# Tom Crowther

Tom Crowther writes about how growing franchise networks can manage technology, clarify decision-making and responsibility, and understand cyber risk.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/tom-crowther/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomcrowther
- LinkedIn followers: 1,227
- Topics: leadership
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-10-05

## Summary

Tom Crowther is most useful for framing franchise technology and cyber risk as governance and decision rights.

- Best for: A franchise consultancy or network leader campaign about technology governance and responsibility.
- Not for: A product-led security vendor campaign promoting a specific platform or purchase intent.
- Check first: Confirm audience roles, engagement data, and whether any partnership or sponsorship format exists.

### Takeaways

- A network can outgrow how it manages technology before it outgrows the technology itself.
- Map decision rights and system ownership before deciding which system to replace.
- Cyber risk starts with who makes technology decisions, not just security software.

## Main ideas

- **A network can outgrow how it manages technology before it outgrows the technology itself**: Crowther argues that technology gets harder to manage as a franchise network grows—not because of one obvious breakdown, but because more franchisees, locations, systems and suppliers mean more moving parts. Decisions that were easy at 20 locations feel different at 50, 100 or more. The symptoms are organisational: more decisions reach the leadership team, exceptions and workarounds multiply, responsibility becomes less clear, and changing one thing can affect another. The answer is not automatically to build an internal IT department; many franchisors rightly keep using external suppliers. What they need is someone to own the overall picture and answer leadership questions about direction, standards, franchisee choice, supplier value, system fit, risk and investment priorities.
- **Map decision rights and system ownership before deciding which system to replace**: Crowther says the system causing the most frustration is not necessarily the real problem. Start by mapping the whole picture: where technology decisions are made, what the franchisor controls versus what franchisees choose, who owns each system, which suppliers are responsible for what, where responsibilities overlap, and which decisions keep returning to the managing director, chief operating officer or leadership team. A franchisor can have good software and capable suppliers yet find technology harder to control because nobody has stepped back to see how it all fits together. Without that wider view, individual fixes leave the underlying problems untouched.
- **Cyber risk in a franchise network starts with who makes the technology decisions**: Crowther shifts the cyber-risk discussion from security software to ownership and visibility. Start with what head office controls, what franchisees can choose for themselves, who decides which suppliers can access systems or data, whether the network has minimum standards, and whether anyone knows when a franchisee does something differently. A franchisor can have strong central security while franchisees use different devices, suppliers, systems and working practices. Individually reasonable local decisions can add up to a very different picture across a large network. Without visibility into how technology is used and where control becomes unclear, it is hard to know where the real risks lie. This helps locate risk; it is not a security standard or a claim about any particular network's exposure.
- **The hard balance is consistency for the network without removing franchisee independence**: Crowther argues that head office cannot realistically make every technology decision for every independently operated franchise business, nor should it. But it cannot secure only its own environment and assume the rest sits with the franchisee. The key is clarity about what every franchisee must do, what they can decide locally, what head office needs visibility of, and where responsibility moves from one side to the other. Without that clarity, gaps appear: head office assumes the franchisee has something covered, the franchisee assumes head office or the IT supplier has it covered, and sometimes nobody does. Crowther frames this as an ownership problem more than a technology problem.
- **Turns technology management into leadership questions rather than technical ones**: Across the posts, Crowther keeps the conversation focused on leadership and ownership. They avoid product recommendations, vendor names and technical detail. Each opens with a challenge to the expected first step—do not start with the security software; do not ask which system to replace—then offers plain questions franchisors can work through. The questions are aimed at leaders, not IT specialists, and the tone is measured rather than alarmed.

## Work to read

- [A franchisor can outgrow its approach to managing technology before it outgrows the technology](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tomcrowther_a-franchisor-can-outgrow-the-way-it-manages-activity-7509137361130319872-GtsE)
- [Growth makes technology harder to manage before anyone notices](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tomcrowther_your-franchise-network-can-double-in-size-activity-7507688347696373761-E3uQ)
- [Start with the whole picture, not the system that frustrates you most](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tomcrowther_when-technology-starts-getting-harder-to-activity-7508412555325878274-j_cY)
- [To understand cyber risk in a franchise network, start with who makes the technology decisions](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tomcrowther_want-to-understand-cyber-risk-in-a-franchise-activity-7505875749455749120-Kq4F)
- [Cyber security in a franchise network is an ownership problem](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tomcrowther_cyber-security-in-a-franchise-network-isnt-activity-7506600913873223680-kvLE)

## Partnerships

Tom Crowther's posts do not say that there is a partnership or sponsorship offer. All five posts are Tom Crowther's own commentary on technology governance and cyber risk in franchise networks. None is a sponsored post, none describes a partner package, and none sets out pricing, deliverables, audience commitments, or an inquiry route. A brand planning around this creator therefore has no published format to buy into in the posts here. That is a gap in what the posts say rather than a finding that Tom Crowther never accepts sponsorship or paid work; the posts do not address that question either way. If a partnership route matters to the campaign, treat verifying it as an open research action before committing budget.

## Alternatives

- John Henning: Choose John Henning if the consultancy wants to frame the work around building a sustainable franchise network rather than technology governance specifically. In a post on franchise growth, Henning argues for candidate quality, alignment between development and operations, and growth paced to support capacity. Those themes could help a consultancy connect technology decisions to the wider question of whether a network can support its next stage of growth.
- Megan Murphy Meyer: Choose Megan Murphy Meyer if the campaign’s main problem is franchise-sales performance and the consultancy wants to reach franchisors through that entry point. Her posts examine where prospects stall, how validation conversations affect momentum, and why more leads may not solve a process problem. That can suit a campaign tying technology investment to sales operations or candidate experience.
- Careyann Golliver: Choose Careyann Golliver if the consultancy wants to make the campaign useful to prospective franchise owners evaluating whether franchising suits their goals and working style. Her posts prompt readers to consider capital, time, skills, and the balance between following a system and executing it locally. This is a different route into franchise-network decisions: the prospective operator’s perspective rather than head-office governance.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/