Krispy Kreme Franchising
posted by Dave Hoffman
I’m off in a few minutes to teach the Krispy Kreme franchising case study from Gordon Smith and Cynthia Williams’ corporations casebook. I’ve never taught it before, but I’ve got to imagine that the discussion will be pretty wild given the donut chain’s implosion in recent years, partly as a result of stuffing its franchisees with donut mix. Also, I wonder if folks will blame the collapse on KK’s foolish decision to adhere to the international norms on spelling the word, which adds four three extra letters.
Folks who have had experiences with discussing this particular problem are welcome to share them in the comments. I’ll try to drop by after class and share how it went, assuming it wasn’t a disaster!
January 16, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Posted in: Corporate Law
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Responses (6)
The Continental Op - January 16, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Pretty tangential, but speaking of “international” doughnut conventions (and since Dave lives in Pennsylvania):
In the Scranton area, there is a popular chain of donut shops called “Curry Donuts”. I never actually went into one, so I can’t say whether they actually sell masala-filled crullers.
Susan Staker - January 16, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Seattle has a chain of vegan donut shops. Somehow that never quite tracks in my brain.
bill - January 16, 2007 at 8:37 pm
3 extra letters. Not 4.
donut = 5
doughnut = 8
8 – 5 = 3
Dave Hoffman - January 17, 2007 at 7:17 am
Bill: good point. I apparently can not subtract. Correction made.
Dave Hoffman - January 17, 2007 at 7:19 am
And, for what it is worth, I thought the class went well. Questions about the internal and external consequences of the franchising relationship were expected, but still tricky to work out. The big question: under what theory would area developers sue KK for channel stuffing? A fiduciary theory? Fraud? (Breach seemed unattractive for remedy reasons.)
Justin - January 17, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I was a student in Gordon’s BizOrgs class where we talked about the KK franchising. I was about to suggest that other profs might be interested in looking at the powerpoint he made, but… do professors do that? Is it uncouth to use classroom aids from other professors? If a professor from another school wanted to use your powerpoint in their class, would you care? Would it be a compliment?
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