38. The Learning Experience
Child development centers
The new COO, Andrew Alfano, has been in his post at The Learning Experience for only a year, but he just laughs when asked if the child development franchise’s accelerated growth rate can thus be attributed to him. The credit goes to the founder, Richard Weissman, who laid a great foundation for the brand and then knew when it was time to hire a beefed-up management team to take it to the next level. Alfano has a background at Starbucks. The relatively new human resources director was at Home Depot when they had just a few stores. Their real estate development person worked at McDonald’s and Limited brands. “I really give him a ton of credit for bringing these people in,” Alfano says, referring to the founder. “Richard knowing that the company was at a point of inflection, and in order to grow, we need others who have been on this journey that have done what we are about to do.” Now his and the rest of the team’s tricky task is to keep the growth rate going while honoring the past. “One of the things I’ve been very vocal about, we have to be very respectful of the history and legacy of the organization,” he said. “This is not about winning at all costs, and the fingerprints of the people who have been here are all over this place. If the high majority of the people here don’t take the journey with us, I would not consider this to be successful.” Systemwide sales are up 36 percent and units are up 33 percent over the past three years at The Learning Experience. They’re in 22 states with 170 locations open and 120 in development, and buildout costs between $400,000 and $600,000. “I don’t think money is a dirty word. Performance and driving revenue and creating profit is actually what gives us permission to do all the things we want to do,” he said.
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