Monthly Archives: December 2017

December 26, 2017 · 9:13 am

Most Read Posts Of 2017 – #3

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or at least a nice day off! This week I’ll be posting the posts written in 2017 that were read the most. This first one was written last April after I had some sort of a cold (I’d actually forgotten that!). Originally titled “Clear Headed,” it’s a reminder that decisions made under sub-optimal circumstances are often themselves suboptimal (I’m being kind – they usually are horrible). Enjoy!

I’ve been MIA from this space for a few days (hopefully you’ve noticed). I caught some kind of a bug and it pretty much laid me out for a few days. Body aches, a little congestion, and a foggy brain. I had zero energy and just wanted to sleep. More importantly, I couldn’t really focus my thinking on anything.

This may come as a shock to you but I do put a fair amount of what I hope is clear-headed thought into the screed. While I might have been able to force myself to spend a lot of extra time to write something, I thought it a better course of (in)action just to give it a rest. I’m a big believer in doing nothing when one’s head is foggy and let me explain why.

“Foggy” to me just doesn’t mean the state I’ve been in over the last few days. Foggy is when things are unclear at all. It may be because you’re distracted or it may be because the information you need to make a decision is incomplete, unclear, or inadequate. Jason Day, for example, withdrew from a golf tournament a couple of weeks ago because he was distracted by the fact that his mom was having surgery (she’s fine) and he couldn’t focus. Rather than making bad decisions on the course, he made a great one and left it.

Each of us needs to think along the same lines. Sure, sometimes fuzzy logic is called for because we can’t get enough information. In and of itself, that’s a clear-headed decision you make. Oftentimes, however, anything from a cold to a hangover to a family matter to office politics can reduce or eliminate your ability to focus. Those are the times when we need more time because I don’t concur that a bad decision is always better than no decision.

What do you think?

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December 22, 2017 · 11:14 am

What An Egg Roll Tells You About Business

Foodie Friday has arrived at last. This will be the final “new” food-themed screed of the year. Next week’s posts will be the annual review of the most-read posts of the year and the most read food post will be next Friday. While I hope you’ll continue to read next week, thank you for doing so today and throughout the year. Happy 2018!

While I like to think of myself as a fairly worldly person when it comes to knowing about food, I learned of a regional specialty here in the US just the other day. If you’re from the Detroit area you’re going to roll your eyes, but I just found out about Corned Beef Egg Rolls. I’ve lived in and around one of the world’s greatest multicultural food centers (New York City) my entire life until recently and had never encountered such a thing. It’s exactly what you’d think: a pile of thinly-sliced corned beef inside an egg roll wrapper that’s then rolled and fried. There is usually cheese involved (some gooey, white, mild stuff) and sometimes sour cabbage. Apparently, these rolls are quite popular in the Detroit area and they are spreading into adjacent areas. Coming soon to a deli near you?

So what does this have to do with business? It serves as a gentle reminder of a few of the things we’ve discussed this year. First, like many great dishes, this one was born as a sort of happy accident. Just as buffalo wings were the result of using up some food a bar has around, so too was this roll the result of a thrifty employee not wanting to toss out a bunch of corned beef scraps. Begin Vietnamese, he did something very typical in his culture – he made a roll out of them.

This reminds us that if you make content or products, there is no garbage can. Beyond content, if you have an idea that doesn’t quite do what you had planned, don’t toss it. Think about how what you have can serve another purpose. You miay have the right answer to another question you or your customers haven’t asked yet.

Second, it’s a blending of two iconic dishes from very different cultures – Jewish and/or Irish corned beef (see this post on THAT subject) and a Chinese/pan-Asian fried roll. This is a great reminder that the business world has become a very small place. There is a huge value in understanding how to communicate to and with different cultures, both with respect to language, values, and practices. If we isolate ourselves by failing to tailor our messages and products, we’re really going to be missing out. What are we doing in business today if not trying to blend a lot of cultures into a more coherent market?

Finally, I suspect that the Corned Beef Egg Roll will mirror what happened with the Coney Dog which also came from Detroit. There are places all over that serve a hot dog with thin chili and onions (The Roast Grill has been in business here in Raleigh for over 75 years serving just that) even if they’re not called Coneys or Coney Island Hot Dogs or Coney dogs. That product has grown way beyond its origins. Smart entrepreneurs spot trends, assess needs, find openings, and fill them. I did a little digging and while there are a few restaurants with “egg roll” in their name, there really doesn’t seem to be a chain that just serves egg rolls (and the restaurants named Egg Roll Express, despite the name, are regular Chinese restaurants with 2 egg rolls on the menu). Here is your first business idea for 2018 and a franchise opportunity for well beyond.

A few good reminder with which to end the year. I’m looking forward to stepping up to the fryer with you next year!

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December 20, 2017 · 12:39 pm

You’re On Your Own

A decade has passed since I last held a “real” job. My kids call the work I do now “Daddy’s Phony Baloney Made Up Job” but hey, it pays the bills so what can I say?

I didn’t realize when I left corporate life 10 years ago that I was actually beginning to ride a wave that continues to grow. I had joined the gig economy. What’s that? A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and companies sign up independent workers for short-term engagements. Companies don’t have “employees”, they have consultants or contractors. Think Uber – every driver works for themselves. Rather than a corporation of thousands, we have a thousand corporations of one.

According to Intuit, by 2020, 40 percent of American workers will be independent contractors. It’s liberating in some ways and incredibly stressful in others. No guaranteed paycheck. No paid-for healthcare or other benefits. You can set your own schedule and work as you choose but you have to go find that work. I mean, unless you’re a pro, playing a lot of golf doesn’t pay the bills.

We’ve become a society where we’re on our own. Putting aside what may be happening with small social safety net we do have here (no politics, please!), many more people are going through their daily lives without the safety net a “real” job provides, and many of the full-time jobs that are out there pay wages that haven’t increased in years because the demand for the shrinking number of jobs is still high. We have seen the growth of businesses and services that support individuals rather than corporations. Sites that help you find gigs (as opposed to full-time employment) are plentiful although in many cases they become places where it’s a race to the bottom with respect to what you can get paid.

What strikes me is that I struggled in many ways to get my business on a good track despite many years of business experience, having managed dozens of people, and being responsible for a multi-million dollar P&L. I often wonder how many kids starting out in this economy are going to struggle and fail without any sort of mentoring. I don’t mean the relatively easy stuff such as how to keep a proper set of books so you don’t have tax issues. I wonder about the hard stuff that involves learning how to formulate ideas and how to express them. It’s the stuff that we don’t learn in school that forms our business education (and that means you too, MBA’s). It’s hard to get that while you’re on your own.

This trend of being on your own is going to continue and to grow as more companies downsize and robots of some sort begin to perform tasks once performed by humans. Who is going to program and service those robots? Independent contractors, no doubt. Maybe you?

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