Tag Archives: Food

September 9, 2016 · 2:01 pm

A Dyspeptic Foodie Friday

The end of the week has brought us to another Foodie Friday. Unfortunately, it’s not really a fun Friday this time. I spent the night with a nasty case of excess acidity inflaming my esophagus. That’s unusual for me since I’ve always fancied myself to have a bit of an iron gut. Still, the burning was real and uncomfortable but it did get me thinking.

diagram of a human digestive system

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Stomach acid is a normal, critical part of our digestive systems. For many folks, certain foods trigger excess stomach acid which finds its way back up. Tomato sauce is one of those foods and although I’ve never had an issue before it was part of my dinner last evening so maybe that was it. Whatever it was that triggered it, something that was normal and necessary had gone to an extreme and was now a detriment. Which is, of course, the business thought today.

Think of someone you know in business who is really smart. My guess is that they are also kind of impatient. They grasp things faster than many people and it seems to take them a concentrated effort to be patient while the rest of the team catches on. Take a boss who tries to be supportive of his folks but lets them cross over into being slackers. Those two examples are of good qualities – intelligence and supportiveness – which have gone to an extreme and turned into something detrimental – impatience and sloppiness. Like my digestive system last night, they require immediate action to rein them back to normal before real damage is done.

It’s great to be forceful but bad to cross the line into badgering. It’s fine to emphasize strategy but when you overdo it and upset the balance with the real world of execution and operation, you’re hurting the system. I’ll be a bit more careful with my normally wonderful digestion going forward. It’s probably not a bad idea to pay attention to all the good things in your business that might be heading to an extreme before the business requires  an antacid. Deal?

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August 26, 2016 · 8:51 am

Meaningless Marketing

This Foodie Friday I want to talk about something I call “meaningless marketing” in the food industry although I think you’ll see that the principle behind the term holds true in any industry. Meaningless marketing is the use of words that really have no meaning. More importantly, in some cases, the words are used specifically because they might trick consumers into thinking they’re saying one thing when, in fact, they’re not.

Let’s use the term “natural” in the food business. One might read it on a package or a menu and think “this food is wholesome, healthy, and unadulterated.” Unlike many terms in marketing, “natural” isn’t regulated so in actuality the food in question can have artificial ingredients, preservatives, pesticides, and be made from GMOs. Not quite what the consumer is thinking, but exactly what the purveyor is hoping they will.

“Natural” isn’t the only meaningless phrase used in food marketing. “Delicious”, “Made With Whole Grains“, “A Good Source Of Fiber (or anything else)”, and “Low Sugar” or “Lightly Sweetened” are all other examples. As you might expect, I have issues with any form of deceptive marketing but I think when it’s done to induced people to consume unhealthy foods while the consumer thinks otherwise is pretty low.

The truth is that there is no “meaningless marketing.” It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. People see and hear things and act accordingly. I realize that there is a responsibility on the consumer’s part to read the labels or to garner information from other sources, but if companies aren’t honest about that labeling, thereby making the consumer’s research more difficult, how can any of us call ourselves a consumer-friendly brand that acts in the customer’s best interest?

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August 19, 2016 · 9:52 am

Teaching The Master

It’s Foodie Friday! I was reading one of the many food blogs I follow when I came across a post from a baker who had updated his book on breadmaking. It was a very successful book and had won numerous awards but it was now 15 years old and the publisher had asked for an update. That isn’t particularly interesting since cookbooks are updated all the time – The Joy Of Cooking has been updated 6 times in the 75+ years since its publication. What is of interest to me – and which provides an interesting business point – is the mindset of the author.

There are two quotes in his post which resonated and which I think are instructive to us all:

  • Working on it (the anniversary edition) gave me a chance to examine all that has transpired during the interval, and to see where we might freshen things up to keep pace with all the developments.

  • Even after six thousand years of bread baking, we are still learning new ways to make it even better.

In other words, here is someone who is always learning and taking the opportunity to use what he’s learned to foster positive change in his endeavors. All of us should be reading, listening, and learning every day. No matter if we use RSS to digest dozens of sources of professional and industry information or if we just wander the halls speaking to people, one of the most fundamental things we need to do it to keep learning. In this case, we have someone who literally wrote the book on breadmaking and is considered a master. The only way to retain that sort of elevated status in any field is to keep learning.

The legal profession requires hours of Continuing Legal Education for members of the bar to stay admitted. Teachers are expected to keep earning degree credits and to publish once they get into academia’s highest realms. It needn’t be that formal. All that’s required is a willingness to learn, an open mind, and a fundamental curiosity about the world in which we live, both professionally and as humans. You with me?

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