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An accomplished CEO with extensive board and corporate governance experience, John B. Richards serves as advisory partner and principal at The New England Consulting Group. John B. Richards has held senior leadership roles and overseen outstanding growth during the formative years of well-known brands including Starbucks and Four Seasons Hotels. He shares his insights on the main challenge faced by what he terms threshold companies.

When companies start out, they usually depend on family and friends for finance as well as talent. As the company grows, a point is reached when there is a need for more capital and greater expertise, at a level that the original family and friends are not capable of providing. As Mr. Richards states, all threshold companies must travel this path from cronyism to capitalism and deal with the struggle between trust and talent.

Inevitably, those who bring in new capital bring with them new conditions and new managers who may not be completely appreciative of the existing company culture. In a threshold company’s journey from cronyism to capitalism, existing ties may have to be broken to lead the business into its next stage of growth.

A company must be able to manage this defining change while not breaking the momentum that was achieved by utilizing the initial resources provided by family and friends. Those who ably negotiate this transition may one day see their firm join the ranks of the most successful companies.

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Three Challenges Facing Hospitality Investment

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Three Challenges Facing Hospitality Investment

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A successful investor and business leader, John B. Richards serves The New England Consulting Group, Inc., as an advisory partner and a principal. John B. Richards has also developed substantial experience in the hospitality industry, where he operated in leadership capacities for companies such as Elizabeth Arden - Red Door Spa Holdings and Four Seasons Hotels Ltd.

Like other industries, hospitality carries a number of unique challenges that investors must overcome. Here are three of the industry’s commonly cited challenges:

- Social media. In today’s digital landscape, companies must maintain a strong social media presence to thrive. Hospitality businesses rely heavily on good reviews to attract business, meaning that they must remain engaged with their online perception and customer satisfaction at all times.

- Customer profiling. The evolution of big data has also made it easier for hotels to identify promising new customer bases, but this process often requires a great deal of research and financial investment. Indeed, many hotels are still searching for the best way to improve customer intimacy and anticipate the needs of returning guests.

- Non-room revenue. Research has shown that the guest experience correlates directly with non-room amenities such as restaurants, recreational facilities, and meeting spaces. Many hotels are working hard to optimize the number of amenities available to guests while keeping costs relatively low.

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The advisory partner and principal at New England Consulting Group, John B. Richards has served several international brands, including Starbucks and Four Seasons Hotels, in executive leadership positions. Prior to his career, John B. Richards studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as president of the university’s Phi Gamma Delta chapter.

In collaboration with Dr. Ken Blanchard, a leading management expert, Phi Gamma Delta has created the “Taking the Lead” leadership development program, which draws upon more than three decades of research into the subject of situational leadership. The program consists of three modules that help participants develop skills that will lead to success in their fraternity, college, and career lives.

The first module focuses on how to take the lead and demonstrate your leadership qualities when you are assigned to a role that does not place you in direct charge of a situation. The second module benefits those who rise through the ranks of their Phi Gamma Delta chapters to become officers. The third module helps program participants understand how their individual personalities and leadership styles influence they way others perceive them as leaders.

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Drawing upon extensive experience in the retail and service industries, John B. Richards provides strategic direction that leads to business expansion. For 10 years, John B. Richards served as Executive Vice President of Four Seasons Hotels, helping build the company from eight to 42 properties during his tenure.

Part of the reason for the global success of Four Seasons is its service culture, which has four elements:

1. Who we are. Four Seasons defines itself as a leading entity in the hospitality industry that focuses on the quality of its service and locations. In doing so, the company satisfies the needs of its customers and positions itself as a leading hospitality brand.

2. What we believe. A belief that the company's people are its most important asset is critical at Four Seasons. All employees have a sense of pride in everything they do, and they carry themselves with dignity as they work together to achieve the company's larger aims.

3. How We Succeed. At Four Seasons, success is defined as achieving a reasonable profit while providing benefits to guests, employees, and the hotel owners.

4. How we behave. Operating on the idea of "do unto others as you have would have them do unto you," Four Seasons treats guests, employees, and business partners with respect and a professional attitude.

John B. Richards is an accomplished business executive who has served in senior management and executive roles for a number of service businesses, including Starbucks Coffee Company. During his tenure at Starbucks, John B. Richards grew annual store openings from 285 to 410, first as the company's president, retail North America and later as the president of Starbuck's North American operations. Scaling a service business is a difficult task so here is some basic advice.

1. Sell one thing many times. A service business' model is based on selling one, or a limited number, of products multiple times to the same customers. As such, companies must provide a service that fosters brand loyalty and must consider how to sell a single product in a variety of ways.

2. Finding the right people. As a service business manager, you likely have core competencies, such as sales ability. However, the demands of operating the business will often mean that you only put a small amount of your time into that core competency. As such, finding the right people who can commit 100 percent of their time to specific areas of the business facilitates growth. Create teams based on the core facets of the business and ensure the members of those teams understand their objectives and receive the tools needed to focus their efforts on driving their departments forward.

A multi-industry executive with experience across the United States, John B. Richards is the former chief executive officer of the Joint Corp., a chiropractic network headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. At several points in his career, John B. Richards helped drive business growth and brand loyalty via loyalty programs.

In marketing circles, loyalty programs are one of the most commonly used strategies for building a regular customer base and attracting new customers. Customers join loyalty programs because they want to establish a relationship with the company in question, so long as there is additional value beyond a single transaction. As such, loyalty programs must provide access to new products and service offerings. Loyalty programs may also provide incentives for members to engage with new offerings.

Convenience also plays an important role in customer loyalty programs. Companies can improve convenience by offering services such as online payment and express pickup, which saves customers time and creates an overall positive experience.

