Category Archives: Helpful Hints

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 9, 2013 · 9:45 am

The View From The Bench

Great game played by Michigan and Louisville last night in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  It was everything a championship game should be for the most part: great action, close scoring, and some interesting story lines.  I wish that two things had been different   the officiating had been better (both teams got screwed on a number of incorrect calls) and that the Wolverines had won.  However, besides an excellent evening’s entertainment, I got something else out of the game I’d like to share.

Stretching before the 2006 NCAA Men's Division...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two players – Luke Hancock and Spike Albrecht – were the stories of the game in many ways.  When Michigan’s star guard got into early foul trouble, Albrecht came off the bench and scored 17 points before halftime.  For a kid who averaged under 2 points a game, that’s quite a performance.  Hancock went him one better with a performance off the bench that was so good he became the first non-starter to be named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.  Both players made an excellent business point which is today’s thought.

There are a dozen players on a basketball team and yet only five play at once.  Generally the rotation of players, barring foul trouble or injury, isn’t more than seven.  Still, every person on the bench needs to stay ready.  Every sport has a crew of backup players – those who, for one reason or another, don’t play as much on game day but are integral parts of the team.

It’s the same in business.  Every person on the team needs to understand the game plan and keep their skills sharp even if the plan isn’t for them to be the main players that day.  I wanted “bench” players on my business team who understood that their job went beyond the time when they were front and center.  When you’re out of a game for a spell, your job isn’t to rest.  You have a wider perspective – you can see the entire floor or field.  Help your team with your observations.  For business, this means, for example, reading drafts of presentations carefully and offering suggestions  not sitting around pouting because you’re not the one giving the show.  Who knows – like Albrecht and Hancock, you might get a chance when you least expect it.   Be ready – the chance may not come a second time.

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April 5, 2013 · 11:04 am

Crowding The Pan

Foodie Friday Fun time.  Today I want to talk about the Maillard reaction.  No, it has nothing to do with ducks – those are Mallards.  This is something that goes on in cooking when heat causes the natural sugar in food to change.  You can think of it as browning although it’s a lot more complex than that.  The process creates lots of flavors and why we sear off meats before roasting or we will cook vegetables in a recipe to bring out flavors before adding other ingredients.

 

Quails browning

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The thing about bringing out this reaction is that you can’t crowd things in the pan.  It’s why we’re often told to brown meat in batches.  You’ve probably tried to brown some ground meat and noticed that rather than browning it sort of steams in its own liquid.  It’s not brown – it’s kind of grey.  The same problem occurs in baking – too many cookies on the sheet and they don’t cook properly.

 

The fix is pretty simple:  give everything a little space and take a bit more time as you plan out your cooking time. Give your food plenty of room to move around in the pan, and let it cook in a single layer.  Which is, of course, the business point as well.

 

We often crowd people with too many tasks and a multitude of instructions   As businesses we often put too many things into our figurative pan.  Rather than getting the reactions we want (nice even browning with a lovely fond on the bottom of the pan) we get a soggy grey mess or soggy, limp vegetables that don’t have a lot of flavor.  We need to take a few things out of people’s’ pans or focus or business on fewer things. Give everything a little more space and allow time for things to develop properly.  Of course, there are those cooks who think they can skip the searing altogether.  That’s a big mistake which you recognize once you’ve done that and tasted the results.  Business takes time and there are certain steps that you can’t omit if you want a great product.

 

We’re all under a lot of pressure for results, both in the office and in the kitchen.  Overcrowding the pan in either place might get us where we want to go more rapidly but the results are inferior.  No one wants “OK” as a response, not when “WOW” is sitting there waiting.

 

How full is your pan?

 

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