Tag Archives: business thinking

October 3, 2014 · 10:47 am

Whose Side Are You/They On?

This week’s Foodie Friday Fun comes from an experience I had last weekend.

Casa Bonita food service

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Mrs. and I went out for dinner with another couple and usually when the four of us go out we try new places. I had discovered a new-ish place not far from us and when I did my research the reviews were interesting. The praise for the food was pretty universal but many people mentioned the service as ranging from just OK to complete inattentive.

We went anyway figuring that finding really good food at a reasonable price could overcome mediocre service. As it turned out once we met the owner it became obvious why the service reviews weren’t great. He is European and the service is as well. The staff didn’t hover. They allowed for conversation. They refilled the water glasses at the appropriate time, made sure we had wine, and brought the food at a leisurely pace. Very much NOT what most Americans expect in my mind but it did raise a question.

I suspect that the reviewers might have gone to the new place thinking they had to find something wrong.  I think they might have assumed that any new place wouldn’t pass muster.  I also think there is a side to each of us (and I know I’m very much guilty of this) that thinks any business is trying to screw them somehow.  We’re all a little jaded with how many businesses behave.  Marketing is misleading, loud, and relentless.  Customer service is non-existent.  However, we might be just as guilty.

Ever been rude to a server or a sales clerk?  Do you allow the fact that the “customer is always right” to turn into a misplaced sense of entitlement?  Your dollars don’t permit you to be a jerk.

The message is that we need to assume that any business is on our side until they prove themselves to be otherwise.  Businesses have to assume the same thing about their customers.  Most of them are not out to get us nor to destroy our reputations via social media and word of mouth unless we really deserve it (and some places do!).  As with the case of the “slow” service, maybe they don’t quite understand what we’re doing and a little note on the menu about “our unhurried service is to permit you to enjoy the food and one another” would clear it up.

Clear?

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October 1, 2014 · 11:30 am

Rubbernecking

Is there anything more frustrating than rubberneckers? You know who I mean. Drivers who slow down to gawk at an accident thereby causing traffic jams behind them. Make a note: they’re one of my pet peeves. They’re also something from which we can take a business thought.

Wikipedia reminds us that according to a 2003 study, rubbernecking was the cause of 16 percent of distraction-related traffic accidents. I’m sure you’ve had that sinking feeling when someone behind you isn’t paying close attention to the fact that an otherwise wide open lane has come to a screeching halt.  Maybe it’s due to someone changing a tire on the other side of the road and a police car has pulled in behind them to flash lights for safety. More than once I’ve heard the screech of tires as the dolt behind me is trying to slow down and waited for impact.  You wish the cop would deploy a massive screen, upon which is written “nothing to see here – move along.”

I’ve never understood the phenomenon, either in a car or in business.  It manifests itself in a couple of ways off the road.  First are those companies and brands that try to create a rubbernecking situation where they do something to cause partners and/or consumers to slow down and gawk.  One could argue that, in fact, the old-school way of thinking about marketing was exactly that.  Think about your response on the road, however.  How angry are you when you discover that there is NOTHING causing the situation that’s keeping you from getting where you want to go?  Our messaging needs to add value not be a distraction.

The other way rubbernecking impacts business is when we allow our efforts to get distracted by something going on elsewhere.  Maybe you are spending time rubbernecking what your coworkers or other departments are doing.  Slowing down to look at the next new thing probably is just keeping us from the destination we’ve chosen.  Most of the time there is nothing to see.  Obviously I don’t mean we ought to operate in vacuums.  We can’t let situational awareness become a distraction what brings our movement to a crawl.

Don’t rubberneck in your car.  It’s even worse in your business life.  That’s my take.  Yours?

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September 26, 2014 · 8:30 am

Food For Thought

The folks at Eater provide our food for thought on this Foodie Friday.  They ran an interesting piece on 72 ways food can change the world.  It’s a collection of brief articles from chefs, farmers, scientists, and others.  It’s worth your time.

One piece that got me thinking was an interview with a food scientist from Washington State University.  This quote, in particular about working outside of the mainstream commodity system, resonated:

If you had a big truck with twenty tons of wheat and went to the grain elevator they would look at the stuff we work with and say, “That’s purple, that’s a different shape, and that doesn’t work for the commodity systems,” which are built on the notion of a huge amount of virtually identical, interchangeable product. By focusing on non-commodity varieties, we can pay attention to things like nutritional value and flavor—things that that big commodity farmers and programs tend to not care about. For them all that matters is yield.

There’s a great business point in there for all of us. The farmers with whom the professor works think about the game differently.  Rather than allowing the vagaries of the market to dictate their product they bypass the large, proven markets and focus on aggregating niche markets.  They control their product and find buyers as opposed to bowing down before the commodity system.  This gives them the freedom to improve the product – grain in this case – since they are not growing to product specifications imposed on them.

Over time, one or more of those niche markets may, in fact, become mainstream.  In other markets we might call them “early adopters.”  It’s not hard to remember when a high-definition television, a tablet computer, or a hybrid car were niches.  The “farmers” behind them didn’t try to make a mass-market product out of the gate.  They made something better knowing that if it was good enough the market would come to them.

Food for thought!

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