Tag Archives: Reality checks

January 4, 2013 · 10:55 am

The Equipment

For our first Foodie Friday post of the year let’s talk about kitchen equipment.

VIKING STOVE

(Photo credit: CRYROLFE)

I’m very fortunate to cook in a kitchen that’s equipped with just about every tool for which a cook can ask. Some of these things are designed for a specific purpose (boning knife), some are improvements over an existing tool (a Microplane vs. a box grater) and some are just silly (cherry pitter).  The appliances are the highest grade of equipment available to a home cook.  When friends or family come over I can usually serve them something which they enjoy and of which I’m proud.

Sometimes, however, I cook elsewhere.  The stove is usually electric, the oven temp is often off, the knives may be dull or only serrated and small, the pans might be flimsy.  The expectation from those folks whom I’ve served before and for whom I’m cooking now is that they’ll get the same sort of meal they received from my own kitchen.  Frankly, that’s the expectation I have too.  Which is the business point.

We can’t blame the equipment.  How many writers don’t write because they lack screenplay software?  How many times have you heard a budding director say they’ll make their movie when they get better equipment?  Can’t exercise because there’s no gym?  What about in business – would you accept a subordinate’s excuse that they couldn’t complete an assignment because their computer failed?  As a consumer, are you mollified when a restaurant fails to honor your reservation because “the system is down?”

Part of being good at what we do in business is accepting responsibility and not allowing impediments to become excuses.  I’m embarrassed when I serve what I deem to be less than my best meal even if I’m cooking in a strange kitchen with rudimentary tools.  I’m sure most of you feel the same way.  Yet we often don’t translate that into our business lives nor enforce it as a standard on our teams.  We can’t blame the equipment – we play the hand we’re dealt.  The test is to see who can produce consistently great work in any environment.  Even if it lacks a cherry pitter!

You with me on this?

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December 31, 2012 · 10:56 am

The Most Important Thing I Learned This Year

Sometimes things that are very personal can also be important to a much wider sphere. Today is one of those things, I hope, and it’s a good one with which to end 2012.
As my brother lay dying a month or so ago, he said something that really stuck. He had a very rare form of cancer, one which even if it had been caught very early might not have been curable. While Mike was never one for much (if any) self-pity, on this occasion he indulged himself just a bit. What he had to say was a very important thing for your business life and that’s what I’d like to share.

“Why didn’t I take a day off and go to the doctor? Why didn’t I tell a client I can’t meet? Why did I keep going to the office?”

He knew – long before it was obvious to any of the rest of us – that something was wrong yet he felt a responsibility to his job and to his clients to put them first.  Obviously, I’m a big believer in that – I write often about a customer-centric focus.  However, what I learned this year was that if you’re going to serve your clients well you also need to be in sound enough shape physically and mentally to do so.  That requires that we take some time away.  Shut down the email, turn off the cellphone.  Go play a video game or golf or cook or read a non-business book.  Treat yourself as you would a client – they deserve some focused, uninterrupted time and so do you.

As I said, even if he had gone to the doctor the outcome might have been the same.  What might not have been, however, was how he used the time he had left and how he was treated to determine that time.  Mike’s lesson wasn’t exactly something I learned for the first time this year but this time it’s stuck.  I hope he can help it stick with you as well.

Enjoy a day or two off – on to a great 2013!

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November 28, 2012 · 11:01 am

Keeping It To Yourself

We have discussed privacy here on the screed several times. During many of those rants I talked about how companies need to think about their privacy policies (and being transparent about it is a great start) and how those policies will play with the folks whose data the companies are using. My theory is that young people have never really had any privacy (mostly due to hovering parents) and they’re less concerned about the issue than are people of my generation. However, there are netizens of every age who do care, and I suspect that as the “creepy” factor of ads following you around grows due to retargeting, etc., more people will begin to look into what data they’re sharing with the web overlords and how that data is used.

If you care or if you wonder if you should, the folks at Privacy Choice will be of interest to you.  Their research reveals that 20% of sites and apps reserve the right to share personal data freely for commercial purposes. Also, 60% of website privacy policies do not provide any written assurance that users can delete their personal data at the end of the relationship:

The most critical component of a privacy policy governs how a website or app handles personal data, which increasingly includes not only email addresses but also profile and other more intimate personal information gathered through social network integration…Nearly two-thirds of all policies examined (63%) provide assurance that personal data generally will not be shared with other companies, while another 10% promise not to share personal data for “marketing purposes.” However, one in five sites provide no assurance against sharing personal data with other companies.

If you are interested, I urge you to install their Privacyfix tool and the browser extension.  You can check a site’s tracking using this tool.  The results can be eye-opening.  It’s becoming obvious that companies are counting on us to take control if that’s what we want.  What do you think?

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