A Surprising Life In Franchising

Area Developer:

Harshad Dharod always meant to quit working at Jack-in-the-Box and pursue his goal of becoming a doctor in the United States. Instead, he found success beyond his wildest dreams… in franchising.

Growing up in Bombay, India, he learned early to work hard. He was very young when his father died and at 5 years old was pedaling a bike 10 to 15 miles a day to deliver milk to 30 families. He earned about $5 to $7 a month to help support his family.

In school, Dharod was always a top student, number one in his class. In 1979, at 17, he left Bombay to live in the United States. He’d come with his mother and his older brother, after years of urging by his uncle, his mother’s older brother, who had moved to the U.S. in the 1960s.

When he arrived in Los Angeles, Dharod planned to continue his studies and become a doctor. But the first task for him and his older brother, Sunil, was to earn enough money so they and their mother could move out of his uncle’s house into an apartment of their own.

He walked the streets of Los Angeles for 8 hours every day, filling out all the job applications he could. After 22 days, he got a call from a Jack-in-the-Box in Culver City. He went in for an interview and started work the same day.

He planned to stay there for 6 months, while his family settled into their new life in Los Angeles. Then he’d enroll in a college and pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. But when Dharod told his boss he was quitting, something happened – and kept happening: he was offered a promotion. ‘Every time I was going to go back to college, they promoted me. So I said, ‘Okay. I’ll go after 6 more months.’

Dharod moved from crew member to shift leader to assistant manager to manager to training supervisor. Years passed. ‘I was doing so well, I never wanted to go back to become a doctor. I really liked working with Jack-in-the-Box.’

Franchisee