Your Franchise System. Optimized.
Where Others Advise. We Transform.
Our proprietary PerformANT AI performs a complete X-ray of your franchisor business combining AI-powered diagnostics with our industry experts who’ve run $100M+ systems and assigns your proprietary System Readiness Score.
Your dedicated SHG team then partners with your leadership to define and drive the next stage of growth.
One platform. One expert team. Zero drain on your internal resources.
The System Readiness Score™
A single, quantified view of performance and readiness across four critical pillars.
Operating Performance
Brand & Demand Strength
Expansion Capability
Enterprise & Financial Readiness
Where Others Advise. We Transform.
Listen
Before anything else, we LISTEN. Our proprietary PerformANT AI performs a complete X-ray of your franchisor business — from Head Office functionality to system operations and performance — capturing everything your system is telling you, whether you can hear it or not. All delivered within four to six weeks.
Learn
We LEARN. Your proprietary System Readiness Score is your business seen clearly — for the first time. Every strength mapped. Every vulnerability exposed. Every missed opportunity costing you growth and valuation, identified. We uncover untapped revenue, margin improvements, sales growth potential, and where your brand strength can attract more customers. Combined with a complete resource and team assessment — the right people, the right capacity, the right focus. Your leadership team now has what they’ve always needed — the complete picture, and the confidence to act on it.
Communicate
We COMMUNICATE. Everything uncovered through PerformANT AI means nothing without a clear plan to act on it. Your dedicated SHG team translates your System Readiness Score into a Communication Playbook built specifically for your organization — aligning leadership, clarifying priorities, and ensuring every part of your business moves in the same direction. For some, that means building new foundations. For others, it means strengthening and accelerating what’s already working. Either way, we build on what makes your brand great — adding the alignment, clarity, and discipline that drives your next stage of growth and increases enterprise valuation.
Backed by Experience. Focused on Your Outcome.
Every member of the SHG team understands what it actually takes to build, scale, and increase the value of a franchise system. We’ve run operations, built brands, closed deals, and led turnarounds across some of North America’s most recognized franchise systems. We bring that experience directly to your business — not as outside observers, but as invested partners.
Robert Carter has spent two decades at the intersection of growth strategy, consumer intelligence, and enterprise value creation — working alongside North America’s leading restaurant, retail, franchise, FoodTech, and consumer brands through expansion, disruption, acquisition, and transformation. He has led strategic planning sessions for McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, A&W, Starbucks, and other global franchise leaders, and played an instrumental role in bringing Chick-fil-A to Canada.
Today his focus is on what comes next.
Robert believes AI will fundamentally reshape how companies operate, how consumers discover brands, how decisions get made, and how enterprise value is built. The next generation of market leaders won’t be defined by size alone — but by intelligence, adaptability, leadership alignment, and system discipline. It’s this conviction that sits at the heart of PerformANT AI and the System Readiness Score.
As President of The StratonHunter Group, Robert helps franchisor CEOs rethink growth through the lens of AI, operational intelligence, scalability, and long-term strategic positioning. A Stanford Executive Program graduate in Strategy and Organization, and inductee of the Ontario Hostelry Institute Hall of Fame.
"The companies that lead the next decade will not simply grow faster. They will think smarter, adapt earlier, and build systems designed for continuous evolution."
Rob Carmichael is an operator first. With 30+ years scaling multi-unit restaurant and retail brands across Canada, he has sat in the seat you’re in — managing P&L, driving unit-level performance, and building the systems that turn a good brand into a scalable one.
As a fractional COO and strategic advisor, Rob works directly alongside CEOs and ownership groups to connect strategy to execution — ensuring what gets planned actually works at the store level. He has led operational turnarounds, built franchise systems from the ground up, and guided founder-led businesses through the critical transition to structured, scalable organizations.
His focus is simple: grow in a disciplined, profitable, and scalable way.
"I'm not a career consultant. I'm an operator who understands what it takes to run the business day-to-day — and how to scale it."
