By M. Scott Morris

During her keynote address at the 2026 International Franchise Association Convention, the CEO of AG1 shared her approach to innovation

The theme of the 2026 International Franchise Association Convention in Las Vegas was “Evolve,” but keynote speaker Kat Cole told a packed audience that they needed to earn their way into innovation. It’s a philosophy she developed over decades in franchising and continues to apply as CEO of AG1.

She’s had a remarkable career. She started in franchising at 17 as a hostess at Hooters, and less than a decade later, she was a company vice president. After moving to Focus Brands, now GoTo Foods, she became a brand president by age 31. In 2015, she became a group president at Focus Brands. She moved to AG1 as president and COO in 2021 and was promoted to CEO in 2024.

Pulling from her years of experience, she shared words of wisdom with franchise leaders on the second day of the convention.

 

  1. One strategy or tool every franchise leader must adopt in the next three to five years is balancing cashflow and profitability with customer experience.

In her keynote address, Cole argued that innovation without economic discipline is reckless. When she got to AG1, she pulled back on marketing and redirected resources into operational diversification and clinical research before expanding the company’s product line. Though customers were requesting new products as soon as she stepped into leadership, Cole focused on internal fundamentals. Two years later, AG1 had the infrastructure in place to solidly meet customer demand.

She said he learned similar lessons at Cinnabon. With three years of double-digit sales declines and franchisees raising prices to survive, she said, “What we are doing is not working.” Rather than chase flashy innovation, she focused on protecting unit economics and rebuilding relevance carefully. “You choose to innovate,” she said, “but you choose to be early or late.”

The lesson: Leaders must first ensure the financial engine is stable before layering in change.

 

  1. The biggest opportunity I see coming for franchising is leveraging technology to pool intelligence from independently owned and regionally varied locations.

Cole emphasized that the innovation answers often live inside the system. During her turnaround at Cinnabon, she visited units across malls, airports, and travel plazas, asking three questions of franchisees, frontline workers, mall developers, and more:

  • What should we stop doing?
  • What should we start doing?
  • If you were me, what would you do differently?

She encouraged franchise leaders to ask these same questions broadly and repeatedly. “If you ask 1,000 people the same question, patterns will emerge,” she said. For Cinnabon, the feedback revealed customers were throwing away portions of oversized cinnamon rolls and asking for smaller options.

While nothing can replace human relationships, Cole said that technology can accelerate this pattern recognition today. AI tools can analyze customer interactions and operational data to identify recurring signals across markets.

 

The lesson: Leaders must listen systematically, extract themes, and turn distributed insight into shared advantage.

 

  1. Innovation starts with clarity of your brand and product positioning and clear financial and strategic guardrails combined with clear consumer market insights on the opportunity.

Cole warned against drifting into half-measures. “You are either early or you are late. You choose,” she said, “If you don’t choose, you will waste your organization’s time, money, and energy in between.”

At Cinnabon, franchisees feared introducing smaller cinnamon rolls would cannibalize existing sales. Cole confronted reality, formed what she called a “coalition of the willing,” and de-risked the test by offering to keep early adopters whole if results faltered. The MiniBon ultimately drove roughly half the growth and more than 80% of system improvement as traffic returned.

She closed her address with a reminder to heritage brands: “Do not forget where you came from… but don’t you dare let it solely define you. Your past cannot be your anchor.”

The lesson: Innovation requires protecting what differentiates the brand while leading courageously into what’s next.

 

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