GET THAT Culture

Legendary beauty entrepreneur and Sorbet Group founder, Ian Fuhr, will present the opening keynote address at Professional Beauty’s World Spa & Wellness Convention on 3 September at Gallagher Convention Centre. Here, Joanna Sterkowicz speaks to Fuhr about the issues impacting the South African business environment, as covered in his most recent book, ‘Cultureneering’.

"THE BIGGEST PROBLEM in business in SOUTH AFRICA is NOT ENOUGH FOCUS on RACE RELATIONS and DIVERSITY ISSUES."

A self-described serial entrepreneur, Ian Fuhr founded the Sorbet Group back in 2005 and when he sold the business in 2017, the franchise comprised 220 salons and remains to this day, the largest beauty chain in Africa.

Anyone who has worked at Sorbet, written about Sorbet, or read Fuhr’s first two books (‘Get That Feeling’ and ‘The Soul of Sorbet’), will know that he has always been focused on the culture behind a company, as well as on its people.

When you are dealing with the challenges of managing staff in South Africa, you don’t automatically consider the impact of race relations on the business culture. And yet, according to Fuhr, the biggest problem in business in South Africa is not enough focus on race relations and diversity issues. He continues: “People have the tendency of thinking that these issues are too sensitive to address and hope they will magically disappear, so they ignore them.

“I’ve always been fascinated by culture and the people side of the business. Half of my time at Sorbet was spent focusing on the company’s culture and the employees, so that over that time I built up a solid culture framework.”

"I’ve always been FASCINATED BY CULTURE and the PEOPLE SIDE OF THE BUSINESS. Half of my time at Sorbet was spent FOCUSING ON the COMPANY’S CULTURE and the EMPLOYEES, so that over that time I BUILT UP A SOLID CULTURE framework."

Which came first?

Interestingly, Fuhr had conceived his company culture well before he knew he would be entering the beauty industry. “Usually, a start-up company will come up with a concept, then test the waters to see if it works, then scale the concept and employ more people,” he explains. “As a result, start-ups often find themselves having the difficult task of re-developing the company culture at quite a late stage.

“The opposite was true of Sorbet’s humble beginnings. At the end of 2003, I’d sold my previous company to Edcon and was looking for something to do. I set about developing a blueprint for a company culture but had no idea of what business or what industry I should do it in.

“It was through the advice of a beauty therapist called Liz Goldberg in early 2004 that the idea of beauty salons came to mind. Liz said there was a gap in the market in the beauty industry for a large, branded chain of salons. So, armed with my company culture, I bought six beauty salons and set about creating a franchise.”

Fuhr notes that from the outset, he and his management team wanted to do everything differently, right down to the name of the business.

“I approached an advertising agency to come up with names and one of the suggestions on the list was Sorbet,” he explains.

Understanding the culture framework

During all his years at Sorbet, Fuhr did the staff induction training himself, so that everyone would fully understand his culture framework. He believes the group managed to grow so exponentially because of the culture and attitude of the Sorbet staff, known internally as ‘Sorbet Citizens’.

“When I started Sorbet, I wondered why there were no big chains of beauty salons in South Africa and believe the reason was the issue of consistency across salons. This is something that’s difficult to achieve as you’re dealing with staff offering very personal services. Another challenge was staff retention. That’s why I thought it was so important to get our ‘Sorbet Citizens’ to understand why they were doing what they were doing. The biggest question to ask in connection with staff retention is not why people are leaving their jobs, but why they are not staying.”

A question that Fuhr gets asked quite frequently is how he feels when he walks into shopping centres and sees Sorbet salons. His response: “Although there is always a warm feeling when I see a Sorbet sign, the real emotion is centered around seeing the smiling faces of the Sorbet citizens.

“However, the one thing I’m really proud of is that Sorbet literally changed the face of the beauty industry as I was adamant that I wanted therapists of colour working at our salons. When I left Sorbet in 2017, I would estimate that over 90% of our citizens and between 35% and 40% of our franchise owners were people of colour.”

