Tag Archives: business

October 22, 2012 · 11:06 am

The Missile Crisis

With a presidential debate on foreign policy tonight, it’s interesting that today is the 50th anniversary (boy do I feel old) of the start of the international incident known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

English:

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’re unfamiliar with this time, there is a great movie called Thirteen Days which captures that period in 1962 when the U.S. and the Soviet Union came very close to starting a nuclear war.  I vaguely remember the “duck and cover” drills in school but little else.  The basic facts are the we had deployed some missiles in Italy and Turkey; the Soviets retaliated by sending missiles to Cuba.  We implemented a naval blockade to stop the ships, the Soviets threatened to start a war if the blockade didn’t end.  Harsh words were exchanged and the  situation escalated into the unthinkable – a nuclear war that would wipe out 100,000,000 citizens of each country as well as create an environmental catastrophe for the entire planet.

What does this have to do with business (since that’s what we do here on the screed)?  Maybe you and a customer have a disagreement   Maybe your management team is aligned on goals but very far apart on how to achieve them.  Maybe you have a work team in which some folks do all the work while others get all the credit.  Those are just a few of the business situations which can escalate into the business equivalent of nuclear war.  Those situations usually involve lawyers, money, a lot of time, and most of your emotional energy.  They take away from the reasons you’re in business.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was solved by the parties realizing that they did share one goal – avoiding the mass casualties and planetary destruction that a nuclear war would bring.  Back-channel negotiations solved the problem in a way that accomplished that goal as well as each side’s own goals while saving face on both sides.  That’s how it gets done in business as well.  Obviously, the best situation is to anticipate things that could become problems and write careful agreements before the situations happen.  However, a lot of the time that’s not feasible  as in some of the cases above.  In those cases, the sides need to come together  identify the goals they DO share, and listen very carefully to the other side.  Avoid posturing – speak openly and honestly.  Think creatively.  Commit to solving the problem.

Few business issues (OK, none) are of the magnitude of those weeks 50 years ago but we can still learn from what occurred.  What thoughts do you have?  Ever gotten to “the brink” in your business life?

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October 19, 2012 · 10:02 am

Are You Making Art Or Commerce?

For our Foodie Friday Fun this week, let’s talk about a dilemma faced by many chefs.

Chefs in training in Paris, France (2005).

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That problem is the “art vs. commerce” equation.  What I mean is that unless a chef is cooking solely in competitions or to entertain guests in his/her home, they’re probably conscious of their food costs.  In fact, that’s the number one issue I think restaurants face because unlike rent and utilities it’s a highly variable cost.  In my mind it comes down to do we want to make art – some wonderful dish that has expensive ingredients and requires a lot of labor to produce – or are we making commerce – highly repeatable, high margin plates.  That’s something that affects your business too.

I’ve always found it interesting that culinary schools offer both culinary arts tracks as well as culinary management tracks.  The former is about food science –  nutrition, flavors and cooking techniques. They also spend time on presentation but mostly on creating great flavors and developing cooking skills.  The latter program is about running the business – hiring people, accounting, running the front-of-house (the non-kitchen part of the business).  Art vs. commerce.  One would think that to be successful in the food business you’d need a heavy dose of the other side.

These sorts of choices are made all the time in your business as well, I’ll bet.  Where do we put the ads on the web page?  Do we auto-start our audio or video without user initiation?   Do we provide our store staff with uniforms or let them wear whatever?  Are we PBS looking to make art or ABC looking to sell ads?  Should we have someone go get the goods from storage or just go floor to ceiling with boxes of inventory?  Obviously no one would confuse Nordstrom’s with Costco, but to a certain extent that’s the art vs. commerce equation at work.

Obviously it’s possible to pay attention to both elements.  There are high-end restaurants that charge $200 for a meal and fast food joints that charge $2.00.  The reality is that the high-end “art” places often don’t last long because they’re not paying enough attention to the commerce.  We need to run our businesses as businesses but do so with flair and as much style as our budgets will allow.

How do you deal with this dilemma?

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October 17, 2012 · 11:07 am

The P.O.D.

When I go chat with prospective clients, one of the things they often ask about is my point of differentiation.  What makes me different from any of the other consultants with whom they’re speaking?  That’s a great question each of us needs to be able to answer whether we’re trying to sell consulting services, to get a new job, or to sell a product or service in our current jobs.  If you can’t answer the question, you might want to spend a few minutes and think about it.

In any event, among the things I believe make me different are the business experiences I’ve had over the years in both traditional and digital media.  There aren’t a lot of us who were senior management in the “old” world and transitioned into the “new” one.  We usually end up talking about a few other areas – intelligence  vision, style – but the one thing I like to emphasize is keeping a focus on the business and not on the tools.

I’ve written about it before as have others.  It’s still a surprise when that prospective clients asks “how do we get good at  (pick one – the web, Twitter, social media, SEO)?  The answer is always the same – you don’t, because that’s not what you’re trying to do in the first place.  Using those tools is just a means to an end.  What you’re trying to get good at is your business and to use those things to do so.  I guess that’s a real point of differentiation because many of them hadn’t really thought about it before and the other folks with whom they’re talking seem to have spent an awful lot of time on tactics and very little on goals and strategy.  Ready, Fire, Aim.

We need to stop confusing the end with the means.  “Likes” don’t equate to sales unless you’re structured to make them do so.  Does this make sense?

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