Why is Mark Bryers, former franchisor & attorney smiling?

Because he knows white-collar laws are a farce.

Under Kiwi law, there is insufficient evidence for the Serious Fraud Office, SFO to press criminal charges although 3,000 New Zealanders have lost $80 million of their life savings via the Blue Chip franchise system.

1. Blue Chip escapes SFO noose
2. Shock as SFO decides not to lay Blue Chip charges
3. SFO says insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution of Blue Chip

Bryers was sentenced in May for over 1oo commercial offenses for which he pleaded guilty. The sentence?: 75 hours of community work and a $37,500 fine. (Blue Chip boss sentenced – but avoids jail)

Not too surprising when governments treat a law enforcement agency as a political sacrificial lamb.

Ray Borradale from Australia notes on yesterday’s FranchiseFool post:

… I do like New Zealand’s approach to franchising.

Nothing complicated – don’t even tell anyone its buyer beware and then keep the location of the mass grave a secret. Economic efficiency and the grace to not worry people before its time to send them to that other place. Bewdiful …

Unmarked economic mass graves.

Plague victims on Venice island

What Mark Bryers did was substantially the same as every franchise system does frequently/sometimes/selectively does. Bryers ambition was larger and his time frame was shorter. That’s the only difference.

I quote Ray because Bryers is now Australia’s responsibility.

Even monkeys understand fairness

How some people think they can fool everyone is interesting.

Thanks to The Situationalist.

CertaProSucks.org breaks new social media ground for franchisee advocacy

Kudos to the folks behind CertaProSucks.org for introducing a new way to communicate a former franchisee’s message.

This is the first application of a franchise investor, self-published animation…ever. A very complex message that is delivered in a beautifully simple manner. Dense with meaning. Well done.

Common archetypal themes (universal, systemic, across all systems) revealed by a cartoon:

1. sold during a psychologically vulnerable time (unemployment),
2. franchising is a sales game (not a product/painting business),
3. no experience needed (those in industry can see through “con”),
4. debt as a trap activated by shame,
5. time (after the honeymoon when experience comes in),
6. bankruptcy threats delivered via liquidated damage clauses (largely hollow threat to be sued for the royalties, ad fund, product margins for the years you are NOT a a franchisee; ie. the unused portion of your agreement’s 1st term).
7. rapid cycling of selling-failure-re-sell (churning) possible through the promiscuous use of gag orders,
8. shame-humiliation emotion is dominant human effect (It’s your fault, ad hominem, debt held by family),
9. sloganeering techniques (mindless repetition of self-interested platitudes, thought-terminating cliches),
10. the role of sociology in taking a loss or a spoiled identity (bankruptcy stigma, regret, isolation, and silence; On Cooling the Mark Out paper), and
11. reason for failure: individual, one-off or business model engineered to maximize franchisor ROI via predatory re-selling process (statistics suggest the latter discoverable via simple a math formula in the disclosure documents; 43% over 3 years).

xtranormal.com certainly looks like fun.

I like the potential of bullshit dialogue being revealed through humour and thought bubbles.  Allows for the easy recognition of hyperbole and the misuse of metaphor. Ridicule is a very powerful tool if used correctly.

Love to see a series.

A degree of self-loathing

Ivey MBA leader circa 2010?

I made it to a little over 2 minutes.

Leslie James Stewart, U.W.O. MBA 1987

Learned Helplessness: Induced franchisee depression

Why do franchisees seem so pathetic? How does their confidence get so beat up?

Learned helplessness.

Listen to Dr. Nixon.

Can an empire be saved by shaming investors like Ariel Buk?

There are costs involved in maintaining investor confidence and commercial relationships. Some people need to learn to “take one for the team”.

Ariel Buk and Sonia Karabin may need to understand that they should cool down, be quiet and go away about losing a $85,000 deposit on a non-existent Ontario, Canada franchise. They and, by extension, the many hundreds of other “failed franchisees” need to be taught their role in this confidence game by the industry stakeholders: take one for the team or risk being shamed.