Lubo Zizakovic brings something most franchise advisors simply don’t have — deep capital markets experience and a proven track record of doing deals at scale. With a career spanning investment banking, institutional securities, private equity, and M&A advisory, Lubo has spent three decades at the intersection of capital, strategy, and enterprise value creation.
Beginning at Scotia Capital in corporate finance before rising to Vice President of Business Operations at HSBC Securities, Lubo later co-founded Barrier Ridge Capital — a self-sponsored private equity firm where he and his team bought and sold over 30 companies across more than 20 transactions, transacting nearly $1 billion during his tenure.
For franchisor CEOs thinking about their next stage — whether attracting investment, preparing for acquisition, or building toward a liquidity event — Lubo is the person in the room who has done it before, at scale.
Jennifer Hennings brings a rare combination of frontline mastery and enterprise-level operational leadership that few advisors can match. With nearly 20 years inside some of Canada’s most recognized hospitality and franchise brands — including Recipe Unlimited, Cara Operations, and Sir Corp — she has led from every level of the organization, from the kitchen to the boardroom.
As Director of Operations Excellence & Planning at Recipe Unlimited, Jennifer built and led the systems that drive consistent execution across one of Canada’s largest multi-unit franchise organizations. Her superpower is turning operational complexity into scalable simplicity — the kind of clarity that shows up in your P&L, your franchisee satisfaction, and your system’s readiness to grow.
Tim Crowe began his career at The Keg Steakhouse + Bar, where he mastered the operational standards, training disciplines, and customer service culture that define one of North America’s most respected restaurant brands.
He then spent a decade at St. Louis Bar & Grill leading operations across 75+ locations and $125M+ in annual revenue — driving a 95% customer satisfaction rating through a national quality control initiative, building training programs that created consistent guest experiences system-wide, and developing the franchisee frameworks that ensure every location opens strong and performs consistently. He also launched the Wing City brand from concept to national expansion.
Tim brings to SHG deep expertise in multi-unit operations, franchisee training and success, customer satisfaction, and the systems that drive performance, consistency, and scalability across a growing franchise network.
"Well-executed operations is the engine that enables strategic ambition. Growth is only sustainable when the systems beneath it are built to last."
Jen Lacey has led franchise sales for more than 10 of the industry’s most recognizable brands — bringing a rare end-to-end perspective that spans franchise sales, legal compliance, site selection, and construction. From the first conversation with a prospective franchisee to the moment the doors open, she owns the entire development process.
With Director of Development roles at Topper’s Pizza, Cinnzeo Bakery Cafe, and beyond, Jen has built franchise pipelines that consistently prioritize the right partners over deal volume, brand integrity over short-term growth, and franchisee success over signatures on a page.
She brings to SHG something every growing franchisor needs — a development leader who knows how to scale a system the right way, with the right people, from day one.
"Sustainable franchise growth comes from selecting the right partners, securing the right sites, and building relationships that last beyond the deal."
Built for the Leaders Who Build Industries.
We partner with franchisor CEOs and growth organizations who demand more — from their systems, their teams, and their enterprise value.
You have the brand. You have the ambition. Now you need the system to match. We work alongside emerging and growth-stage franchisors to build the operational infrastructure, communication frameworks, and strategic clarity that turn a promising brand into a scalable, high-value franchise system. PerformANT AI shows you exactly where you stand — and exactly what to do next.
Running multiple locations means managing complexity at scale — and complexity left unmanaged quietly destroys margin, consistency, and growth potential. We help multi-unit operators build the systems, dashboards, and operational discipline that drive unit-level profitability, franchisee satisfaction, and the kind of performance that makes your next location easier to open than your last.
Before you invest, you need to know what you’re actually buying. PerformANT AI gives private equity firms and investors an independent, data-driven X-ray of any franchise system — revealing true operational health, scalability potential, and the value creation roadmap that turns a good investment into a great one.
Insights & Thought Leadership
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