Tag Archives: cooking

The Balancing Act

This morning I got to thinking about food topics because it’s Friday, after all, and what I found myself thinking about instead was people.  No, I don’t think I have cannibalistic tendencies.  What I mean is I was thinking about some of the ways in which we describe people through food terms.   You know what I mean – that guy is a hot dog, she’s a turkey, he’s nuts.  We also ascribe some taste characteristics to people – she’s so sweet, he’s a salty dude, they’re a spicy couple.

I thought about going into how some of these phrases came to mean what they do but that’s a lot of work both for me and for you at the end of what has been a busy week.  Instead, I’ll leave you  with this food thought:

You can make a meal out of any combination of foods and flavors as long as you take your time to taste along the way and are willing to bring in new ingredients to provide balance.  No dish stands on its own without some help from the cook to create, improve, and deliver it (I don’t think of a perfectly ripe piece of fruit  a dish).  It’s the same when you’re building an organization.  You’re going to run into people who are of all types and flavors.  Your job isn’t to make the business work based on one ingredient.  It’s to combine all the ingredients into something delicious.

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Filed under Consulting, food

Oysters

Oyster from Marennes-Oléron

Two quick thoughts today – one food related (since it’s Friday) but both sort of commerce related.
I went to buy some fish for dinner yesterday and the fish monger had a beautiful box of oysters on display. That got me thinking: how many times do we look at business opportunities as if they were oysters? I mean, your first thought isn’t “Wow – that looks delicious.” You’re probably thinking – “is that edible?” It isn’t until you crack the oyster open that you realize it might be something you’ve want to try. Business can be the same way – an opportunity might look like it’s not worth pursuing but if we’ll take the time to investigate – crack it open a little – the real opportunity presents itself.

I also bought flowers for my Mom (remember Sunday, kids!) and found that ordering flowers was kind of like an oyster too.  You shop on-line and see the picture of a beautiful bouquet in a terrific vase and note the price.  That’s only the shell, as I found out.  When you go to order, you find out that the price you saw was just for the flowers.  Want the vase?  That’s more.  Want them delivered?  That’s even more.  By the time I was done, the price was double what I assumed it was when I started the process.  I got the shell open and I wasn’t happy.

I’m of the opinion that serving “oysters” to customers isn’t a great idea (sort of like many airlines do when you buy tickets and are hit with lots of additional charges) but spending time to check out opportunity oysters as a businessperson is an important idea.  Make sense?

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Filed under food, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Jamie

As usual, we have a food theme here on a Friday. Specifically, it’s about something that I hope catches on here as it did in England, and that’s Jamie Oliver’s campaign to get us all eating better. As he says on his website:

Jamie’s challenge was to see if he can get a whole community cooking again. He worked with the school lunch ladies and local families to get everyone back in the kitchen and making tasty meals with fresh ingredients – no packets, no cheating. He’s started a Food Revolution: to get people all over America to reconnect with their food and change the way they eat.

Here’s the problem with that, and it’s a good lesson for business as well. Continue reading

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Filed under food, Uncategorized