FRANCHISING’S DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Sam Caucci was once the bringer of boredom. Back in 2010, when he worked for an athletic-coaching franchise called the Parisi Speed School, his job was to fly around the country giving employee training seminars. It was dreadful work. He’d arrive in a new city, pull employees off the clock, gather them in a room, and watch their eyes glaze over as he launched into a corporate-approved lecture on procedures and protocols.

“Employees were never excited to see me,” he says. Nor would he see them again. He eventually realized that most of them were in their 20s or 30s, and they left the company so fast that he had to return to a location every three months to replay