If a good business is like a good soup, the culture is kind of
like the broth. Without it, you just have a disorganized collection of meats,
vegetables, spices and pasta.
It’s why Eric Ersher has put culture at the forefront of Zoup!
Fresh Soup Co., a fast-casual restaurant chain he founded in 1997 and now leads
as managing partner.
When Ersher and his team decided to build and franchise a
restaurant in which soup is the main attraction as opposed to an appetizer
course, he was navigating uncharted territory, which made defining and
enforcing the culture all the more critical to the company’s success.
“When we started out, we didn’t have a strategy, except to
create a successful concept,” Ersher says. “Speed and management of the company
became important variables as we got into franchising.”
Ersher’s management of the company has led to 24 locations in
12 years. Zoup! now employs 300 people and finished 2009 with $6.4 million in
revenue.
Smart Business spoke
with Ersher about how a winning culture sows the seeds for a winning business.
How does a successful culture play into a successful growth
strategy for a business?
What has worked for us is to maintain a long-term perspective.
We are in this for the long term, so that very much impacts the decisions we make
when it comes to growth. We need our franchisees to be successful, and a smart
growth plan will support their success. Also what has worked really well for us
is investing in our culture, being very aware that the culture will develop in
any group or organization, but the culture may not serve the end goals of the
business. So we invest a lot in understanding our culture, understanding the
best of our culture and finding the people who best fit our culture.
What I’ve found is that the stronger we create our culture,
the more those who fit love being here and really feel like they’ve found a
home. Those who don’t fit seem to self-select out of here and move to find a
better place for themselves.
The other thing is being very protective of the brand. It’s
very subtle and it’s hard to quantify with any traditional measures, but the
greatest asset we have is the Zoup brand. So making certain that brand is
well-represented and consistent with our company’s values is something that has
been critical for us.
