Steven Francis

Founder and CEO

Steven is a visionary and planner. Embrace entrepreneurial, technical, financial, marketing, operations, and organisational behaviour as well as analytical and strategic thinking. Steven has mastered the art of entrepreneurship by focusing on: Mentorship (the sounding board for growth); Network (the mentors and peer connections to expand); Strategic Advice (the insight of the established experts); Talent (the people to scale ambitious ideas); Skills (the tools to evolve as CEO’s, leaders and mentors); Inspiration (the encouragement and influence to think big); and Thought Leadership (drive high impact entrepreneurship)

Steven commenced his career with Yum Restaurants International (KFC & Pizza Hut) in the early 90s in the capacity of HR and Training Manager and later was promoted to National Operations Manager managing 408 franchise restaurants in South Africa, including Namibia and Botswana; working with corporate franchisees. In 1999 Steven was awarded the KFC President (Dallas) global award for flawless implementation of the KFC international brand, operations manual known as Champs Standard Library, in Southern Africa. Steven enjoyed 17 successful years with Yum Restaurants International. Steven then joined the Mugg & Bean Franchise Group as Operations Director and was directly responsible for the brand expansion and management of the P&L. His expertise in franchising help build the brand from 39 restaurants in 2006 to 104 restaurants by November 2009. Steven business acumen and strong leadership ability was demonstrated by implementing world class operations systems and disciplines that has made Mugg & Bean the Proudly South African brand and popular household name it owns today. Steven then joined Tsebo Holdings (Fedics Contract Catering), as Operations Director and managed 75 contracts within the motor industry; the likes of BMW and Ford as well as telecommunication giant, Telkom; working closely with contract stakeholders and managing the P&L. Steven was approached to head up the QSR and FMCG business unit in West Africa and Ghana as CEO for the Food Concept Group to grow its franchise base and redefine the organisations operating platform and managing a budget of 75m USD. Steven initiated the Central Distribution and worked with designers and contractors to ensure a HACCP complaint Central Distribution; which resulted in cost saving and delivery of consistent products to all restaurants within Nigeria, thus having a significant impact to the company’s bottom line margins. Steven then consulted for Sundry Foods Plc, as a resident consultant based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. At Sundry Foods Plc, Steven was responsible for expanding the Kilimanjaro brand (local native food brand) as well as the Creamery Brand (coffee shop concept); and here he exceeded the expectation of the stakeholders. Steven demonstrated outstanding leadership by coaching and mentoring his team to perform at optimum level during his tenure at Sundry Foods Plc.

Steven holds a MBA postgraduate qualification from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Business School, UK and other qualifications which includes, MDP (University of Natal), Marketing Management IMM (Executive Education), Human Resources Management (Damelin College), Economics (Milpark Business School), Project and Corporate Communications (Wits Business School), Lateral Thinking and Creativity (Institute of International Research). Steven is an Honoured Member of Worldwide Branding, (The Worldwide Who's Who Registry of Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs). Steven is an associate faculty member with Duke CE Corporate Education, Library Faculty promoting Entrepreneurship training on the African continent. Duke CE operates in 75 countries worldwide.

Steven has written various learner training manuals/workbooks that target in- restaurant personnel from the restaurant GM to BOH and FOH personnel. He has also written workbooks targeting the Retail market as well as Business Mentorship Programs to assist entrepreneurs to become business leaders in the field of Franchising, Hospitality and Retail. Steven also developed the Balanced Scorecard One Pager that measures the overall performance of an organisation. His ability to transform organisations to perform at optimum level is strongly recommended in his field of expertise in business science.