WHEN GREG FLYNN graduated from Stanford Business School in 1994, with the dotcom boom(互联网泡沫) in full swing(正在全力进行), 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(想要成为的，未来的) franchisees, Mr Flynn bought eight Applebee’s restaurants of his own. He now runs more than 3,000 franchise outlets across seven brands in three countries, and is reportedly worth over $1bn, making him probably the first franchisee in the world to reach that milestone. On February 22nd the International Franchise Association, a lobbying group, inducted him into its Hall of Fame—an accolade once 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.
1994年，当格雷格·弗林从斯坦福商学院毕业时，互联网泡沫正值高潮，他的朋友们选择了显而易见的职业道路。但当他们“都在做PPT……成为纸面百万富翁”时，他却去帮助一个朋友开了第二家餐厅。几年后，发现有意成为特许经营者的人可以获得慷慨的融资，弗林买下了八家自己的Applebee's餐厅。如今，他在三个国家经营着七个品牌的3000多家特许经营店，据报道身价超过10亿美元，这使他可能成为世界上第一个达到这一里程碑的特许经营者。2月22日，游说团体国际特许经营协会将他列入其名人堂——这一荣誉曾只授予特许经营者，即建立大型连锁企业的创新者，如麦当劳的雷·克罗克或肯德基的哈兰·桑德斯上校。
Mr Flynn’s is a tale of slow and steady(稳扎稳打) success. So is that of the franchise model, which began spreading across America in the 1950s. Nowadays there are close to 850,000 franchise establishments(机构，企业) in the country, run by around 250,000 owners, employing some 9m people and generating about 3% of GDP. As many as one in eight businesses with at least one employee are part of a franchise. All kinds of establishments, from Dunkin’ Donuts to the UPS Store and most Marriott hotels, are franchised. Lately the model has been spreading into new areas—such as boutique(精品店，小规模专业化的) fitness, home services and child care—thanks in part to(部分归功于) private-equity investors that have become enthusiastic franchisors.
弗林的故事是一个缓慢而稳定的成功故事。特许经营模式也是如此，它于20世纪50年代开始在美国传播。如今，美国有近85万家特许经营机构，由约25万名所有者经营，雇佣约900万人，创造约3%的GDP。在至少有一名员工的企业中，多达八分之一是特许经营的一部分。各种机构，从Dunkin' Donuts到UPS Store以及大多数万豪酒店，都是特许经营的。最近，该模式已扩展到新领域——如精品健身、家庭服务和儿童保育——这在一定程度上要归功于已成为热情特许经营者的私募股权投资者。
Owning a franchise may be the purest distillation(精华，提炼物) of the American dream. Some 95% of McDonald’s 14,000 American outlets are operated by franchisees, and the chain has plausibly created more millionaires than any firm in history. “We’re not all going to be Steve Jobs or Elon Musk,” says Matt Haller, who runs the IFA, but many can imagine themselves saving up to have a go at(尝试做) the all-American business of “slinging hamburgers”. The proposition has long appealed to immigrants in particular: around two-thirds of American motels are owned by Indians, many descended from Gujaratis who bought Super 8 and Travelodge franchises in the 1980s.
拥有一个特许经营权可能是美国梦最纯粹的提炼。麦当劳在美国的14000家门店中约有95%由特许经营者经营，该连锁店创造的百万富翁可能比历史上任何公司都多。“我们不会都成为史蒂夫·乔布斯或埃隆·马斯克，”经营IFA的马特·哈勒说，但许多人可以想象自己攒钱去尝试‘卖汉堡’这种全美式生意。这一主张长期以来对移民尤其有吸引力：美国大约三分之二的汽车旅馆由印度人拥有，其中许多人是在20世纪80年代购买Super 8和Travelodge特许经营权的古吉拉特人的后裔。
Chain reaction
连锁反应
Division of labour
劳动分工