–It is for the purpose of self-preservation that man needs a code of morality.   John Galt.

What do the franchise portals owe to the prospective franchisee?   Perhaps the more important question is the corollary to this query and that is: what do the franchise portals owe to the franchise industry in general. Are the portals merely an conduit of information?   It is difficult to fashion a legal argument that the portals have any obligation to investigate which franchises are sound.  It is even more difficult to make and ethics based argument that somehow the portals have an obligation to weed out the bad franchises from the good ones.  But what about from a moral perspective?   And by moral perspective I mean the objective good in the striving for and ascending to one’s full potential in business.

 Trust is the hallmark of our capitalist system.   What we have today with the collapse of the financial markets is a flatlining of trust in our system.   Expand that notion to franchise lead generation portals.   Do the portals have an obligation to protect the franchise industry’s perception of trustworthiness?    Trust is lacking today in our market place.   The portals have been the conduit through which all manner of poorly thought out franchise have been advertised.  With that said, one can easily make the argument that the portals are no different than any other form of advertisement like a magazine or newspaper.   And such an argument would be right on the observation of the superficial facts but miss entirely the ultimate reality that lies just under the surface.  

The portals are the partners of the franchise industry.  There exists a symbiotic relationship between the portals and the franchise industry–even if the industry (as embodied by the IFA) are loathe to recognize it.  As such the franchise portals must do more in screening out the franchises that will do nothing but harm the industry as a whole.   A teleological perspective needs to be the driving force behind the portals long range strategic planing.  The portals must resist the myopia of looking only to the short-term goals of next month revenues.   

  Without reason a code of morals becomes diaphanous.  No business can long succeed without a code of morals–morality from the traditional religious sense, as well as objectivist sense posited above.  The portals must actively practice the morality of self-preservation precisely becasue it is the only reasonable thing to do.  The portals must take the long view because so few in the industry currently do.  Irrationality held sway over the franchise industry and, by extension, the franchise portals for the last 3-4 years.   It is time for reason and good judgement to become preeminent in the franchise lead generation industry again.  It is good business, and it is moral.

The shibboleth that the franchise industry is recession-proof has been torn asunder.   Very well.  It was an unreasonable and untenable belief to begin with.   And this belief compelled many in the industry to go against their morality of self-preservation.  The portals now have in their power the ability to assure the continued growth of franchising into the 21st century.    Will they rise to the occasion?  Will they do that which advances the morality of self-preservation?   Or will they unreasonably look only to next month’s revenue?   The choice is theirs.  The choice is ours.

W.C. Garth Snider