Tag Archives: business thinking

April 5, 2016 · 11:41 am

Hanging On

We’re selling our home. The kids are grown and living on their own.  We don’t need all the space and the property is too large and expensive to maintain. In other words, we’re doing the downsizing (or rightsizing!) that many folks in our situation do. Obviously, a lot of “stuff” has aggregated over the 30+ years we’ve been in the house and we spent many hours over the last few weeks decluttering. 

This past weekend was spent scanning old tax returns and putting the supporting documents into a “shred” box. Why were we hanging on to receipts from anything beyond the 3 years the IRS recommends? Who knows. We also found (and put in the shred box) cancelled checks from every decade beginning in the late 1970’s. That was long before banks did everything electronically and held scanned copies for you. I guess we got in the habit of filing them away.

In addition to the financial documents, we tossed (or donated) things that had sat in the basement or the attic for many years without anyone missing them. It’s nice, for example, that nearly every sporting event I attending during my years in sports TV gave out a duffel bag of some sort but having 20 bags in the attic gathering dust when someone somewhere needs one is silly, right?

So here is the question for you. When was the last time you took a look at the “stuff” hanging around your business? I don’t mean extra duffel bags or cancelled checks. All the detritus we collect over the years is due in part to a process we have in place.  When was the last time you examined the things, processes, etc. – to which you’re hanging on and why?  It’s not just a matter of freeing up space.  It also means you question each thing you touch and its relevance to your business moving forward.

It’s not just a matter of freeing up space.  It also means you question each thing you touch and its relevance to your business moving forward. I found a number of things (an automatic pasta maker, a countertop deep fryer) that I won’t ever use again but were hanging around the basement.  I rarely eat pasta anymore and it takes less time to make it by hand then it does to clean the machine after a use.  Why was I hanging on to it?

Old habits die hard, especially in business.  We need to stop hanging on and get our proverbial business houses cleaned up.  It makes wherever we decide to go next a much easier move.  You with me?

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March 29, 2016 · 11:06 am

Distracted

I read a lot of articles every day.  OK, the truth be told, I skim a lot of articles every day (usually over 1,000).  I read far fewer.  A few things struck  me as I rolled through my RSS reader this morning (I use Feedly).  The first is the repetitive nature of reporting.  Once something is said on one site it seems to show up within a few minutes on another.  The repetition isn’t limited to cross-site activity either.  Many sites will publish the same material again an hour after they first do so.  I’m not sure if they’re A/B testing headlines or what but to me, it’s just clutter and noise.

Another thing that struck me is the sensationalist nature of many of the headlines.  I totally understand the need to stand out in the cluttered media worlds through which my feed orbits, but there is a huge problem with it: distraction.  The headline might be screaming “fire” but as you dig into the article you inevitably find that it discusses the possibly of a fire if several unlikely scenarios occur.  The real issue for many of us is less about the time we waste reading the article than it is the repercussions that ensue from people who don’t.

Think about how often a higher up in your company or a client reads the headline (or worse yet, hears about it from someone else) and pings you for information.  Maybe it’s a chain of emails (each of which takes time to craft) or maybe it’s a phone call or two.  It’s a fire drill that takes time away from the things on which we should be focused.  They’re neither urgent nor important. They’re a distraction.

I don’t love the screaming headlines.  They lead to fire drills which lead to distracted, nervous businesspeople.  It’s a truism that we can’t chase everything nor solve every perceived or potential problem.  I try to scrape off the hype, find the facts, measure them against my current goals, strategies, and tactics.  At that point, I can either toss it (which is usually what happens) or update my thinking.  I don’t get distracted.  You?

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March 18, 2016 · 11:51 am

Focusing On The Protein

It’s Foodie Friday, and since last night was the finale of Top Chef, I thought we might learn a little something about both food and business from the program. Yes, I know I focused on a learning from that show a few weeks back, but not only won’t it be on for another nine months or so (sparing you my fanboy posts), but the thing on which I want to focus was done by both cheftestants, just as the business point occurs in many enterprises.

As part of the final challenge, each chef cooked a meat protein – one cooked rack of lamb; the other cooked duck breast. The responses from the judges in both cases were the same. The flavors were fantastic, the dishes were innovative and complete but the proteins were undercooked. The lamb was nearly raw in the center on most plates, and the duck breast was nicely cooked on the skin side but the other side was underdone as well. It seemed as if the chefs were so focused on the complete dish – the sauces and accompaniments – that they forgot to pay attention to the essential part of the operation – the protein that is the focus of the dish.

We see the same thing in business all the time. A side project detracts from the main business. Resources which are already spread too thin can’t focus on serving customers the basic product because they’re deployed on something that isn’t driving profits at the expense of something that is. We can’t forget to make sure the focus of our business is perfectly served because no matter how nicely everything that surrounds that focal point is offered, those things can’t compensate for a disaster in the main business.

You might think it can’t happen in your business: you’re too experienced and very good at what you do.  So were these chefs – one doesn’t get to the Top Chef finale unless you’re quite good (and these two actually topped two other cooks who are current James Beard Award nominees). Many restaurant critics will tell you that on their initial visit they like to order something very simple – roast chicken, for example – to make sure the kitchen is paying attention to the basics.  Are you?

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