Johan Engström is the CEO of Fastighetsbyrån, a franchise business with 280 offices in Sweden. Being at the head of an organization that consists mostly of self-employed individuals while keeping the brand intact and working toward the same vision is a big challenge.

”We’ve agreed on one vision that we call one company. This means that all franchise owners are to work from the same core values and will have the same approach to a healthy business. No matter where they are in Sweden, they should be speaking the same language when it comes to leadership and sales”, says Johan.

As the vision emerged, Fastighetsbyrån developed a leadership program. The first module of the training focused on the conceptual, with its base in the legal issues and the business transaction. This was then built upon with an additional module, leadership, focusing on how to lead as well as on the coaching-style leadership in a sales organization.

Module three was developed by Mindset and it was based on business acumen and business finance. The aim was to help each franchise owner find a balance in terms of finances – both in terms of fixed costs and profit.

”We finally got a complement to the other two modules, which were prioritized before. We’ve been good at training our staff in leadership and sales, but we’ve missed the part about connecting the financial side with leadership in order to guide the business”.

Johan describes how they were drawn to Mindset’s ability to see Fastighetsbyrån’s challenge through a simple, but structured perspective.

”I would dare to say that almost all participants in Mindset’s program have gotten new insights and tools. They’ve learned to think and discuss in a different way and that’s already noticeable. For example, as a result of the training, we came up with a chart of accounts that will be used throughout the organization.”

More changes are being made in the organization after the training, and soon they will add an extra follow up day to the two-day training. This will also be led by Mindset.

Johan concludes, ”What Mindset has done for us is to make follow up easier, thereby making it possible to support each franchise owner. They get the knowledge they need to build sound leadership and a healthy business that can survive even during a market downturn. That’s a good feeling.”