Category Archives: Helpful Hints

December 26, 2016 · 12:27 pm

Top Posts Of The Year #4

Courtesy Jeffrey Beall

Each year at this time, I repost the most read 4 “regular” posts and the top Foodie Friday post from this calendar year. That’s what I’ll be doing this week. The #4 most-read post was written prior to the Super Bowl and was a pre-game appreciation for Peyton Manning‘s last game. Originally titled “The Wily Old Veteran,” it deals with things one learns over time. In retrospect, it was probably a bit of a love note to my fellow “experienced” business people too. Enjoy!

The Super Bowl is this Sunday and if you’re not going to be watching it you are a member of a small minority in this country. It’s been hard to avoid hearing about the upcoming tilt for weeks, and it has become almost impossible this week. That’s not a complaint, by the way. I’m a huge fan and while it’s sad to see the NFL season end, this year’s game offers us something of a business lesson as part of the deal.

Amidst all of the hoopla, you might have heard Peyton Manning’s name more than once. If you follow the game at all you’re aware that he is a guaranteed first-ballot Hall Of Fame player who might be playing in his last game. You might also be aware that he missed a significant part of the regular season with a foot injury. In his place, Brock Osweiler came in and lead the team to a number of victories. He is clearly Denver’s quarterback of the future. Even after Manning got healthy, Osweiler had the starting job and was only back on the bench after Denver stumbled in a late season game and Manning came in. So why is Manning starting the Super Bowl?

You might say “oh, it’s a tribute to his wonderful career and that must be respected.” The real answer is the business point today. As an article written about the game said

Manning, not Osweiler, will start Sunday against the Carolina Panthers after reclaiming the job he lost to foot problems and turnovers earlier in the season. The five-time MVP‘s experience outweighed his limitations for the stretch run on a Denver team that relies on the running game and defense.

Experience isn’t something that you can teach – it’s something you need to gain over time. As I tell clients – most of whom are younger than I am – you hire me in part so that you don’t make all the mistakes I’ve made over the years. While you can stay up all night to work through a problem, I have probably faced the same problem multiple times over the last 40 years.  It might be possible to read about business and to learn (and I encourage you to do so!), but there is no substitute for living through business situations.  That takes time, patience, an open mind, and a willingness to accept that there might be many valid solutions to the problem you’re facing.

I will be rooting for the wily old veteran to have a good game no matter how his team does.  Every team needs one to help lead them into battle.  How about yours?

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December 23, 2016 · 12:46 pm

Time For What?

It’s Foodie Friday and the topic is time. Now, what the heck does time have to do with our usual Friday food rant? As it turns out, quite a bit. I was reading this article from Eater on the year’s advances in food technology. What struck me as I read the piece wasn’t so much any one piece of tech (although I’m not sure how I’ve lived without a bacon emoji until now) but how many of the innovations had to do with time.

There are a few items mentioned that reduce the time a customer needs to wait in person to be seated. There are other that reduce the time a customer needs to wait to receive their food after placing their orders. Still others involved getting take out food delivered in less time (nothing like a speedy drone to beat the traffic!). 80% of the innovations mentioned in the article involve saving time somehow, mostly to benefit the customer but in so doing also increasing service capacity and, in theory, profits. We love those win-win scenarios!

All this time saving does, however, beg the question: what are people going to do with the time savings? It seems these days that the answer involves consuming more content and the marketing messages pushed through the channels containing that content. Let me throw out a different thought.

Since so many people, in the food industry and elsewhere, seem to be wanting each of us to have a little more free time in our day, why don’t we use it to do some of the things we apparently don’t have enough time to do now? You know: read a book or spend a few minutes actually researching an issue that’s meaningful to us so the next time we share a story we’re sure of our facts. Take some of that newly found spare time and go say “hi” to someone in person instead of messaging. Throw a ball to your dog or with your kid.

It’s a season of family and gift-giving. How about we use the gift of time all these innovations afford us wisely?Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Joyous Festivus, and enjoy whatever you’re celebrating!

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December 16, 2016 · 12:55 pm

Your Dishwasher And Your Business

This Foodie Friday we’re going to take a business point from the aftermath of our foodie experiences. Unless you’re in the habit of using paper plates and plastic cutlery, you usually have some dishes to wash after you eat. Many of us are fortunate to have dishwashers to do that job for us. We load the dishes, glassware, and cutlery into the box, add some soap, and go watch TV or read. Of course, the dishwasher can be used for so much more.

A dishwasher containing clean dishes

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You can pretty much put anything that’s not wood or cast iron into your dishwasher for a good cleaning. OK, electronics aren’t such a great idea either. You can, however, let the dishwasher take care of doing some otherwise nasty cleaning jobs such as washing those pop-out range filters or all the buttons and drip pans from your stove. I’ve been known to stick my sweaty, smelly golf hats in there for a good washing (they actually sell plastic forms so the hats won’t shrink) and I also ran some glass light fixtures that were filthy through it. Obviously you don’t want to put anything through that’s hollow and can collect water that might precipitate mold formation later on but otherwise, with the aforementioned exceptions, anything plastic, metal, or glass is a candidate for a trip through the dishwasher.

What does this have to do with business? Most of us think of the dishwasher as a single-task machine. It washes kitchen stuff – dishes, etc. The truth is that it’s way more versatile. I think many of us think about many people this way. We don’t think the accountants are creative nor that the lawyers are marketers. I’ve worked with accountants and lawyers who definitely were. While it’s usually pretty apparent what someone’s strengths are, we don’t ask often enough how those strengths – critical thinking, writing, etc – can be applied in areas other than the one in which the person is currently using them.

You might have to remove the top rack to fit something like a garbage can in there. You might have to ask the accountant to adjust his or her paradigm too. The results, however, are worth it in both cases (who likes to wash a garbage can?). We need to keep an open mind about all things in business, don’t you think?

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