November 4, 2011 · 11:07 am

Butchering The Chance

What better food topic than the premiere of Top Chef for our Foodie Friday Fun?  The power came back on in time for the show the other night (yay!) and in addition to some intriguing food there was a great business point made right off the bat.  The competition began with far more than the usual 16 cooks and many of those who came to Texas thinking they were on the show were, in fact, fighting for one of those 16 slots.  One competitor in particular stood out for all the wrong reasons, and it’s he who provided the business point I’d like to make today.

Top Chef

Image via Wikipedia

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Growing up, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 3, 2011 · 11:06 am

A Hockey Player Here To Play Golf

If you’ve seen Happy Gilmore you understand the notion of someone who is skilled at one thing transferring those skills to something else.  In the film’s case, Happy’s ability to smash a slap shot was a perfect antecedent to his long drive skills in golf.  As an aside, it’s not all fictitious:  I”ve played golf with many hockey players from the NHL level on down and almost without exception they play golf quite well.

Happy Gilmore

Image via Wikipedia

This got me thinking about if the same is true in business – someone who is successful in one industry can transfer those skills to another.  Here’s my thinking and I’d like to get yours: Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

November 2, 2011 · 10:09 am

10 Ways To Be A Business Tool

This is not about being a “tool” in the utilitarian sense.  This is for all the other kinds – as The Urban Dictionary says:

A person, typically male, who says or does things that cause you to give them a ‘what-are-you-even-doing-here’ look. The ‘what-are-you-even-doing-here’ look is classified by a glare in the tool’s direction and is usually accompanied by muttering of how big of a tool they are.

As a public service, here are ten ways I’ve found one can earn that classification from just about everyone in business.  And yes, it was prompted by someone’s specific behavior recently but I’m not enough of a tool to ID them. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , , ,