Soup!

Today’s Foodie Fun Friday post is about soup. My current head/chest cold has me focused on this topic and of course it also relates to business in my mind. No, I’m not doing any work for the folks at Campbell’s but, as you’ll see, what goes on with soup is very pertinent to what goes on in the business world as well.There are all kinds of recipes for soup but the basic premise is to infuse water with flavor.  One can start with meat or vegetables and boil them for a bit to make a stock (yes, I know about browning the meat, soaking it first, but I’m trying to simplify here, OK?!?!).  Generally you remove the meat and veg, de-fat the broth, put the meat back and add fresh vegetables since you’ve already extracted the flavors from the ones you boiled.  You can thicken it by reduction or by using a roux, you can add milk or cream, but that’s the basic method.  Now don’t you feel dumb for reading all those recipes! Let’s learn to think like a chef!

How does this relate to business?  My feeling is that one is trying to do the same thing with business situations.  Extract their essence, remove any nasty fatty by-products that came with the reduction process, and add something fresh to make something new.  The cool thing about soup is that you can use all of the stuff – outer celery leaves, chicken wing tips and backs, etc. – that you might otherwise toss out.  That’s a good lesson for anyone who produces content – there’s always some soup waiting to be made, even with the things you’re thinking have no value.

I spend a lot of time with my clients trying to extract that essence.  I ask a lot of questions trying to get to the core flavor and then we decide how we can use that core as the building block of something better.

What kind of soup are you making?  Have you taken the time to extract the best flavors you can or are you just reheating whatever you found laying around?  As easy as soup-making and business can be, they take time, they take a fair amount of chopping and stirring, and they do require that you keep tasting as you go to make sure you’re not off track.