in writing there\u2019s the goal to find the truth in a way that connects everybody, and that\u2019s needed to drive a big organization. And I now use writing as a way to help me distill my thoughts, and I use that to help me be clear with my team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What did you want to be when you grew up? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to be a writer and I knew I wanted to go into business leadership. I come from a family of doctors, my dad was a doctor, and there was probably an expectation that I\u2019d go into medicine, but it just was not for me. I think in writing there\u2019s the goal to find the truth in a way that connects everybody, and that\u2019s needed to drive a big organization. And I now use writing as a way to help me distill my thoughts, and I use that to help me be clear with my team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the last thing you cooked at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been traveling so much lately so, takeout? I\u2019m kidding! I make a mean chicken parm. My husband loves it and it\u2019s something the whole family would eat. I have three kids, two boys, 16 and 14, and a daughter, who\u2019s 6.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the best piece of advice you\u2019ve ever been given?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To not be afraid to hire people around you that are better\/more knowledgeable than you. As a leader, your job isn\u2019t to be the smartest, most knowledgeable person in the room, but to set the strategic and operational vision, and mobilize the team\u2019s strength and expertise to accomplish that vision. If you are afraid to hire people around you that are smarter\/more knowledgeable than you, then you will always be stuck doing the same thing and, as a result, it will be hard to advance in your career.<\/p>\n<p>Career advice that I often give other people is, \u2018Don\u2019t chase title or money, focus on building your human capital and skillset. Doing so will result in better career longevity, breadth of core business skills, and ultimately open up even more opportunities for advancement.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em>*Editor\u2019s note: This interview took place during the IFA Convention in February, where I had a chance to sit down with Gabby for a fun Q&amp;A.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>About FranConnect<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>FranConnect is the leading franchise management software provider. Its FranConnect platform engages stakeholders to grow, scale and optimize franchise systems through a connected and complete view of the business from sales to multi-unit and multi-brand performance. Over 800 brands \u2014 including 40 of the\u00a0<em>Entrepreneur<\/em>\u2019s Top 100 Global Franchises \u2014 in 18 countries count on FranConnect to run their franchise systems. FranConnect customers span all sizes, growth phases, and industries and they grow 44% faster on average than the broader franchising market. Backed by private-equity investor Serent Capital, FranConnect is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, with global follow-the-sun operations. For more information on FranConnect, visit:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/\">www.franconnect.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FranConnect CEO Gabby Wong sits down with Franchise Times to talk about Leadership and more in this wide-ranging interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":283126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,103],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-280173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company-mega-menu-spotlight","category-global-news","tag-best-practices"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280173"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284868,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280173\/revisions\/284868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}