Consult Keith

The Italian Festival started in town here last night. Besides the usual rides and carnival games there is a LOT of food available so it seemed a good topic for Foodie Friday Fun. While we don’t attend this event any more (it’s hot, parking’s a pain, it’s kind of expensive, and no kids around to demand attendance), it’s interesting to listen to how some of our friends who go regularly describe it:

I hate it – I put on 5 pounds just walking in. Between the sausage and peppers and the pastries, I feel like I’m at war with my waistline and the Italian army of food is attacking from all sides.

Funny notion, and there’s a business thought in it.

You see, as the diet program slogan goes, food is NOT the enemy, obviously. As Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”  Overeating and blaming the food is like wrecking your car and blaming the tree you hit.  But many of us do it every day in business.

We blame subordinates for shoddy work when we didn’t train them or given them clear instructions.  We blame suppliers when we deliver our product late even though we didn’t stay on top of the incoming deliveries of raw materials.  We blame consumers when they ask questions (don’t they know customer service costs money)?

If each of us quits blaming the food and deals with the real enemy, I think we’d be making a lot of progress.  You?