‘Cultureneering’ key to building business success
Founder of salon chain Sorbet Ian Fuhr is a firm believer in teams
Building a team requires creating an inclusive culture where diverse individuals from different cultures and with varying life experiences can pledge allegiance to a common purpose.
Ian Fuhr, best known as the founder of beauty salon chain Sorbet, calls it “cultureneering” — the art of building the right teams in a company. “Building a team is a fundamental extension of culture,” he says.
Fuhr had to learn about culture and people and understand the social and political environment quickly on his entrepreneurial journey. “It was a steep learning curve. I was uniquely privileged in that way as well because I was able to be exposed to what was really happening in SA at that time.”
The lessons became fundamental in helping him build teams for the business.
In building teams, Fuhr’s challenges were evidently different to other entrepreneurs.
Affordability of the right people was never an issue. The challenge was finding people who would be aligned to the company’s goals.
“The biggest challenge in building a team is getting everyone aligned — some people come to work to make money, some people come to work for a purpose, some people come to work because they want to learn new things and develop. An average individual in SA comes to work for a salary.
“When building a team, it is important to get people to understand why they are there in the first place — it’s not about making money, but about creating in peoples’ minds the fact that service comes before reward.”
Fuhr launched Sorbet, with six outlets, in 2005. A huge team was required from the outset. It was important for him to build a company culture that all employees could grow into, and for everyone to come to work with a common purpose of service.
Long4Life acquired 100% of Sorbet in 2017.
Fuhr is a big believer in business being about servicing customers before anything else.
“As soon as our employees started to shift their mindset from ‘I am here to make money’ to ‘I am here to serve the needs and wants of people’, then all of a sudden the business started to change, and we grew from there until we opened an average of 30 franchise stores per annum.”
He recalls that the business turned the corner when everybody bought into the culture.
“The first few years of Sorbet were very tough. It was a challenge to try to instil a common culture throughout the company, and, at the time, nobody was eager to franchise. My approach to team building is about driving a fundamental extension of culture.
“Our belief was that we are in business to make people feel good and every team member must be completely aligned to support it.
“What really helped the teams succeed was the shift in mindset.
“Everyone understood that we’re not at work to sell products and treatments, but rather selling our customers a look-goodfeel-good sense that infused them with confidence to face the world.”
Not one to shy away from calling a spade a spade, Fuhr says that when it comes to building teams one will be faced with a lot of diverse individuals who live in a country with a “highly complex and volatile socio-political environment”, and to think we are all the same, when our lived experiences are vastly different, is naive.
“We cannot move forward in business or as a country if we do not understand each other better.
“There’s always value in having diversity in a team. If you hire people like you then you just have one thought — which is yours.
“Every entrepreneur has to have some sort of training on how to deal with their own emotions, biases and prejudices and how it impacts on other people.
“You cannot go out and transform a business or culture if you are not able to transform yourself.”
We cannot move forward in business or as a country if we do not understand each other better
Ian Fuhr