Artificial intelligence makes opening a franchise look like better job security than you’d think
Artificial intelligence makes opening a franchise look like better job security than you’d think
Publish Date: 2026-05-24 22:00:00
Source Domain: www.afr.com
May 25, 2026 – 12.00pm
When Greg Flynn graduated from Stanford Business School in 1994, with the dotcom boom in full swing, his friends chose the obvious career path. But while they “were all making PowerPoint presentations …becoming paper millionaires,” he went off to help a friend open a second restaurant. A few years later, spotting generous financing on offer for would-be franchisees, Flynn bought eight Applebee’s restaurants of his own.
He now runs more than 3000 franchise outlets across seven brands in three countries, and is reportedly worth more than $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) – probably the first franchisee in the world to reach that milestone. On February 22, the International Franchise Association, a lobbying group, inducted him into its Hall of Fame – an accolade previously reserved for franchisors, the innovators on the other side of the business who established big chains, such as Ray Kroc of McDonald’s or Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC.
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