Tag Archives: business

July 5, 2016 · 10:55 am

Living Your Life Loving Chaos

I heard someone discussing chaos theory the other day. Uncertain as to exactly what they were describing, my natural curiosity took over and I did a little poking around so I could understand the term a little better. What I learned is a great place to start the week and the second half of the year.

I suspect that most of you aren’t mathematicians. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of you didn’t go on to study advanced math much beyond high school (I sure didn’t and even remembering what I did study makes my head hurt). As it turns out, chaos theory is a branch of fractal math that describes business pretty well:

Chaos is the science of surprises, of the nonlinear and the unpredictable. It teaches us to expect the unexpected. While most traditional science deals with supposedly predictable phenomena like gravity, electricity, or chemical reactions, Chaos Theory deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control.

Doesn’t that sound like the business lives we lead? The nice part of it is that within chaos there is order. Patterns emerge over time. Business is a series of interconnected, complex systems. When there are that many moving, independent pieces, predicting how each one will behave, or even how they MIGHT behave, is impossible. We can’t spend our time focused solely on predicting those behaviors. Our time is better spent in understanding where patterns come from and what they are as order emerges.

I think the most important line in the quote above for us as businesspeople is the last – things that are impossible to predict or control. We need to live our business lives embracing that uncertainty and not getting outraged when some unpredictable event intervenes. We can’t know everything although we can try to be prepared for anything. We need to embrace the chaos of business and to look for patterns. Those who will win will be the ones that find them first. You?

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May 13, 2016 · 10:40 am

What’s Your Bacon?

Foodie Friday, and our topic today is bacon. I’d encourage vegetarians and vegans to come back Monday because this is about to cause you to sound like Colonel Kurtz: “the horror, the horror…”

English: Uncooked pork belly bacon strips disp...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was making supper last night, and as I was rummaging through the fridge I noticed an abundance of bacon. That’s neither unusual for me nor bad, but I guess these unopened packs had been sitting around for a while and the expiration dates were approaching. I had planned some shrimp and mushrooms but good cooking is nothing if not adjusting on the fly, so the shrimp were dry-brined and wrapped in bacon. The mushrooms became stuffed with a cheese and bacon mixture. What’s one to do when he finds a pile of cheese and bacon left? Poppers, of course, since there were some jalapeños sitting in the veggie drawer (yes, I do have one of those).

Somehow, two pounds of bacon got used up. The shrimp and mushrooms, which would have been fine regardless, were way better because of the bacon. It reminded me of the time my crew went to a rodizio for lunch and were stuffed to the gills on meat when yet another server came by. We asked what he had – “turkey.” No takers. “Wrapped in bacon.” Everyone had some.

What does this have to do with business? Simple. What’s your bacon? What are you adding to everything you do to make it even better? Where is the value-added that represents you going the extra mile and doing something special?  Wired and Food Network did a little study in which they

compared the ratings of all the recipes that fit a certain description-—sandwiches, for example. Then, we calculated the average rating for those foods if they did not include the word “bacon.” We ran the numbers again using only recipes that did include bacon. The results were pretty great. Of all the foods we analyzed, bacon lends the most improvement to sandwiches.

The addition of that one special thing made the reviewers feel more positively about the product.  So what’s your bacon?

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April 18, 2016 · 11:55 am

It’s Not Just The Great Idea

I attended a workshop last week. It was through an organization that works with veterans of our military, teaching them a number of the skills they’ll need to succeed as entrepreneurs. I was pleased to be asked to participate and I was also pleased that a number of others were there to lend their support and knowledge to the vets who attended.

One point that I think became clear as the conversation progressed was that a great idea is not necessarily a great business. It also became clear that skills beyond hard work were key to turning a good (or great) idea into a wonderful business. While it was very evident that no one was going to outwork the vets in the room who had begun their business journey, it was also very evident that a bit of guidance could make those journeys more productive.

A few of the budding entrepreneurs presented their ideas to the group.  They were given only 2 minutes, which is a challenging amount of time even for very experienced presenters to make their case.  One person began with the problem and explained the solution his product provided, which is a spot on way to attack this challenge.  Another told a dramatic story and told how she came up with the product but didn’t expand what was her compelling problem into a much broader need.  The last presenter was just confusing.  While he has a fantastic product that could revolutionize small farms, he couldn’t explain the problem and I was left (along with the rest of the audience) wondering what exactly it was he was selling and to whom.  As an aside, the more senior folks in the room helped him craft his pitch to make all of those things more clear.

It’s not just a great idea nor is it a willing attitude and hard work.  Passion is a prerequisite but it’s not enough.  These vets were smart enough to know that and were taking the time to learn the skills required.  They weren’t embarrassed to say “I don’t know” or “I need help.”  Are you?

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