Tag Archives: Reality checks

November 11, 2013 · 10:11 am

Veteran’s Day And Business

Often when a national holiday approaches I’ll go back over my posts to see what I’ve written about the day in the past.  I’ve written about Veteran’s Day, which we celebrate today, here, here, and here.

Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I vet...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feel free to go back and read them but I noticed a common theme that I want to repeat and  pretty big omission that I want to correct.

In each of those posts I thank our men and women who served to protect and defend this country.  I do again.  “My war” would have been Vietnam just as my Dad’s was WWII.  He served when his time came because he was needed; I didn’t since the war was winding down and the draft was ending.  Putting the politics aside is almost impossible when discussing the differences between those two conflicts but the service given by those who went is indistinguishable.

I also draw an inelegant analogy between those folks selfless service to us and how businesses ought to be dedicated to serving their customers.  I also touch upon the teamwork needed to succeed.  A long time ago Fast Company published an article which cited an interesting study:

After World War II, the US military commissioned S.L.A. Marshall, a Harvard historian, to do a remarkable study. The question he was asked to research was, literally, why are men willing to die in war? Marshall was allowed to advance and test a variety of explanations. Patriotism – people would die for their country. Or family – men would fight and die to protect their wives and children. The answer that finally emerged was small-group integrity. In a group of people where each is truly committed to the others, no one will be the first to run. So they all stand and fight together.

You know I’m a big proponent of teamwork and believe it’s critical to business success.  The article goes on to talk about managerial courage and how it’s tested and that brings up the omission I want to correct.  Too many of us talk about business as war from time to time, just as we do comparing sports to combat.  We need to stop that.  I used to say that the best part of what I did was that when I screwed up nobody died.  Protecting one’s country for a lousy salary and risking a life can in no way be compared to playing a game for a lot of money or running a business for an obscene amount.

So to my Dad, my other family members, schoolmates, and the millions who stepped forward when their time came to serve I say thank you.  We voted last week – you made that possible.  Think about that as you conduct your business the rest of this week and you serve customers. clients, and commercial causes, hopefully as well as the Vets served us.

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October 30, 2013 · 10:19 am

Turn The Chair

I was having a coffee with an old friend the other day.  We plopped ourselves down in a couple of overstuffed chairs at one of the local Starbucks to chat and it became apparent in a couple of seconds that the sun was streaming right into her eyes.

Free chair, new fence

(Photo credit: Kentucky Photo File)

I mentioned that fact and asked if she wanted us to relocate.  She sat forward and said “no, if I sit like this it’s not an issue.”  It wasn’t, but since I had no desire to watch her contort herself nor to see her back go out from sitting in an awkward position, I suggested she do something to remedy the situation: turn the chair.

That, in three words, is pretty much what I do.  I help clients to come up with solutions that might not be obvious to them in the moment but which are readily apparent to someone who isn’t caught up in the problem.  Questioning the underlying assumption and changing the paradigm is what many businesspeople fail to do on their own (and what just as many of us do in the “real” world outside of business as well!).  It gets back to the “what if” conversation we explored here a little while ago.

My friend could have sat sideways and waited for the sun to move so it was out of her eyes.  That would have distracted her from our chat at best and left her with a sore back or half blind at worst.  In a sense, it would have been the equivalent of blaming a business failure on a bad marketplace.  When the market turns – when the sun moves – things will be fine.  I don’t think any business really has the luxury of that sort of thinking and turning the business’ figurative chair is how the enterprise can carry on despite unfavorable circumstances.

I’ve been told that consultants are a luxury in good times and unaffordable in bad times.  As you might expect, I disagree.  We’re the folks keeping the sun out of your eyes and the sun is always shining in business.  While we might know a lot about your business (in fact, we need to!), we’re not caught up in the day-to-day, in the politics, or the latest office drama.  We have a different perspective.  Not better – different, and sometimes, that’s all that’s needed to move forward.

That’s my take – what’s yours?

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October 11, 2013 · 1:15 pm

No Good Deed…

English: McDonalds' sign in Harlem.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Foodie Friday fun time, and this week it’s fast food. Oh, sorry – Quick Service Restaurants. No, this isn’t going to be a polemic on the horrors of what’s served in many of these places. Instead, I’d like to focus for a moment on what the category leader has announced and some of the responses to it.

I find it instructive and you might as well. You might be aware the McDonald’s is going to give away books as toys with their Happy Meals which are targeted to kids.  The books will replace the usual toy and I think giving away 20,000,000 books instead of a like number of toys is a good thing.  However, that’s where much of the positive energy stops.  As USA Today reported:

…this new series of four kids books is hardly comprised of Caldecott Medal winners. Rather, the four books are based on McDonald’s own animated animals, including a goat, ant, dodo bird and, yes, a dinosaur.

Now McDonald’s had given out books at least 15 times previously but this is the first time the books have been created by their ad agency.  The cynics would say that since the books try to tell the kids about healthy eating from characters associated with the McDonald’s brand, kids might think McDonald’s is healthy food.  NY Times food writer Mark Bittman asked this:

If McDonald’s wanted to be on the right side of history, it would announce something like this: ‘Starting tomorrow, we’re not offering soda with Happy Meals except by specific request. And starting Jan. 1, at every McDonald’s, we’ll be offering a small burger with a big salad for the price of a burger and fries to anyone who asks for it; we’re also adding a chopped salad McWrap. We challenge our competitors to follow us in making fast food as healthful as it is affordable, and we dare our critics to say we’re not changing.

What’s the business point?  We can’t say one thing and appear to do another.  Simple, right?  Maybe to say, but we have to examine the entirety of our activities – both marketing-based and otherwise – to make sure that our words and our actions are aligned.  There are many people who look at everything companies do with a cynical eye and they have the tools and platforms to make their feelings known.  Anything associated with making money is subject to that skeptical review and the above is a good demonstration of how our good intentions can be undercut.

Does that make sense?

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