The former president of North American operations at Starbucks Coffee, John B. Richards has been instrumental in structuring and scaling up many organizations at which he has been employed. Some of his accomplishments include building brands through service, such as with Four Seasons Hotels. During John B. Richards' tenure as CMO and EVP of operations, the hotel's portfolio was extended from eight to 42 hotels and from three to 22 countries. With this expansion, the brand-awareness of the hotel group rose from 20 to 80 percent, surpassing that of Ritz-Carlton as a premier luxury chain.

Building a brand involves a process of creating awareness through adopting strategies that boost the value of the company to consumers. Branding is establishing the identity of a product. It could be the name, icon, design, or a combination of these that separates the product from others like it. Hence, the brand is the symbol of the product or the company, and is an integral part of business development.

The brand is also about the features or services that make people choose one company over another. This is determined by the impression that the company makes on customers. One study claims that about 60 percent of customers generally choose to pay more for a better experience, even in a negative economy. Therefore, developing a good strategy for branding is one of the most important decisions in any business.

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Drawing upon extensive experience in the retail and service industries, John B. Richards provides strategic direction that leads to business expansion. For 10 years, John B. Richards served as Executive Vice President of Four Seasons Hotels, helping build the company from eight to 42 properties during his tenure.

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Read writing from John B Richards on Medium. In this position, John B Richards joined the New England Consulting Group in 2006, and, currently, serves the firm as managing director.

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John B. Richards The current principal and managing director of the New England Consulting Group, John B. Richards is an operating executive and ma...

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John B. Richards - Advisory Partner and Principal @ The New England Consulting Group (NECG.net) | crunchbase

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An accomplished executive with over 30 years of experience in brand and marketing strategy, John B. Richards earned his bachelor's degree from Bucknell University, where he studied history and...

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John Richards, the former president of North American Operations for the Coffee Company, is enjoying his new role in healthcare as CEO of The Joint Corp. With a background in people-oriented and branding services-he was the executive vice president of Four Seasons Hotels during its international expansion and CEO of the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spas when it doubled its national growth- Mr. Richards specializes in "scalable concepts that define the experience."

When diagnosis and management of neck and back pain exceeds $85 billion a year, and both types of pain contribute to more disability in Americans than diabetes, chronic pulmonary disease and ischemic heart attack, the health market is prime for creating a service-oriented model. And thus, in mid-2014 Richards made his move into the health market. According to Mr. Richards, presently there is too much variation for patients in processing, assessment, treatment and payment. Therefore, using a retail-based model, like those he has employed before, he believes he can double clinic volume each year. While this sounds incredibly aggressive, in 2013 The Joint tripled its clinics' growth and in 2014 doubled the growth. This task is nothing new for Mr. Richards, who oversaw Starbucks ' national rollout that took the company from 500 to 3,000 retail stores in just three years. He also gets credit for the Four Seasons Hotels expanding from eight to 40 locations in 20 countries. So he says he is ready and excited for the challenge.
Chiropractic Care Predicts Unlimited Growth
In 2012, it was estimated that more than 52 million patients visited a physician with a complaint of back pain-compared to 44 million in 2004. This number has continued to grow as outpatient services have become more easily accessible throughout the U.S. Additionally, according to the Global Burden of Disease 2010, lower back pain has become the single leading cause of disability worldwide, with billions lost in productivity, as well as personal pain.

According to JAMA as far back as 2008 (after adjustment for inflation), "total estimated medical costs associated with back and neck pain increased by 65% between 1997 and 2005." This resulted at that time in expenditures of about $86 billion a year. With estimates like that it is no wonder Mr. Richards feels confident about making chiropractic a more easily accessible, chain business with exponential growth.

In fact, by The Joint's own valuations, their clinics already generate about three times the volume of a traditional national chiropractic clinic-or at least 1,600 patient visits a month. This was done by growing from eight to 330 clinics in roughly 30 states, within a short five-year window. Yet, Mr. Richards contends, "This is slower than Starbucks, but easier. It's less expensive and there are fewer people to orchestrate," indicating he believes this is only the tip of the iceberg despite the impressive numbers.

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An $85 Billion Industry Convinces Former Starbucks President To Move Into Healthcare

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John Richards, the former president of North American Operations for the Starbucks Coffee Company, is enjoying his new role in healthcare as CEO of The Joint Corp. (NASDAQ: JYNT).

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John B. Richards | nonexecutivedirectors.com

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The largest network for non-executives, board and chair members in the world. Exclusive jobs, professional development and career support.

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Title Slide of WSJ 1-20-05 JBR - Red Door Article

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The National Capital Fiji Graduate Chapter Intern Scholarship

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The National Capital Fiji Graduate Chapter Intern Scholarship

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Leveraging expertise in the real estate, service, and hospitality sectors, John B. Richards serves as an Advisory partner and Principal at The New England Consulting Group in Green Farms, Connecticut. Prior to beginning his career, John B. Richards attended Bucknell University, where he functioned as the university’s Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity (FIJI) chapter’s president.

Each year, FIJI’s educational foundation offers its National Capital Fiji Graduate Chapter Intern Scholarship of $1,000 to a member of the fraternity. To achieve eligibility for the scholarship, an individual must meet the following criteria:

1. Membership in an undergraduate FIJI chapter or colony that maintains good standing with the Board of Chapter Advisors (BCA) and the fraternity leaders, or Archons.

2. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 that is demonstrable on the applicant’s current transcript. This GPA should include the applicant’s grades for the previous fall semester.

3. Applicants must meet all FIJI-related financial obligations and commit to using the grant for education pursuits, such as books and course fees.

4. A commitment to continued donations to the FIJI foundation whenever the applicant is financially able.

5. Full completion of the application form, preferably typed. However, FIJI will accept handwritten applications if they are neat and legible.