For our Foodie Friday Fun this week, let’s start with a movie. 
Oh sure, there have been plenty of foodie movies over the years (Big Night is my favorite) but I want to start with the 1982 Michael Keaton classic Night Shift. I know – not really a foodie movie but in it Keaton offers up a food-oriented line that I thought of yesterday:
What if you mix the mayonnaise in the can, WITH the tunafish? Or… hold it! Chuck! I got it! Take LIVE tuna fish, and FEED ’em mayonnaise! Oh this is great.
What prompted the thought was someone mentioning that they’d recently tried smoked salmon vodka. My immediate response probably mirrored yours: YECH! Then I thought about it for a second. How often have you gone to a nice wedding or similar function and there’s been chilled vodka put out alongside the platter of salmon? The two really do go together when you step back and think about it. Or take the idea of making doughnuts in a muffin tin. They’re not muffins and they’re certainly not doughnuts but is there a way to get the texture and flavor of a donut in the easier to make form of a muffin? There is, and someone figured out exactly how. Which is the business point.
Tuna and mayonnaise, salmon and vodka – normal combinations presented in a different way of thinking (I’d tweak the tuna notion a bit but he’s on the right track). Often in business we’re presented with ideas that seem ridiculous on the first pass but when you stop thinking “bad idea” and start thinking “interesting notion – what does it need to be a great idea” you just might end up with a better mousetrap.
Pushing ourselves to think differently is the only way we grow our businesses People get bored quickly these days and if you’re not innovating you get left behind. While I’m not sure that smoked salmon vodka is going to be my drink of choice, the thinking behind it is very much what I like to order up. You?
