Lifetime achievement awards don’t come around very often – that’s why Robert Stidham is so grateful for this season of his life. Stidham, HCAN’s Board Chairman, has been recognized with the 2021 Global Franchise “Contribution to International Franchising” Lifetime Achievement Award for his efforts to empower entrepreneurs and help them reach their business goals.
“Everyone’s on their own path. What we’ve been able to do, and our passion, is taking an entrepreneur’s dream and helping them make that a reality, whether a successful business that wants to develop a franchise concept or helping someone become a franchisee. We’ve been fortunate to be able to do that over and over and over again,” Stidham said. “I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with some of the very best people in both franchising as well as the restaurant, retail and services industry. You name it, we’ve probably worked on the project.”
As principal shareholder of HCAN, Stidham continues to work on his 2018 plan to transform global aging. HCAN soon will have reach throughout the United States and has plans to extend globally, as it seeks to reshape how senior living communities deliver services.
“An opportunity exists in the marketplace to provide senior living communities with a business format that promotes long-term retention of clients through a high level of care,” he said. “When we started HCAN, we identified our core values and what we wanted to offer to the marketplace. Our belief in the privilege of caregiving led to our core value, ‘Elevate the privilege of caregiving’. We believe that it’s an honor to be present with a client as they age, providing them with services and relationship as it all support seniors in their aging journey.”
Home care is very personal for Stidham. After his son’s near-fatal car accident, his family engaged the services of a caregiver. It was that experience that helped him understand the important role a caregiver plays, no matter where a client is in the aging spectrum. The family’s caregiving journey continued as they later retained home care services for Robert’s parents. These experiences fed Stidham’s passion to recruit highly skilled, compassionate caregivers. At HCAN, we call them Care Advocates, and they are a vital part of our work – so much so that we have started a nonprofit organization to provide benevolence to caregivers in the markets we serve. Within that strategy of care, we also want to provide technology to seniors who are without, as this reduces social isolation, a serious reality that COVID-19 has exacerbated.
Every country is working on a process of how to improve the aging process – making it a more welcomed season for both seniors and caregivers. It’s from that perspective that we have a strategy to expand HCAN into five to ten countries over the next five to seven years. In addition to the U.S., the aging crisis is prevalent in South Korea, Australia, China and Canada, just to name a few. We believe that HCAN offers a great solution for those countries, and we expect to be a part of their overall strategy to provide quality care while also elevating the privilege of caregiving in the global marketplace.
“So now, we we’re even more passionate and we’re even more committed to our long-term goals of empowering others for success in the home care marketplace,” Stidham said.
Congratulations on this well-deserved honor, Robert!
Robert Stidham resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is owner of Franchise Dynamics and Summa Franchise Consulting, leads Arizona Health Holdings, as well as being the Board Chairman for the HomeCare Advocacy Network.