1. James Daw presents the story in yesterday’s Toronto Star article,  Ice cream dream becomes nightmare about Mr Buk’s experience with Piazza Gelateria and Café. This is shrewd. For example, Mr. Daw opines:

They [husband and wife] should have looked more closely at the business opportunity, and their decision to use mainly borrowed funds after Buk had lost his job.

They should have considered the minimum $300,000 cost of a lawyer to sue for a refund if things went wrong, and the chances of recovering anything from a relatively young numbered company.

2. Robert Cialdini lists authority as one of Six Weapons of Influence. My experience is that attorneys are given a  lot of authority by new Canadians. Many of us see past their pretensions, BS and fear. [Examples of authority.]

Ben Hanuka of Davis Moldaver LLP is quoted as saying:

“Very few mom-and-pop franchisees ever go to that length (of hiring experts to research a franchise opportunity),” says Hanuka. “It sounds too complicated to them.”

All it well with the world the reader is assured. Go back to sleep because these people get what they deserved. The blame lies with:

1. the anonymous, individual “other” (mildly retarded immigrant scapegoat) deserved what he got (“your success follows from your blind obedience to authority” dogma)  and not that
2. stakeholders align their self-interest in maintaining a facade of legitimacy: not a fake, or a Potemkin village scheme which has preyed upon identifiable groups, in plain sight,  since at least 1971.

Social Psychology-based Hypothesis: Elite stakeholders deflect systemic wrongdoing by using the largely-internal mechanisms of On Cooling the Mark Out by Erving Goffman (shame-humiliation effect) while using the public’s widespread fallacy of theBelief in a Just World, BJW (Melvin Lerner, retired University of Waterloo, Canada) in the country’s largest daily newspaper.

Every dying empire resorts to displays of public humiliation.

Why were people crucified in Jesus’ time?
Crucifixion was a Roman custom used on the worst malefactors and rebellious slaves. Judea was a tributary to Rome at that time. It is recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus that after the last rebellion of the Jews and the capture and razing of Jerusalem, the countryside was practically denuded of trees the Romans crucified so many. WikiAnswer

Detail: Crucifixion was often performed to terrorize onlookers into submission. Victims were left on display after death as warnings. Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful (hence the term excruciating, literally “out of crucifying”), gruesome (hence dissuading against the crimes punishable by it), humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. Crucifixion methods varied considerably with location and time period…

While a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals, writings by Seneca the Younger suggest that victims were crucified completely nude. When the criminal had to urinate or defecate, they had to do so in the open, in view of passers-by, resulting in discomfort and the attraction of insects. Despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of their eminent orators. Cicero for example, in a speech that appears to have been an early bid for its abolition,  described crucifixion as “a most cruel and disgusting punishment”, and suggested that “the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.” Wikipedia

Humiliation is the most unpredictable, violent and destructive human emotion. It can result in many types of loss (see Bob “Bhupinder” Baber, WikidFranchise)

Visual artists are experts in manipulating the viewer’s perception/brain

Fraud artists are experts in making a scam appear like a legitimate business.

The trick is to project the blame (from the con mob) onto the victim. Their shame-humiliation affect response will keep it quiet.

This is a two-dimensional chalk drawing made on an existing floor. The artist is letting the King pick his pocket.

Thanks to Mighty Optical Illusions.

Con games and Magic tricks

Everyone can be taken in.

Even when it is explained to you, you still think you can beat an unbeatable scam.

Look familiar?

Are you a stupid or corrupt franchisee?

Language and the meaning of words change over time.

This is an antique card used in the game of charades. I don’t think that this was intentionally offensive at the time of printing.

But over time, it would be deemed inappropriate, demeaning and maybe blatantly racist.

Being  a franchisee is rapidly becoming a target of derision in the public’s mind.

You’re either:

1. on-the-take (complicit) or
2. a fool; a dupe in a rigged game.

Modern franchise management is magic

Man’s eyes are lazy.

Skilled practitioners know this and can deceive on a reliable basis.

Principles of Magic

1. Palm,
2. Ditch,
3. Steal,
4. Load,
5. Simulation,
6. Misdirection and
7. Switch