A franchise of global importance: being part of the world's largest search firm, MRI Worldwide, means that franchisees get much more than a glossy franchise manual and a business card.(MRI Worldwide)(Cover Story)

IT'S JUST GONE 0800 GMT, and in a videoconferencing suite in Windsor, the head of performance Instruction at MRI Worldwide is facilitating a morning sales meeting involving a dozen offices from around the UK. Owner managers and their search consultants are comparing notes about the challenges for tire day ahead, triumphs from the previous day, best practice and sales techniques. There's a buzz in the air: in half an hour the meeting will be over and the participants will be ready for another day in the search business.

Meanwhile, one of MRI Worldwide's business development consultants has just arrived at an office in the South East to spend a day with one of MRI's 100 plus UK owner managers and her team, During the course of the day, he'll sit in on meetings and calls, offer on-the-spot training and advice, …