|
HATTIE: The
future is full of more pretzels and more wow products, like Cre-amo, a frozen
custard delight that I got to taste. So, yeah, I want to taste it.
ANNE: OK.
I'll let you taste it.
HATTIE: OK.
ANNE: You
like peach? Pretty good, huh?
HATTIE: It's
wonderful. OK. More good stuff from Auntie Anne's.
ANNE: Yeah.
HATTIE: When
did you come up with LIGHT?
ANNE: LIGHT.
HATTIE: What
is it? What does it mean? And how do you use it to guide you and motivate the
whole team to go in the right direction?
ANNE: Well,
LIGHT. We had a mission statement and it was cumbersome. We decided that, why
don't we do something to where that everybody can memorize our purpose? What is
our purpose? And I've always said that my purpose, I feel like our purpose,
Auntie Anne's, is to be a light in a business community. And so we sat around
the table. This was at the time when I was still part of the management team,
and we came up with the acrostic LIGHT, L-I-G-H-T, and this came from the
employees so we all put the ideas altogether and this is what they came up
with.
So I think
it's just the greatest thing. L is LEAD by example. I is INVEST in others. G is
GIVE freely. H - HONOR God. And T is TREAT all business contacts with respect
or treat all people with respect. So it's very easy, and it's very catching.
The franchisees, many of them use it, and how we use it, you know, in our
decision-making process is everything that--it goes through this grid. Does
this fit with our statement and purpose of LIGHT? So every decision we make, we
try to make sure that it--
HATTIE:
Filters through.
ANNE: Yes.
HATTIE: It
has to pass the LIGHT test.
ANNE:
Exactly. There you go. You're exactly right. You know, after 15 years, I still
like Auntie Anne's Pretzels. Can you believe that? Oh, it's absolutely a
miracle. There's no other word that I can describe that because I've had people
tell me early on that, 'You shouldn't be doing this.' I mean, I understand I
shouldn't be, but I am. I'm still amazed. I mean, every day, honestly, if you
know my life, you understand where I came from, you will have to admit this is
a miracle.
HATTIE:
Building a business that can be passed to new leadership to carry forward is
nearly impossible. Anne's done it, and we agree with her that making money is
too small of a goal to be attractive to most people. Find a big idea, a big
purpose, a perfect product and people. Then profits will follow. I'll see you
next time. |
