“I haven’t found a role in my career I haven’t loved yet, but using all of my experience to lead my own organization and have such a broad impact, has been incredibly rewarding,” says Clare Nishikawa, founder, and CEO of Beyond Development Group (BDG) “I’ve been able to use my analytical skills from Nielsen together with my development experience from Pizza Hut, to lead restaurateurs to profitable growth, create jobs for thousands of team members and build career path for my employees. What more could I ask for?”
Seeing the passion for developing restaurants and brands run through the veins of a spearhead like Clare Nishikawa inspires beyond measure. Still, upon meeting in person, the change-maker claims her accent is always the conversation starter.
“I’m not what people expect. Despite my Japanese surname (garnered from my Canadian husband), and currently living in the US, I still have a British accent. Admittedly it’s a little mid-Atlantic after years living in Toronto, Montreal and now Dallas, but it’s still very obvious I’m not from around here. Add to that the aspect of being a female running my own restaurant development business makes me a bit of a surprise. But how can I complain when people remember me?”
As I sat alongside the 5’9’ founder, her infectious passion and energizing aura made the unexpected all the more magical. From the get-go, Clare Nishikawa is a breath of fresh air with a heart packed full of robust innovation.
After more than a decade of advising leaders in the CPG industry and a further ten years advising leaders in the franchise restaurant world, Nishikawa couldn’t help but notice a gap in the development space.
With eyes on both sides of the coin, she identified numerous challenges when it came to franchisees driving their own unit growth. Franchisees rarely have the G&A to invest in a strong development team. Franchisor’s are regularly frustrated when the best-laid plans and franchisee development agreements fall short of delivery.
“In a world where most franchisors don’t build units for their franchisees, it’s curious to see that these same franchisors still have the largest development teams” explains Nishikawa. “Where there are plentiful franchisor resources, they can also appear to be focused on more of a ‘sales’ job than a ‘project management’ role supporting the franchisees’ efforts.”
Franchisees with less than 200 units often try to develop their own outlets, but in doing so can often distract operations and finance teams from their daily roles. “As you can imagine, this is rarely effective on a long term basis.”
But Clare Nishikawa believes she has the key to unlocking the secret to retail and restaurant development success.
To change this narrative, through initiative, hard work and determination, Nishikawa and her colleagues in Frisco, Texas, formed a united front with a mission to impact the US positively by enhancing the growth of America’s retail and restaurant world.
Enter: her secret weapon Beyond Development Group. From surviving to thriving, her business opened during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has flourished since.
Today, BDG allows franchisors and franchisees to hire on-demand development expertise in a consultancy role so organizations can continue focusing on operating their business while BDG takes care of their development objectives.
“We’re the development team for anybody that needs us, especially on a part-time or short-term basis,” explains Nishikawa. “Working on new builds, relocations and remodels primarily allows us to address the immediate needs within the organization, and subsequently those same challenges plaguing other retail concepts.”
“We welcomed Molly Wallace into BDG soon after opening our doors which set us up to achieve so much more in 2021,” shares Nishikawa. “After a crazy couple of years in the industry, we opened ten restaurants in 2022 across two brands. We now have a pipeline that continues to progress and grow daily with a potential of over 40 new builds and ten remodels in 2023 across four brands.”
Now, that’s impressive.
“Coming out of a corporate world with so many resources, I’ve been amazed by how much can be achieved by so few of us within BDG. CDOs, whether within a franchisor or franchisee organization, would love to see the level of productivity we’re able to achieve. We manage projects from market planning to opening, and love every minute of it”
One of the significant franchisee teams BDG is working with is Chaac Restaurants who are building out the portfolio of Pizza Hut’s across NY and Maryland. “They don’t have a development team and don’t necessarily need a full-time one. We work with them as an integral part of their organization,” affirms Nishikawa.
“By putting together different organizations only needing part-time support, we’re able to provide a service in a more cost-effective way than if each of them had to employ their own dedicated development resources.”
By playing the role of an overall development team but on a flexible working basis for each of their clients, customers end up only paying for services they need at the time. By using a small outsourced group, such as BDG, instead of bringing in one of the larger development organizations, they receive very personalized and focused attention at much lower rates.
