July 12, 2013 · 8:50 am

Seeing vs. Doing

It’s Foodie Friday, and the topic today is culinary school. There is an ongoing debate in food professional circles about the value of, and need for, culinary school educations and I think it’s a discussion that has broader implications for those of us not in the food business.  Basically the debate boils down (should I say “reduces” since we’re discussing cooking?) to this:  is it preferable for new cooks to learn in school or learn by working?

Chef

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Some very high-profile chefs have weighed in or either side of the question.  Some such as Daniel Boulud feel that a formal culinary school education is indispensable.  Other such as David Chang think that path is overrated and that the time is better spent working in a professional kitchen.  Or as he puts it:

If you look at all my heroes, the chefs around the world, most of them never went to cooking school. What they did is they had a great mentor. You name a chef that’s awesome and people want to work for him, I’d say a majority of the time they never went to cooking school.

He goes on to make a point that culinary school students will learn skills in a very elementary fashion without any frills or shortcuts that they might learn in a professional kitchen, which is also a great broader business point and that’s my focus today.  I’ve worked with people who went to business school and with those who spent the time working.  While there was no question that the B-school folks knew what to call certain types of analyses, many of them had a totally unrealistic view of what business was about.  As many of you know, it’s not exactly as it appears in textbooks.

Technical training is valuable.  I think, however, it’s most valuable in fields such as law or medicine where there are standards to be met.  Most other businesses have no such standards – the food world certainly doesn’t.  I think a young person is better served working in a profession and, and Chang says, finding a great mentor.  Coming out of a culinary school or a B school laden with debt affects how you can approach your career – and life – every day going forward.  Is it really needed?

I suppose it’s Twain‘s reference to schooling vs. education or maybe it’s just seeing vs. doing.  I come down on the side of doing.  Where do you stand?

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July 11, 2013 · 11:03 am

Fewer PCs And Fewer Cords

I saw two articles in the last day that might not seem to have much to do with one another but in my mind point to the ongoing changes in the media world.

English: Desktop computer Français : ordinateu...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first is from the Gartner folks along with IDC and it’s their quarterly report on PC shipments. Not surprisingly, the numbers aren’t good.  They are reporting around an 11% decline in shipments which continues a downward trend from last quarter.  There are a number of reasons to which analysts attribute this trend but the one with which I agree the most is the thinking that we’re now consuming media mostly on tablets.  PC’s are something that are used for heavy lifting – video editing, lengthy writing, spreadsheets, etc.   Families aren’t buying multiple units for the home any more (at one point we had four PC’s here for school work, business, and leisure usage among the family).

The second piece has to do with cord-cutting and comes from the folks at eMarketer:

Research company GfK surveyed US households with TVs and found that in 2013, 19.3% of respondents had broadcast TV only and did not subscribe to any pay TV service. That’s a 37.9% increase from 2010 when only 14% of households shunned pay TV services and relied solely on broadcast TV…The study suggested that while wider online video viewing and more internet-connected TV options may have boosted cord-cutting, basic cost savings is at the real heart of the move toward broadcast-only TV. The study found that 60% of those who cancelled their pay TV service cited cost-cutting as the reason.

I disagree with the notion that it’s the cost alone.  I think it’s more the cost/value equation (the expense to get the programming live vs. the cost of other sources on a delay) coupled with the wider penetration of tablets as cited in the first piece.  The market favors tablets over low-end computers, content producers are doing a better job of populating that channel, even to the detriment of their traditional distributors, and the business model (selling ads against an audience that’s viewing simultaneously) has been seriously disrupted.

I’m watching to see who moves to accept the new world and who denies that things are moving.  It’s sort if a climate-change analogy in my mind.  You can deny it right up until the ice pack mets and floods you out or you can take preemptive measures and move to higher ground.  Which are you doing?

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July 10, 2013 · 10:09 am

Think Like A Reporter

One unit I used to teach way back when was on journalism.  Even though it was a long time ago and everyone’s access to information has changed significantly, the basic principles haven’t.  The reason I mention this is that it’s also a critical factor in being a good executive and managing your business.  So first some general points and then an example.

Old News - canon rebel t2i

(Photo credit: @Doug88888)

I used to tell the students to doubt everything.  If they hear a “fact” it was their job to find another source to confirm it.  If it came out of research, look into who did the research and why for signs of inherent bias.  It they heard or read it from an individual, ask questions – how do you know this, where did you learn it, do you have proof it’s true.  I’d remind them of something that I think is even more true now:  reporters are supposed to be “fair.”    There is supposed to be some objectivity in what they do and critical thinking – separating fact from fiction – is key.

We used to spend time on news vs. opinion and discuss how news informs while opinion persuades.  News presents all the facts; opinion presents only those that support the position taken.  One is objective; the other subjective.  As an aside, this is probably the biggest difference with almost all “news” today.

Example:  the plane crash in SF last weekend.  Within minutes, social media was filled with photos, witness reports, and statements by people allegedly on the flight.  I assume that the folks at the news networks follow Twitter and other sources yet nothing was said by any of them for 15-20 minutes.  Is that a failure?  Not in my eyes.  Clearly SOMETHING was going on but what?  Was it a crash or a training exercise or a movie shoot?  Saying “there’s a lot of activity on social media about something going on at SFO” is factually correct but says nothing.  So they waited to verify the information and then acted.

All of the above is critical when you’re in business.  I’m sure you see dozens of “facts” every day, whether they’re memoranda, data, presentations, or just conversations.  Acting on any of that information without thinking like a reporter can be fatal.  We need to make informed decisions and having the wrong information will make those decisions suffer.  You agree?

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