Category Archives: Helpful Hints

What Paula Deen Teaches Us

As you may have heard, earlier this week celebrity chef Paula Deen admitted she has had type 2 diabetes for the last few years, and since she’s a food person it seemed an appropriate topic for Foodie Friday.  I’ll begin by saying that I’m sorry to hear that she has the disease.  Apparently she also has a marketing arrangement with a drug company to be a spokesperson for their diabetes drug.

Paula Deen holds court

Image by Bristol Motor Speedway & Dragway via Flickr

More about that next week.  Today, I want to talk about some of the things she had to say this week and what they have to do with a sane approach to business.  It a horrible disease, and what she had to say is, in my mind, not much better.  But let’s see what you think.

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

Getting Out In Front Of A Problem

Over the weekend, you might have read about Zappos getting hacked. Specifically, some of their account information was illegally accessed. I read about it but didn’t think too much about it until this morning I got an email from them and it turns out that my account may have been one of the 24 million that was grabbed.

What I want to write about is how Zappos handled it and how it can be a great example for any business that has to deal with a problem not of its own making. As an aside, I think Zappos is a model for many things in business – customer service being quite high on the list. But let’s stick to the issue at hand. Continue reading

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What We Can Learn From A Blimpie

We’ll end the week with a Foodie Friday thought from the good folks at Blimpie.  Actually, the sandwich that prompted the thought is from them:  the thought itself comes from me.  The sandwich in question is the Blimpie Special Vegetarian 12 inch sub, which began as an off the menu item but is now part of their culinary repertoire.  I’ll say upfront that I have no particular beef (no pun intended) with Blimpie.  I used to eat their sandwiches all the time and one of the great joys of my youth was grabbing the biggest Blimpie combo I could buy and going to watch a basketball game.

Blimpie

Image by mokolabs via Flickr

I bring them up because that which I’m about to tell you is an example business thinking that’s off the mark in my opinion.  Let’s see what you think. Continue reading

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Filed under food, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud