Tag Archives: managing

February 8, 2013 · 10:28 am

Finding Nemo

Foodie Friday Fun begins with a look out the window as Winter Storm Nemo approaches. That arrival seems to have spurred a rush to the supermarket by everyone in our town, at least according to my sister who found mostly bare shelves when she went this morning. I suppose we could talk today about what one can prepare when there might not be electricity to operate an oven, microwave or many stoves. We have a gas range but without electricity there is no range hood so we have to be careful about what we make. But that’s not really the food subject today.

Finding Nemo (video game)

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Making sure that there’s ample food, water, and batteries is becoming a regular event in our area as we’ve been hit by massive storms a few times over the last two years.  The accuracy with which these events have been predicted, even down to the time when the storms arrive and depart, is pretty amazing.  What the forecasters can’t predict, however, is which trees will cause a power problem or block access to roads.  Even with much better tools, there are big uncertainties that will affect our specific situation.  That’s today’s business point.

The hardest part of your job as a leader to see over the horizon.  The next hardest part is convincing others that what you’re seeing is right and to take the appropriate action based on your forecast.  How angry would you be if you bought gallons of water and lots of food only to find out that the blizzard was a couple of inches of snow?  How dangerous is it when they predict a dusting of snow and you wake up to eighteen inches of heavy, wet slush?  Being able to assemble the known information into a cogent prediction of the future is a skill that comes only with time and experience (easy to say coming from an older guy, I know).  Take our friend Nemo, here.  There are a dozen computer models that disagreed a day or two ago about the storm’s impact.  A few even do so today.  Which of the models you choose to believe can have an impact, especially if you’re the person deciding to call in plow drivers or buy salt for the roads.

I think if I could wish for one thing in business it would be tomorrow’s newspaper.  I’d then have a perfect look over the horizon, at least for a day.  For now all we can do is to try to find the Nemos that will impact our business lives that are lurking out there.  Then we need to get to the store and make sure our team is prepared to hunker down and ride it out.

Now, where did I put the spare batteries?

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February 7, 2013 · 12:57 pm

A Sales Lesson From Hunter And Garcia

Every once in a while I like to make business points based on something I pull out of music. As you might be able to tell from a few of my previous posts, often those lessons come from the music of The Grateful Dead. Today is no exception.

Robert Hunter

The song “High Times” was written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia and was in and out of their concert rotation beginning in 1969. It has nothing to do with drugs despite the title but as you’ll see it has quite a lot to do with sales.  This is the first verse:

You told me goodbye
How was I to know
You didn’t mean goodbye
You meant please don’t let me go

While the song is about loss and is a plea for a significant other to come back, there’s also a message for anyone who is selling something.  That message is about listening for the meaning behind the words.  In this case “goodbye” meant “hold me tighter, convince me to stay.”   How often do we hear “no” and not understand, as marketers or salespeople  that “no” means “not yet”?  It’s not an invitation to walk away.  “Too expensive” doesn’t mean cut your price.  I take it to mean “show me more value.”

The ability to listen and to read the meaning behind the actual words is a critical skill we probably don’t teach or practice often enough.  Someone who asks a slew of questions is demonstrating a keen interest to buy.  We need to probe to find out what is keeping them from satisfying that need.  We need to hear meaning and not just what was said.

“How was I to know” is a pretty easy question to answer but getting the meaning isn’t in many cases.  Does that make sense?

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February 1, 2013 · 11:24 am

Chefs And Cooks

Ah, Foodie Friday!  The gateway to the weekend.  One of the things I like most about the weekend is that I can spend time in the kitchen and not feel as if I’m neglecting work.  I suppose for those folks for whom the kitchen is work – on both an amateur and professional basis – that’s not such a treat but it is to me.  There are, of course, an awful lot of differences between what I do in the kitchen and what a professional does.  The biggest difference, aside from the skill level, is that I’m usually there working by myself as both chef and cook.  If you’re not clear as to what the main difference is, read on – there’s a business point in it as well.

English: White House chefs, directed by Execut...

.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Running a business is similar to running a kitchen.  The key in both cases is for the person in charge – the chef – not to get too caught up in doing the grunt work but instead in spending their time and energy supervising and helping the line cooks.  Any great chef will tell you that the hardest part of their work isn’t  creating the dishes they serve.  Instead, it’s in taking those menu items  and putting them into a system that will work efficiently.  You must produce each dish in a timely manner and at a consistent level of quality.  Managing a business staff is the same – the art is in creating a system that produces consistent work in a timely, efficient manner.

Another point to consider is the complexity of those dishes or the projects you assign to your staff.  I used to play music with a lot of extremely talented musicians.  However, there were a few pieces that were just too difficult for us to pull off and in the interest of our audience we didn’t try to play them publicly.  Knowing the limitations of a staff or your business to produce something is an important part of the management mix and the creative process.

Most chefs have no problem stepping into a station on the line if need be.  Most great managers can step in and help with the grunt work as well.  The ones who aren’t worthy of their titles are the ones who think it’s beneath them or who don’t have the focus on the customer’s immediate need for the work.  Which are you – a chef or a cook?  Which role should you be playing?

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