---
title: "Scaling a culture"
description: "How Make It Nice carried the EMP culture into a new venture."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/unreasonable-hospitality/scaling-a-culture/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# Scaling a culture

> How Make It Nice carried the EMP culture into a new venture.

Will Guidara's framework, from Unreasonable Hospitality, pp. 210 to 225.

Framework 14 of 15 from [Unreasonable Hospitality](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/unreasonable-hospitality/index.md) by Will Guidara. Category: Hiring and teams.

## The steps

1. **Identify what makes the culture unique.** Decide in advance what to protect, here the culture of Unreasonable Hospitality.
2. **Seed with sourdough starter.** Staff the opening management team with people from the original restaurant and hire outside only where skills are missing.
3. **Invest unreasonably in training.** Run classroom training and floor stages for weeks before opening.
4. **Write the Field Manual.** Collect the concepts that resonated most from years of pre-meal speeches and commit core values to paper.
5. **Keep a boss on site.** Name a general manager so that decisions are made and trust is visible.

## Where it comes from

From chapter: Chapter 19: Scaling a Culture, pp. 210–225

Guidara and Humm are offered the food and beverage at the NoMad hotel, Danny Meyer will not be partners and competitors and instead offers them Eleven Madison Park to buy. Guidara raises the money in under three months with help from a regular, Ernesto Cruz, and investor Noam Gottesman, and they found Make It Nice on 11 November 2011. Creativity is a practice, shown in the NoMad built around the Rolling Stones and a fictional character. They jump-start the culture by staffing from EMP like sourdough starter and write the Field Manual. Guidara then makes his own big mistake, running both restaurants without naming a GM, apologises to the whole staff and promotes Kirk Kelewae, and sees the NoMad extend rather than cannibalise the brand.

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/unreasonable-hospitality/scaling-a-culture.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/unreasonable-hospitality/scaling-a-culture-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/unreasonable-hospitality/scaling-a-culture.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/unreasonable-hospitality/scaling-a-culture-dark.png