Tag Archives: advice

March 12, 2014 · 8:49 am

The “DOH” Factor

I did something really dumb yesterday and I thought it might be instructive. After all, as I tell my clients, the reason you hire someone with as much experience as I have is because I’ve already made most of the stupid mistakes. Why not learn from my stupidity?

A friend was excited to learn that very high-speed internet was coming to her town.

Homer Simpson

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She sent me a link to the local article about it.  I scanned the first paragraph and saw “Google Fiber” and assumed that’s what she was talking about.  I had read that Google was bringing its gigabit internet service to her town a couple of weeks ago.  Being the good-natured sort, I replied that yes, I was aware of it when it was news a couple of weeks ago.  Snark quotient off the chart, I know.  She calmly said, “No, not Google.  Read it – it’s a local company.  They’ll be here before Google.”  My apology was immediate and sincere.

We all do that, I think.  We’re so trained to multitask that our brains get good at parsing little pieces of information, evaluating them, and deciding whether and how to act upon them in an incredibly rapid fashion.  Maybe it’s become too fast.  As my faux-pas demonstrates, taking the time to get all of the available information might delay an opinion but it will probably make the quality of that opinion – and the decisions we make based upon our opinions – much higher.

Homer Simpson is one of my favorite characters but I’m not so sure he’s a great example for any of us as a businessperson.  “DOH” is a word he says on a regular basis, not that anyone would accuse him of moving in an overly rapid manner.  Taking our time – just a bit more time – to gather information more carefully and completely can help eliminate the “doh” factor.  I’m going to try to do just that – you?

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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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February 20, 2014 · 12:21 pm

Experienced Thinking

I was driving home the other day and passed a local pub.

aldous huxley

This place often puts a quote on a blackboard outside and when you get stopped at the traffic light you have a chance to read it.  The quote the other day was from Aldous Huxley and read as follows:

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”

Think about that not just in terms of your own personal experience but that of your business as well.  Many businesses have had the misfortune to figure out their business model is wrong or that they misjudged cash flow.  Some go under; some rethink how they’re doing what they’re doing or even if what they’re doing is right.  They’re the ones that dealt with what happened and gained experience.

This morning the news is filled with Facebook‘s purchase of What’sApp for $19 Billion.  There are also copies of the founder’s tweets that he sent when he didn’t get hired at Twitter or at Facebook.  Many people have had that happen.  He took those rejections and did something with them.  That experience made him a very wealthy man.

You can get knocked down and lie there or you can get up and fight again.  Your call.

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