Today, in the World, America has some of the greatest food brands. Franchising has helped these brands spawn their eminence worldwide. Some of the iconic names include Domino’s Pizza, Popeyes, US Foods Holding Corp, and Chick Fil A among other famous brands. And in today’s Success Story category, we have an iconic leader who has them served all. Curious?

Meet Cheryl Bachelder, based in Atlanta Metropolitan Area, serving as a Director to US Foods Corp and Chick-A-Fil. Dr. Not only food brands and associations, but she has also worked with large franchisee networks as an advisor to strategic turnarounds of venerable brands. She is also the author of Serving Performs, where she offers a 40 Week Leadership Challenge. 

During 1974-1987, Cheryl Bachelder completed her graduation in Marketing Finance from Indiana University and later, she was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from Indiana Wesleyan University. Cheryl began her career with Procter & Gamble as a Brand Management executive. And then, in 30+ years of her career, she has only moved up the ladder.  

In a self-authored article for the Harvard Business Review, Cheryl discloses an important event with her in 2003 as the president and chief concept officer at KFC, a division of Yum! Brands. Her task was to align every owner on a plan to grow the chicken business. However, she admits failure and a lesson learned thereof, which in retrospection is inspiring because she didn’t stop there.

In another experience in 1995, when Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza, hired Cheryl to run marketing and product development, she had no idea about the growing discontent of Domino’s with its franchisees vide a lawsuit. So, she created an advisory group of owners who weren’t involved in the lawsuit to find new ways to gain franchisee alignment and drive the growth of Domino’s business—also the origin of the concept of delivering Pizza hot.

For the franchise buying community, failure is not an extraterrestrial word. But yet, many owners give up when results do not meet the end goal too soon. So, if you are reading this as a member of the franchise community, you would like to acknowledge how Cheryl didn’t let anything hold her back as a woman. Her systematic approach to organizational structure and culture, talent development, strategy formation, product innovation and marketplace execution has earned her wings that will take her anywhere today.

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