Category Archives: Reality checks

January 15, 2020 · 4:25 pm

Walkin’ The Talk

I spend a lot of time on the telephone these days. I’m constantly calling people who have indicated that they have an interest in changing their lives by investing in a franchise. It’s great most of the time even if it’s frustrating at the same time. The reason for that is something from which any of us in business can learn.

I think that a number of folks are now using some sort of auto-responder on their phones. I will very often dial someone and just as their voicemail kicks in I get a text from them. “I’ll call you back” is pretty common or even the more maddening “I’ll call you back in an hour.” The reality is that I rarely get that callback.

I pride myself on walkin’ the talk. If I tell you that I’m going to do something, I do it. People are trusting me with a lot of sensitive information – their financial situation, their unhappiness with their current work situation in many cases – and I need them to know that I’m worthy of that trust. Keeping commitments is part of building trust. If I tell you that I will call you at 10, you can be quite sure that your phone will ring at 10. That’s what several decades in the TV business do to you – 10 means 10, not 9:58 or 10:02.

Trust is foundational in business. Yes, there are contracts so that everyone knows what the deal is although I probably didn’t pay enough attention to contracts because I always felt that if I could trust the person I was dealing with, contractual issues would tend to take care of themselves. Making a commitment via autoresponder isn’t walkin’ the talk. It’s just talking to get someone off your back. I’m willing to bet most of the folks don’t even know that a text was sent.

I made a resolution this year. I’m not chasing after anyone. They can generate all the texts they want but if they don’t follow through and make the call, I’m done with them. There are lot of foks who are serious about changing their lives for the better and I’m going to be spending my time with them. That’s a commitment and you can bet it’s one I’ll be keeping.

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December 20, 2019 · 3:13 pm

Eating In The Cafe Car

This will probably be the last original Foodie Friday post of this year (and decade!). I’m writing it whilst barreling north on a train. I’m a fan of train travel. Putting aside the environmental pluses, I think it’s more relaxing and more social than driving or taking the plane.

The train has a cafe car that offers up snacks, drinks, and food. The “food” consists of microwaved stuff – burgers, sausage and egg biscuits, wraps, etc. I think you can probably find most of the items at your local Costco or supermarket. The drinks are generally unhealthy sodas (yes there’s just water) and the snacks consist of candy bars and chips. It’s not the sort of stuff that you would choose if you had a choice, but when you’re on a 9-hour train trip you really don’t have much of one, which explains the line out the door.

Most of the time you would not catch me eating anything that’s offered here. Oh sure, I love me some sausage and egg on an English muffin, but I’ll usually have a multigrain muffin with plenty of fiber, not some white bread masquerading as a muffin. I might put some interesting cheese on mine and not the “cheese product” I’m sure is on this thing. Oh yes, of course, I had one. I’m hungry and they were out of the healthier options

The cafe car got me thinking about what sometimes happens in business. When businesspeople find themselves in an unusual circumstance they often will let their standards slide. I suspect they feel much as I do now – they solved the immediate issue (hunger in my case) but there is guilt and the knowledge that the “solution” they found might have created more problems than it solved.

If I had planned ahead, I’d have packed a decent snack and brought my own beverages. Money isn’t the issue – everything in the cafe car is reasonably priced (except the liquor – $8 for a drink? And I thought the airlines were committing skyway robbery!). The issue is solving my problem without lowering my standards. That takes planning. Is your business doing that?

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December 13, 2019 · 4:54 pm

Another One Bites The Dust

You didn’t think that you were going to escape Foodie Friday without a missive from me, did you? This week our story is a little sad (OK, quite sad for those involved) but instructive as well.

You know that I’m a huge fan of sous vide cooking. In fact, I wrote all about those feelings just about 5 years ago after I received my first immersion circulator. To review, you French scholars out there will recognize that the term means “under vacuum.” You place whatever you’re cooking into a plastic bag, extract the air, and seal it. The bag (or bags) is placed in a water bath. The immersion circulator holds the water at a steady temperature which is the desired end temperature of the food.

All those years ago, immersion circulators cost around $1,000 and were not really marketed to the home cook. I remember watching the Top Chef contestants using them but not fully understanding that this was a tool that could be widely marketed to the home market as well if the cost could be brought down.

Enter our subject today. I’ll let TechCrunch take it from here:

Founded in 2012, Nomiku became a plucky Silicon Valley darling by bringing affordable sous vide cooking to home kitchens…The company was able to bring a cost-prohibitive cooking technology down to an affordable price point, only to see the market flooded by competitors.

This is a perfect case study for businesspeople. First, the company was founded to solve a problem the founders had. Importantly, they realized that many others – home cooks who were aware of sous vide but who couldn’t afford a $1,000 kitchen toy – had the same problem. They raised money (on Kickstarter), solved the engineering and production problems, and produced a beautiful product for $300.

Unfortunately, an immersion circulator isn’t really a defensible idea. Sure, you might be able to protect certain elements but as most computer manufacturers found out during the PC boom, there’s kind of a race to the bottom. I actually have two immersion circulators in my home now and neither costs more than $200. The Nomiku is still listed as costing more.

How does Apple manage to market products that cost significantly more than its competitors? Because they differentiate the bulk of their products. The function differently. They’ve got better security. For the most part, an immersion circulator does what it does. Sure, bells and whistles such as Bluetooth and timers can help justify a higher price, but sadly, not in this case.

Could they have foreseen that a lab products company would migrate into making products for cooks? Who knows, but it does remind us that having a great idea and even great execution isn’t necessarily enough. If the idea is great, competitors will be at your door quite soon. You must always be looking at how to stay one step ahead while building up defensibility on your rear. Easier said than done, I know, but the business world is unforgiving as these folks found out.

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