Cutting Edge Focus: Rhoda Olsen of Great Clips [Podcast]

Great Clips CEO Rhoda Olsen’s innovative approach to franchise leadership boils down to what she calls a delicate balance: technological innovation and the human touch. With more than 20 years on the executive team at Great Clips, she faces the unique challenge of nurturing the independent spirit that her franchise owners desire while keeping them within the carefully cultivated brand standards of the organization. She does this by traveling just about a third of the year, getting in the salons and working with individual stylists and managers. She hosts several regional and national meetings for franchisees and their staff members across the country, and she swears by her no-nonsense, practical style of leadership to connect with the people she guides.

This human touch, offset with responsive technology such as their mobile app, web check-ins, online university and e-manager training as proven to be a successful approach. Under Rhoda’s leadership, Great Clips grew from a regional three-partner brand to almost 3,800 salons nationwide and a projected 1.2 billion in revenue for this year.

Rhoda cites much of the company’s success to the advice her brother Ray gave her on focusing: “With so many things going on in the organization, it’s easy to get pulled in several different directions. But with the size we are, if we can’t ensure consistent messaging and focus, you don’t get the results we have. It took a while for this to sink in, but once we found our focus, it made all the difference.”

Turning Point

In 2003, Rhoda experienced a life-changing cancer scare. At the time, the company was coincidentally going through what Rhoda calls a slump, due to fragmented branding. Rhoda made a commitment to herself to turn her own health around so that she could then help turn Great Clips around. By bringing in a brand specialist, they were able to pinpoint their brand messaging down to three core principles: comfort, freedom, and connection. 

They also built six powerful metrics to measure the brand strength at any time:

• Saturday/Sunday hours
• New customer returns
• Repeat customer returns
• Wait times
• Saturday/Sunday wait times
• Overall customer counts

“Repetition and consistency are important. We may get tired of these brand standards, but our customers and staff don’t,” said Rhoda. Now Great Clips strives to protect the simple brand core they’ve developed, while driving innovation around the core.

Rhoda does find herself surprised sometimes at her CEO status. When asking questions, giving critique, or simply gathering information, she has learned that her words carry a different weight with her team, and that humility and awareness are key to navigating those interactions successfully.

“I have realized that everything you say as an executive matters,” she said.

Great Clips has enjoyed 42 consecutive quarters of sales growth through the recession, not just within the overall firm, but within each individual salon as well. To learn more about Rhoda Olsen, check out her interview here.

Rhoda Olsen is the CEO of Great Clips, the ubiquitous nationwide salon franchise. To learn more about Great Clips, visit greatclips.com.