MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 2 | 71
mother and its sitting here right on my desk,
next to me, it’s a paperweight and it says
"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else
have your way" love that. And you have to
understand that this concept is not about
manipulation, it’s about collaboration. That
if you really want to move people in a direc-
tion that the best way to make that happen
is to collaborate, to work with them. Don't
hit them over the head and say 'do it my
way' but collaborate with them and work
through the ideas. These were some of the
things that I think have been powerful, there
are two concepts that have been powerful
for me in running a business over the years.
Neil: Ivan, can we just talk about the entre-
preneurial Journey a little bit more now, do
you think culture is important from the be-
ginning in a busi-
ness?
Ivan Misner:
"Culture eats
strategy for breakfast" Let me repeat that.
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" Culture
is the single most important aspect of a suc-
cessful business. If you have not started to
create a cultural identity for your business,
start now. Create core values, and a philoso-
phy that is part of the culture of your com-
pany.
A company with a fantastic culture, and a
marginal strategy can succeed in business. A
company with a fantastic strategy, and a
marginal culture will probably fail in busi-ness. But a company with an awesome cul-
ture, and a strong strategy will be the indus-
try leader every single time. So, strategy is
important, but culture is critical for the suc-
cess of a business.
So, sit down and start understanding what
are the things you are doing right as a busi-
ness? And why? Why are you doing those
right? And maybe there are some things that
you really, you are aspirational, you aspire
for your business to be able to do these
things but maybe you are not quite there.
Aspirational values are good for creating a
culture as well. And then keep stories. Sto-
ries are what create culture. So, as you cre-
ate these values, and you have experiences,
write those stories down. Share those sto-
ries with others and it’s that story telling on
the core values,
that create the or-
ganisational cul-
ture.
Neil: So, Ivan, how do you take, I mean you
started a business from nothing to some-
thing that’s got now over seven thousand
outlets around the world. How do you main-
tain that culture because having culture in a
small business or even a regional business,
maybe I could sort of see how you do that,
but as you start getting bigger and bigger
and you start going to different countries,
how do you maintain those cultural values in
that business?
Ivan Misner: Well let’s start with your lastDiplomacy is the art of
letting someone else have your way