"The FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION is – why would anyone go out of their way to DELIVER EXCEPTIONAL service if they don’t have a SENSE OF BELONGING in their own SALON OR COMPANY?"

Enter ‘Cultureneering’

The title of Fuhr’s most recent book is ‘Cultureneering’ and grew out of his existing framework for a successful company culture. It is used as a blueprint for workshops run at Fuhr’s new coaching and consulting company, The Hatch Institute, which is devoted to helping companies build a strong culture in a diverse workforce that lays the platform for great company service.

‘Cultureneering’ delves deeply into the area of race, diversity and the socio-political and economic environment of South Africa. It shows how customer service is impacted by culture, diversity and systemic racism. In part, the book is a history of apartheid, something that everyone in South Africa should know about, not just those in managerial or leadership positions. The book reveals how to deal with South Africa’s racially polarized business environment.

Says Fuhr: “What I’ve observed in the Hatch workshops that I run is that people still feel very uncomfortable talking about race. And yet it’s vital that we all learn to recognise the unconscious bias in ourselves and to deal with the conscious bias that leads to racism and discrimination.”

"THE BIGGEST LIE in business that you will ever hear is the line, ‘PEOPLE ARE YOUR GREATEST ASSET’. If you look at COMPANY INCOME STATEMENT, owners will put STAFF IN THE ‘EXPENSES’ COLUMN. They are TREATED as COST BURDENS."

Earning the moral authority to lead

One of the major points that the book makes is that you need to earn the moral authority to lead. Fuhr maintains that managers have to understand how to navigate South Africa’s complex socio-political and economic issues and build that into their leadership style.

“In the past, all of this would be ignored but you can’t just use the old traditional powerbased style of leadership because that is based purely on your position in the hierarchy. Being that sort of power-based leader doesn’t earn you respect among your employees.”

A new concept in ‘Cultureneering’ that is not in Fuhr’s two other books is the following: the customer experience will never be better than the staff experience. He is adamant that there is a very strong link between culture and customer service.

‘Obsessive customer service’

If you get the people side of your business right, then great customer service will follow. In ‘Cultureneering’, Fuhr puts a great deal of emphasis on getting staff to deliver ‘obsessive customer service’.

Says Fuhr: “The fundamental question is – why would anyone go out of their way to deliver exceptional service if they don’t have a sense of belonging in their own salon or company? Poor performing staff are then accused of having a bad work ethic, but no one is born with a bad work ethic. I believe that your work ethic is shaped by the way you are managed.”

Another strong concept in the book is people before profits. Fuhr emphasises that he is not saying that profits are not important, but if you focus on your people, profits should follow.

“The biggest lie in business that you will ever hear is the line, ‘People are your greatest asset’. If you look at company income statement, owners will put staff in the ‘Expenses’ column. They are treated as cost burdens, in the same way as rent or stationery. You don’t want a lean and mean company, you want a caring and sharing culture,” he states.

"What I’VE OBSERVED in my HATCH INSTITUTE WORKSHOPS that I run is that PEOPLE STILL FEEL very UNCOMFORTABLE TALKING about RACE."

National project

Fuhr divulges a massive project that he is incubating, one whose impact may well be felt throughout the country. He believes that not enough is being done to address race relations.

“At Hatch we run lots of race relations workshops and these are certainly gaining traction. Many companies are running diversity and unconscious bias workshops, but they don’t go deep enough. Our race relations workshops dive deeply into the root of racism and the impact it has had on our people for over 300 years. We need to scale them so that they reach all of South Africa. For that reason, I want to facilitate a not-for-profit national series of workshops which at the moment I’m calling, ‘The Racial Healing Project’, and offer these workshops around the country

“I need to find people who can influence and also approach fundraising organisations – both local and international – as racism is a global problem,” concludes Fuhr.