Tag Archives: business thinking

July 15, 2016 · 12:25 pm

Do You Respect The Traditions? Then Change Them!

By Alice.jessica.north

This Foodie Friday I want us to reflect on a quote I read. It comes from Chef Massimo Bottura who runs a restaurant currently ranked as the world’s best. He did and interview with the folks at Business Insider and one thing he said particularly resonated with me:

Most of the time I ask myself, “Is the tradition really respecting the ingredients?” If it’s not, then I have to change the recipe. In the beginning, it was difficult to do, but after we showed people we could evolve the traditions by taking a different approach, everyone accepted it with open arms.

I think that statement has broader application beyond the kitchen. We have many traditions in our business lives. Some of them are relatively innocuous such as our daily routine and some of them are quite important such as what is the nature of our business. It’s in these latter traditions that we find ourselves often not “respecting the ingredients” by ignoring the changes occurring around us.

Let me give you an example. When I was with the NHL over a decade ago we began discussing the streaming of local games. At the time we had some technical concerns ranging from bandwidth both on our end and consumers’ along with others. Those technical issues are long gone, and the NHL has been successfully streaming lives games to consumers since 2006, but only to consumers out of the local market where the game is airing. It has taken a decade for the local television deals to evolve to permit in-market streaming. That “ingredient” – the local television contract – was no longer “in season” and was being overly respected. The recipe had to change and it finally has, as this article shows. Bravo!

That’s one example. You can probably cite several in your business area where the recipes need change so that the traditions evolve and become relevant to the modern world. We can change things up while preserving the integrity of the tradition and the best things about why it became a tradition in the first place. Circumstances change. We need to as well.

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July 8, 2016 · 8:52 am

Expecting A Cobb And Getting A Dud

I want us to ruminate on a Cobb Salad this Foodie Friday.  It’s one of my favorite dishes and if I see it on a menu while I’m out for lunch there is a reasonably good chance that will be what I order. That’s exactly what I did yesterday and the “cobb salad” that showed up raised a business point in my mind. 

Unless they’re designated by some special qualifier such as “Crab Cobb”, any Cobb Salad has the same basic components.  The “EAT COBB” mnemonic can be used to remember them – egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon, and blue cheese. These items are generally diced and placed on a bed of greens. The dressing is usually a basic vinaigrette but I’ve had great versions with other dressings. The point is that when I order a Cobb, my expectation is that I will get the aforementioned pieces combined into a delicious whole. As I read the description of yesterday’s Cobb on the menu, there was nothing that dissuaded me from that opinion.

What showed up, however, bore little resemblance to what was described or to my expectations. Black olives? Well, that’s an infrequent variation. Half a chicken breast pretty much in one piece? Two red onion rings? No, my friends, this impostor in Cobb clothing was NOT at all what I expected, which is the business point. Every customer interaction comes with expectations. They might be very specific as was the case with the salad or they might be more general – attentive, responsive service, for example. Part of our job in providing value as we solve customer problems is to understand and to exceed whatever those expectations might be. Ignoring those expectations can result in a bad customer experience.

Yesterday’s lunch was perfectly pleasant and had the thing I ordered been just called something other than a Cobb there wouldn’t have been an issue in my mind (nor would I have ordered it). Setting expectations that go unmet is bad business. Like my salad yesterday, it leaves customers unfulfilled, which is not a formula for repeat business.

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July 7, 2016 · 8:33 am

One Ear At A Time

Today’s screed comes courtesy of my mom. While I’m doing the writing, she provided the inspiration for some business thinking. Isn’t that what moms do? 

I’m in Florida with my folks. My mom is having a procedure today and they’ll need a little help while she is recuperating. There was a little drama late yesterday about what time we are to go to the hospital. At one point she had a cell phone in one ear and a landline in the other as she tried to speak with a doctor and the doctor’s nurse. These were entirely separate conversations, mind you, and not some mashed-up form of a conference call. Combine that with my dad’s kibbitzing from the couch and it was quite a scene. Her attention was quite divided and it was actually comical listening to the circular conversations and the obvious lack of progress.

I described the scene to someone afterward and they remarked that you really can’t hear either conversation when you’re not focused, which is our business thought today. How many people do you know who claim to be great a multitasking? I’m here to tell you that they’re lying:

The short answer to whether people can really multitask is no. Multitasking is a myth. The human brain can not perform two tasks that require high-level brain function at once. Low-level functions like breathing and pumping blood aren’t considered in multitasking, only tasks you have to “think” about. What actually happens when you think you are multitasking is that you are rapidly switching between tasks.

In other words, we really can only pay attention to one ear at a time or one task at a time yet many of us insist on trying to do several contemporaneously. My guess is that each task takes longer than if we’d paid full attention to it and that the quality of the result is lower as well. I’m just as guilty as you are of trying to do too many things at once but I’m going to remember my mom and a phone in each ear as I try to change my ways. You?

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