Monthly Archives: September 2015

September 21, 2015 · 11:39 am

Eddie Haskell Software

Our topic today is something so mind-numbingly stupid that I hesitate even to write about it. There was an announcement late on Friday from the EPA about diesel engines from Volkswagen. These are the engines that the automaker markets as “Clean Diesel.” The announcement was shocking. As reported in the NY Times:

Eddie Haskell

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Volkswagen has been ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency to recall 482,000 diesel cars in the U.S. over software they say was intentionally designed to circumvent smog regulations. The cars, all diesels from 2009 to 2015, have a “defeat device” programmed to detect when the car is undergoing official emissions testing that only then turns on the full emissions control systems.

Many of you might not remember the Eddie Haskell character from Leave It To Beaver, the old TV show.  Eddie was a bad kid who acted like an angel in front of parents and other adults.  That is apparently what VW designed their software to do – behave nicely in front of the standard EPA tests while belching out unhealthy levels of nitrogen oxide emissions when the testers weren’t looking – as in 40 times more than the allowable levels of emissions..  It’s not something recent either: the bad software is in 6 model years of cars. Nice right?

Here is the thing about big companies.  Rarely does one person make a decision.  In this case, the people (plural) involved have put VW in jeopardy of having to pay around $18 Billion in fines.  At a minimum, they’re looking at the recall of 482,000 diesel cars.  But the automaker isn’t the only company to demonstrate this kind of idiocy.  Samsung has been accused of the same sort of thing to detect speed tests on their phone chips in order to demonstrate speed that really isn’t there in real life use.  Antivirus company Qihoo submitted different versions for benchmark testing than those provided to consumers.  I’m sure there are other examples across other business categories.

Knowing this, would you buy any of the affected products?  I wouldn’t.  What else aren’t they telling us?  How safe/effective/good are their products?  More importantly, if they would knowingly cheat this way, how will they treat me as a customer?  Will they lie to me just as they have to the testers?

This kind of behavior goes global rapidly today.  Like the Cleavers, who were well aware of Eddie’s true personality, consumers are better informed and bad behavior is always front and center.  Putting aside the destruction of the bottom line due to getting caught, how can anyone with an ounce of business sense think this sort of activity is a good idea?

Leave a comment

Filed under Huh?, What's Going On

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 18, 2015 · 10:45 am

The $1,500 Sandwich

I can’t think of anything more appropriate for our Foodie Friday fun this week than the tale of the $1,500 chicken sandwich. Did you hear about this? As reported in Consumerist (and a number of other places):

A DQ Crispy Chicken sandwich

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Andy George of the “How to Make Everything” YouTube channel posted a video about his efforts to make all of the ingredients he’d need for his entirely homemade sandwich, including: growing his own vegetables and pickling his own pickles, making salt from ocean water, milking a cow to make cheese and butter, harvesting wheat and then grinding it to make his own flour, collecting honey and yes, killing a chicken himself. So how was the ultimate homemade sandwich? Eh.

You can watch the entire video here.  I look at this story as the absolute reason we’re in business: to provide value.  After all, chicken sandwiches aren’t typically sold for $1,500, nor do they require you to think ahead six months when you decide to have one.  Instead, there are businesses performing each step – making salt, baking bread, etc. – and adding the values of quality and time so we don’t have to.

That’s really the question each of us needs to answer: how am I providing value to my customer?  How is what I am giving them in return for the money they’re giving me more valuable to them than doing it themselves?  Of course, one wouldn’t expect consumers to, say, build their own cars.  That’s way more complicated than a chicken sandwich, after all.  Then question then becomes how am I providing a better value to my customer than anyone else trying to solve the same problem for them.

We sometimes hear people (generally, unhappy people) muttering “if you want something done right you need to do it yourself” to themselves.  Our job is to convince them that expression is wrong.  When $1,500 chicken sandwiches become an attractive option, we’re all in trouble!

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, food, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , ,

September 17, 2015 · 11:19 am

The Bright Side

I have a confession: I am an unrepentant optimist. I’m told that I can find a silver lining in almost any circumstance, and while I’m not a complete idiot with respect to denying reality, I also don’t fall into the trap of seeing only the negative. Anyone who knows me will tell you I have a skeptical side (bordering on cynical), but I think they’d also recognize my generally optimistic nature. What does this have to do with your business?

It has to do with how new concepts are perceived by optimists.  You probably hear about new ideas all the time. Sometimes those ideas make waves, and sometimes they bring storm warnings with respect to the future. It is easy to dismiss them. It’s also easy to find fault with them. You might ask yourself if whatever is being proposed is going to work. That is the wrong question in my mind since inherent in that question is the skeptic’s point of view. You assume there is a chance, maybe even a good chance, that it won’t work.  You dismiss the idea and the possibility of any of the circumstances that might eventuate thereafter.

Optimistic little me doesn’t ask that question. I tend to think about what might happen if the new idea does work, however unlikely that might be. What next? How is my business different? What new competitors or markets emerge?  Even if they don’t, by not having dismissed the new thinking out of hand, I’m better prepared to deal with whatever happens.

I tend to look on the bright side of life, as the song (below) suggests.  Putting aside the positive mental outlook I think optimism provides, from a business perspective using the optimistic perspective would have allowed you to be ready for many of the changes of the last 30 years.  So sing along with the Pythons and tell me if you don’t feel better!

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , ,