To end the week, let’s talk about food and, more specifically, leftovers. You know what I mean – the rest of the steak you couldn’t finish; the other half of the chicken. The food you wrap up when the meal is over and deposit in the fridge so you can eat it at a later time and get more bang for your food buck.
We make a strenuous effort here at Rancho Deluxe not to toss any food unless it’s past its prime. However, given that there are often copious mounts of food left over after a family event or weekend of cooking, turning leftovers into something completely new has become an art form. Turns out there are business implications too!
Having the vision to take a dish, deconstruct it, and make something completely new out of the basic components is an important kitchen skill. For example, begin able to take meat off a bone and turn it into a fine hash or a salad of some sort requires great knife skills and ability to find favors complementary to those already cooked into the original dish.
It can be like that in business as well. Some folks are really good at looking at businesses that have already peaked and are on the downward side of the demand curve and finding the parts that can be taken to make something new. Other folks can take flawed business models and extract the kernel of a something great even as some folks toss the original idea away completely. How many pieces of tech exist today based on some earlier failure’s leftovers?
We should all take our time before discarding new ideas and old businesses You never know what kind of great meal is hiding inside.