More and more businesses are set up as franchise operations. While the franchise owner (franchisor) is keen to expand the number of franchises and to increase turnover and profit, the aim of each franchisee is to maximize revenue of the franchise he/she bought into. It's a business model hinging on a lot of mutual trust, regular feedback, market acceptance and, indeed, the engagement and dedication of the franchisee.

Causal impact has developed specific causal models for franchise operations (an example for retailers can be found here). Collecting a wealth of data from across all franchisees coupled with general data from the franchisor (e.g., on marketing, costs, investments) this information is then analyzed in a complex causal model.

The analyses performed allow to identify and quantify the factors fostering and/or inhibiting growth, turnover and ROI. Each individual franchisee is compared not only against an 'average franchise' but can be compared also against the top-performing franchisees. In doing so, very precise recommendations can be worked out for each franchise how to optimize its operations. Such in-depth analyses strengthen the whole franchise operation and make it more lucrative, profitable and sustainable for both the franchisor as well as each franchisee.

Typically, the relatively low costs for such causal modelling are readily shared by all franchisees and the franchise owner so it becomes a mutually rewarding and finacially benefical approach with a minimum of extra work in a brevity of time: usually, results can be obtained in a matter of a month (after the provision of the relevant data).