With $907 billion in economic output, franchises are a big chunk of the American economy, but the public doesn’t understand much about the franchising system.

That’s where Scott Deviney (AB ’95) comes in.

As CEO of Chicken Salad Chick, he’s helped grow the franchise from a mom-and-pop operation in Auburn, Alabama, to a 350-store chain in 27 states. He’s learned a lot over the years helping franchisees launch their small businesses and manage the Chicken Salad Chick brand.

Now Deviney is sharing that knowledge with Terry College students as a visiting lecturer. His course — Franchising as a Growth Tool — is part of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program this fall.

“I’ve met a bunch of great kids, and it’s forced me to think about the education part of franchising,” Deviney said. “Most people don’t understand that every McDonald’s is franchised — and that the local McDonald’s or the local Burger King is actually a locally-owned small business.”  

The 30 or so undergraduate and MBA students in the franchising course are hoping to learn about franchising, but also glean leadership and life lessons from Deviney.

“This was appealing to me because he was in investment banking and private equity,” said Alex Kelly, a second-year MBA student. “An industry expert will give you insights that a professor may not.”

Deviney designed the course to cover franchising’s regulatory and business background and how franchises fit into the small business ecosystem.

He has tapped fellow Chicken Salad Chick executives such as general counsel Carol Terry and chief development officer Brian Lindley to join the class to discuss franchisee contracts, FTC regulations and the alchemy of site selection.

But the course is also a master class in leadership, said Vanessa Stakem, a fourth-year marketing major.

“I think franchising is a very robust concept that Terry doesn’t talk about as much in other courses,” said Stakem. “But also, Scott has scaled such a large franchise. I knew that he was going to be someone whose knowledge will be a resource — whether you’re just talking about leadership or if you want to start your own company.”

The biggest responsibility of a franchisor is to build up the small businesspeople running their franchises, Stakem said. She hadn’t expected servant leadership to be as much a part of the course.

As for Deviney, the class has given him more appreciation for the work that goes into designing and teaching a course, but also for UGA students.

“These kids are so far ahead of everything, and they’re so actively participating in class,” Deviney said. “They want to learn it. The work that people have turned in and just the engagement in class has been phenomenal. I was hoping I wasn’t going to be standing up there just lecturing, and I’m not.”

As a final project, Deviney asked the students to come up with a franchise plan for a fictitious company or an existing company that would benefit from franchising.

“Some folks have already come up with a couple of ideas, and they’re pretty good,” he said. “I’m excited to see what they end up with.”