March 7, 2014 · 9:59 am

Getting Your Business On A Scale

One of the most basic kitchen skills is our topic this Foodie Friday: measuring.  If you cook, at some point you use standard measures – cups, tablespoons and such.  Even those chefs you see on TV grabbing pinches of salt know how much they’re pinching (you use your thumb and one finger, then two fingers, then three fingers and measure each result to have a sense).

English: Kitchen scale, electronic, household ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Baking, which is basically chemistry, requires very precise measuring to ensure success.  Sometimes, however, something doesn’t come out the way you’d like even though you measure carefully and that’s our topic today.

If you ask 10 people to measure out a cup of flour and then weigh each result, you’ll find that there is a huge variance in the amount of flour.  That can be fatal to a cake or in making pasta.  One thing I find incredibly useful in my kitchen is a scale.  I use it for cooking as much as I do baking (OK, I really don’t bake) and I seek out recipes where the measures are by weight and not just volume.  After all, the cup of grated cheese called for in a recipe could be finely grated and weigh more or relatively coarsely grated and weigh a lot less.  100 grams, however, is always 100 grams.  I find recipes that call for “1 medium onion, chopped” or “two ripe bananas” to be pretty useless since what I consider a medium onion or the size of those bananas may vary considerably from what the author had in mind.

It’s incredibly useful to have standardized measurements that are truly standard when you’re trying to get the best results.  Which is, of course, the business point.  One thing I spend a lot time with clients on is identifying and measuring the business in a standardized, objective manner.  Putting up a new website may cause you to think it looks better but that’s not measurable.  What is measurable and actionable are thing such as bounce rates, time on site, page views, and conversions.  If the new site causes those metrics to improve, it’s a better website.

The same is true about other business elements.  Presentations that look nice and flow well are good; presentations that result in decisions made in the presenter’s favor are excellent.  “Look and feel” is the cup of flour.  Data driven decisions are flour measured on a scale.   If you want success in the kitchen, get a scale.  If you want it in business, find ways to take subjectivity out of the process.  You with me?

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March 6, 2014 · 10:42 am

How Many Nakamotos Are There In Your Business?

You may have heard of Bitcoin.

The bitcoin logo

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a digital currency which, depending on your point of view, is either the greatest thing since the transistor or a giant Ponzi scheme. It was invented by someone named Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s a hugely volatile currency but is beginning to gain acceptance by merchants as a payment method for goods and services. It’s not small either: there were transactions of nearly $500 million a day at its peak. With me so far?

The weird thing about Bitcoin is that no one knew who this Nakamoto guy was. Rumors ranged from he was a young whiz kid programmer living in Japan to an “entity” that is a composite of a number of people who worked on the project.  Nakamoto owns about $400 million in Bitcoin yet won’t talk on the telephone so people who work with him have never heard his voice.  In fact, many people wondered if Nakamoto was his name at all since lots of folks in the Bitcoin community use pseudonyms.  He (and Bitcoin) have been the subject of much discussion and analysis on tech blog and programs yet other than swapping rumors no one seemed to be checking this guy out.

Along comes  Leah McGrath Goodman of Newsweek who does some good old-fashioned reporting.  She found the 64 year old Nakamoto living in California very quietly.  She wrote this piece about the process and the man she found at the end of the trail.  It’s a great read, great journalism and, more importantly, makes our business point today.

Many businesses have “Nakamotos” – important people or facts or policies about which little is known.  There is uncertainty about how they came to be or how they operate.  There are a lot of rumors but very little fact-checking.  That’s not smart business.  This reporter’s commitment to pursuing the facts as opposed to repeating rumors or unverified “facts” resulted in solving the mystery.  Frankly, it gives me a bit (pun intended) more faith in the Bitcoin system now that I understand who this fellow is.

We need to unearth the Nakamotos in business and not be deterred by the common wisdom.  The truth is generally hiding in plain sight but you have to be looking in order to see it.  Are you?

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March 5, 2014 · 9:27 am

Opinions Etched In Sand

When was the last time you changed your mind? I don’t mean about something trivial such as what you wanted for supper but about something important. What should our business model be? For whom should I cast my vote? I also don’t mean when was the last time you made a decision. We make those all the time. It’s what happens after the decision is taken that is our topic today.

English: Footprints in the sand My footprints ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I changed my mind about something the other day. It’s not really important to our discussion what it was, just that my view of the world moved from point A to point B. As I thought about that I realized that many people stick with their initial decisions about things all the time through thick and thin.  That might not be a bad thing, especially if you made a good choice at the time.  It’s a terrible thing, however, if you do so out of habit or sloth.  Things change and they do so more rapidly these days than at any time in our history.  If you made a decision five years ago some of what you took as fact when you did so probably is less right now.  Markets change.  Information changes.  Technology gets invented.  Stuff happens! If you make any investments you probably have that mindset.  Why doesn’t it extend to your business life (I’m ignoring politics here but…)?

A road you’ve driven down for years can suddenly have construction or a bridge out.  You have to alter your route or fly off the bridge.  Pretty obvious, right (I know – I’m a master of that!)?  Yet that thinking doesn’t apply to other aspects of many people’s lives.  Changing one’s mind is seen as weak or indecisive.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Strong people challenge their own beliefs. They look for facts, especially ones that contradict their own opinions, and avoid confirmation bias.  They keep an open mind when they go to make decisions and they test whether that decision is still valid based on changing circumstances.

My decisions aren’t etched in stone.  More like footprints etched in wet sand.  You can see what they are but when a strong wave comes along they might change.  I might be opinionated but I also accept that I might be wrong on some things.  Am I right about this?

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