But what’s turning heads a further 90 degrees is the ripple effect Clare Nishikawa is looking to have on America’s restaurant and retail industry.
“We’re looking for a different type of growth for the business,” smiles Nishikawa. “We foresee a future with BDG franchisees across the world. BDG has something unique to offer anyone who wants to grow their brands, but we’re not the only ones able to provide these services.”
She continues; “If we grow our own team too much, we’re at risk of losing the ability to integrate with our customers the way we do and most likely would need to increase pricing due to increased overhead costs.”
Within the next few years, Clare Nishikawa aims to have CDOs form their own BDGs across the country. “We can give them the tools, training, and ongoing support to run their own portfolio of customers.”
“Many corporate CDOs would love more control over their own destiny. They often don’t want to leave the development world, have no interest (or opportunity) in becoming the CEO of their current retail/restaurant brand, but don’t know where to start in going out on their own. I know they’d love a new challenge like this”
She continues, “the opportunity to create connections across the industry is huge, and we believe the development world is for the taking for small development groups like BDG.”
For Nishikawa, collaboration is everything. And being a small organization, the team at BDG has already created a culture where they share their experiences. “We want to continue to drive knowledge and experiences for anyone interested in the development world. We love bringing everyone along on the ride with us.”
After acknowledging how important her strengths played in a time when she felt significant imposter syndrome, Nishikawa vowed to create a space where her team and extended workforces could connect, conquer and thrive.
For more information on expert Clare Nishikawa’s impact, visit Beyond Development Group.
“We welcomed Molly Wallace into BDG soon after opening our doors which set us up to achieve so much more in 2021,” shares Nishikawa. “After a crazy couple of years in the industry, we opened ten restaurants in 2022 across two brands. We now have a pipeline that continues to progress and grow daily with a potential of over 40 new builds and ten remodels in 2023 across four brands.”
Now, that’s impressive.
“Coming out of a corporate world with so many resources, I’ve been amazed by how much can be achieved by so few of us within BDG. CDOs, whether within a franchisor or franchisee organization, would love to see the level of productivity we’re able to achieve. We manage projects from market planning to opening, and love every minute of it”
One of the significant franchisee teams BDG is working with is Chaac Restaurants who are building out the portfolio of Pizza Hut’s across NY and Maryland. “They don’t have a development team and don’t necessarily need a full-time one. We work with them as an integral part of their organization,” affirms Nishikawa.
“By putting together different organizations only needing part-time support, we’re able to provide a service in a more cost-effective way than if each of them had to employ their own dedicated development resources.”
By playing the role of an overall development team but on a flexible working basis for each of their clients, customers end up only paying for services they need at the time. By using a small outsourced group, such as BDG, instead of bringing in one of the larger development organizations, they receive very personalized and focused attention at much lower rates.
But what’s turning heads a further 90 degrees is the ripple effect Clare Nishikawa is looking to have on America’s restaurant and retail industry.
“We’re looking for a different type of growth for the business,” smiles Nishikawa. “We foresee a future with BDG franchisees across the world. BDG has something unique to offer anyone who wants to grow their brands, but we’re not the only ones able to provide these services.”
She continues; “If we grow our own team too much, we’re at risk of losing the ability to integrate with our customers the way we do and most likely would need to increase pricing due to increased overhead costs.”
Within the next few years, Clare Nishikawa aims to have CDOs form their own BDGs across the country. “We can give them the tools, training, and ongoing support to run their own portfolio of customers.”
“Many corporate CDOs would love more control over their own destiny. They often don’t want to leave the development world, have no interest (or opportunity) in becoming the CEO of their current retail/restaurant brand, but don’t know where to start in going out on their own. I know they’d love a new challenge like this”
She continues, “the opportunity to create connections across the industry is huge, and we believe the development world is for the taking for small development groups like BDG.”
For Nishikawa, collaboration is everything. And being a small organization, the team at BDG has already created a culture where they share their experiences. “We want to continue to drive knowledge and experiences for anyone interested in the development world. We love bringing everyone along on the ride with us.”
After acknowledging how important her strengths played in a time when she felt significant imposter syndrome, Nishikawa vowed to create a space where her team and extended workforces could connect, conquer and thrive.
For more information on expert Clare Nishikawa’s impact, visit Beyond Development Group.
