Monthly Archives: April 2013

April 12, 2013 · 11:37 am

What Grills Teach Us About Scaling

A rainy Friday but we’ll still have our Foodie Friday Fun as if the sun was shining and we’re firing up the grill outside.

Beef and Corn on a Charcoal BBQ grill

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is getting to be that time, of course, and with it comes one of the big differences between a professional kitchen and most amateur kitchens:  the ability to scale.  Cooking for a family of four is vastly different from making the exact same meal for 24.  In the case of the aforementioned grill, grilling burgers, dogs, and chicken for four is relatively easy; doing so for 24 requires excellent timing, a much bigger grill, and a way to keep food hot while the rest of it cooks.  That’s why I have a firm rule against “piece work” when cooking for a lot of people – I always use big cuts – racks of ribs, briskets, whole chickens – and cut them into serving pieces.  It makes scaling the operation a lot easier.

Many business folks don’t think about scaling.  They develop a product or service or management style that works when things are small but which can’t handle a much larger set of challenges.  Managing a staff of three can be easy – communication should be efficient, there are only a few egos and skill sets to align.  When three becomes 30, look out, especially if your management style is one of detachment or tolerance rather than engagement.  Obviously there are technical challenges in many businesses as well – servers can only handle so much traffic, sloppy code can’t process quickly enough to handle demand are some examples in tech.  Customer service lines can be full, inventory management can be a nightmare – some non-tech issues.  Those are things that must be contemplated very early on with an eye towards the stress brought on by success (not a bad problem to have, right?)

How the business will grow and how to support that growth is probably not on enough radars.  Do we get bigger through new products?  Do we add areas of focus?  Do we get enough funding to make acquisitions?  Strange as it may seem, planning a cookout can help think it through.  If you’re running out of food or serving it cold, guest walk away hungry or maybe sick.  Scaling to serve your guests (customers) isn’t something that just happens – it requires thought and planning.  So does business!

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April 11, 2013 · 10:09 am

A Riff On Transformation From AI

I’m pretty sure that each of you has a guilty pleasure or two. One of mine is American Idol which, despite its diminished viewership and declining influence, is still the only singing competition that regularly puts out talent making hit recordings. Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood are the two biggest musical names that also won but Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry, and a slew of other musical names have come out of the show.

American Idol logo 2008–2011

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the things I enjoy most about the program, besides watching unknown singers turning into stars, are the times when a truly memorable performance occurs. Last night we had one and it actually made me think of an important business lesson.

Most of the really great performances on Idol have come when a singer takes a song and remakes it in his or her own style. Over the years, Adam Lambert took a Tears for Fears song (Mad World), slowed it down, and stripped the arrangement to feature his voice. Brilliant, although the fact that he sang it out of the park helped too! The year David Cook won, he transformed a song almost every week to make it his own. Last night, one of the contenders, a young woman named Candice Glover, did the same with The Cure’s “Love Song.” She performed Adele’s re-imagination of the song and took it to another level.  Which is exactly the business point.

While it’s hard to say, as does Ecclesiastes, that there’s nothing new under the sun (not in technology anyway), many of the best new products and services are transformed versions of things that have come before.  In some cases it’s optimizing a service or product for a digital world (for the digital voice, if you will).  In other cases, it’s transforming something altogether to make it better – mp3 players to iPhones are the most obvious examples but there are many others.

The lesson from Idol is that whatever you do, make it yours and make it spectacularly good.  Seems like some excellent business thinking as well.  You agree?

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April 10, 2013 · 9:24 am

My Life As An Auto Mechanic

It’s been over five years that I’ve been out on my own working as a consultant to all sorts of companies. For all the clients I do and have had over that period, there are at least twice as many companies with whom I’ve had exploratory meetings and conversations and I’ve learned a few things I’d like to share.  One of the things one finds out pretty rapidly in the consulting world is that you’re pretty much in the same boat as auto mechanics. That may seem odd so let me explain.

Auto mechanics are a necessary fact of life.  Most of us own cars, few of us really understand how they work and, more important  how to diagnose and fix what’s wrong with them.  Some people try to do the simple stuff like oil changes themselves but recognize that doing your own brake job can kill you if you screw it up.  Enter the mechanic.  While grudgingly accepted as needed, he’s not really beloved and the things people do to them show that.  First, there are the people who will try to get a free diagnosis.  They drive in and spend a fair amount of the mechanic’s time telling him about what they think is wrong but refuse to spend a few bucks to let the mechanic devote an hour of his time to do a real diagnosis using his knowledge and  equipment.

Once car owners get past the acceptance that they need the mechanic and the diagnosis he made, they spend an equal amount of time haggling over price.  Now as a car owner, I recognize that a discussion with the repair person with respect to what’s really needed before the work begins can save you a fair amount of money.  However, haggling over what to charge for the agreed-upon work is insulting.  If the shop is too expensive, move on.

Then there’s the dark side of the unscrupulous mechanics who put used parts in cars and say they’re new.  There are the guys who do unnecessary work just to run up the bill.  Heck, there are shops that don’t do the work they say they did at all.   They give all the honest shops a bad name.  Finally, having a good mechanic can be a life-saver.  If you have an ongoing relationship with them, most will drop almost everything in an emergency to get your car back on the road for you.

Now go back and read that again, except change “mechanic” to “consultant” and “car” to “business.”  Just call me Cooter!

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