June 2010 Archives
The Middle Way
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Back in the '80s, when I was first learning about business, everyone followed Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
I'll admit, at the time it seemed logical. And I'll admit, I still tend to follow some of the ideas, like, power comes from unity and not size, flexibility is important, opportunities are better when recognized rather than created.
But a more valuable business lesson is from a peacemaker, not a war strategist, and that is The Middle Way.
The Middle Way, essentially, is the path of moderation one takes between extremes. The Buddha developed the idea as a crucial path to enlightenment. I see it as the crucial path to business success.
And in fact, especially when one is starting a business or building something big and expensive, The Middle Way can come in very handy.
At my company, we work as hard at The Middle Way as we would at the edges.
Wait, that's a lie.
Actually, we work harder because The Middle Way usually leads us to an answer that is more nuanced and takes greater creativity to flush out completely. The Middle Way acknowledges that there is more than one right answer and that often, right answers can be diametrically opposed. It forces one to look at each right answer, parse out what is most right about it, and put everything together in a new way.
The Middle Way is hard. It means you have to admit that part of your decision could be your ego, admit that your stake in the sand could be arbitrary, and/or admit that you could be, shockingly, wrong about what you believe is best.
But the best business decisions are those decisions that are, in fact, best. And the best way to go about getting to best is to see if there is, in everything, a Middle Way.
I'll admit, at the time it seemed logical. And I'll admit, I still tend to follow some of the ideas, like, power comes from unity and not size, flexibility is important, opportunities are better when recognized rather than created.
But a more valuable business lesson is from a peacemaker, not a war strategist, and that is The Middle Way.
The Middle Way, essentially, is the path of moderation one takes between extremes. The Buddha developed the idea as a crucial path to enlightenment. I see it as the crucial path to business success.
And in fact, especially when one is starting a business or building something big and expensive, The Middle Way can come in very handy.
- Should we hire for a whole new position or gut it out and do the work ourselves? (We chose to hire a contract part-timer.)
- Should we get a big investor or just enough to help us crawl to our destination? (We got a medium investor.)
- Should we risk everything and build the whole of our dreams or nothing at all because we are essentially broke? (We did a lot of reconfiguring and are building a good solid part of the whole.)
At my company, we work as hard at The Middle Way as we would at the edges.
Wait, that's a lie.
Actually, we work harder because The Middle Way usually leads us to an answer that is more nuanced and takes greater creativity to flush out completely. The Middle Way acknowledges that there is more than one right answer and that often, right answers can be diametrically opposed. It forces one to look at each right answer, parse out what is most right about it, and put everything together in a new way.
The Middle Way is hard. It means you have to admit that part of your decision could be your ego, admit that your stake in the sand could be arbitrary, and/or admit that you could be, shockingly, wrong about what you believe is best.
But the best business decisions are those decisions that are, in fact, best. And the best way to go about getting to best is to see if there is, in everything, a Middle Way.
Screaming at Tourists
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You know how some people tend to Talk. Really. Loud. when they are speaking to someone for whom English is a second language?
They (the talkers) always look a little stupid.
That is, until you find yourself trying to give directions to someone who doesn't speak English? Next thing you know, you are standing on a street corner, pointing furiously, and screaming at the top of your lungs. Looking a little stupid.
People do this, I think, because they completely understand what they are saying and thus, it follows, that any one would -- if they would just listen!
What's missing, though, is the idea that communication isn't about the person doing the giving, it is about the person doing the receiving. Who cares if you are saying what you want, the way you want to say it, if no one understands you?
It's hard to remember that if you aren't being understood, there's a problem that isn't solved by raising your voice.
Does the listener understand the language you are using? Are you using a bunch of lingo? Are you speaking in paragraphs no one wants to listen to when your audience just needs a catchy tag line?
It is crucial to figure out the problem and not just raise your voice a little more.
And that goes double for marketing, where every time you want to say something, it costs time and/or money.
So, the next time you are about to embark on a marketing program, ask yourself -- is there a lingering problem we didn't solve before the last time we bought an ad/hosted a promotion/offered a special? If so, would it pay to figure that out before throwing more money away?
(If the answer is no, please aim that money in my direction. I need some new stickers for my scooter.)
They (the talkers) always look a little stupid.
That is, until you find yourself trying to give directions to someone who doesn't speak English? Next thing you know, you are standing on a street corner, pointing furiously, and screaming at the top of your lungs. Looking a little stupid.
People do this, I think, because they completely understand what they are saying and thus, it follows, that any one would -- if they would just listen!
What's missing, though, is the idea that communication isn't about the person doing the giving, it is about the person doing the receiving. Who cares if you are saying what you want, the way you want to say it, if no one understands you?
It's hard to remember that if you aren't being understood, there's a problem that isn't solved by raising your voice.
Does the listener understand the language you are using? Are you using a bunch of lingo? Are you speaking in paragraphs no one wants to listen to when your audience just needs a catchy tag line?
It is crucial to figure out the problem and not just raise your voice a little more.
And that goes double for marketing, where every time you want to say something, it costs time and/or money.
So, the next time you are about to embark on a marketing program, ask yourself -- is there a lingering problem we didn't solve before the last time we bought an ad/hosted a promotion/offered a special? If so, would it pay to figure that out before throwing more money away?
(If the answer is no, please aim that money in my direction. I need some new stickers for my scooter.)
Fishing Lessons
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Fish where the fish are.
Don't fish where you fished last year, when the fish are no longer biting, just because it is easier to keep fishing than to figure out where the fish are now.
Don't fish where your neighbor fishes, just because you think his fish are cool, especially if he has a different rod and bait than you.
Don't fish where you were told to fish, just because you were told to fish there.
And by all means, don't try to steal your neighbor's fish when your stocks are running low.
(this post inspired by Peter Arnell)
Don't fish where you fished last year, when the fish are no longer biting, just because it is easier to keep fishing than to figure out where the fish are now.
Don't fish where your neighbor fishes, just because you think his fish are cool, especially if he has a different rod and bait than you.
Don't fish where you were told to fish, just because you were told to fish there.
And by all means, don't try to steal your neighbor's fish when your stocks are running low.
(this post inspired by Peter Arnell)
What we can learn from Zagat listings
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So, now that everyone is done freaking out and arguing over the most recent Zagat listings for Chicago, I thought I would draw your attention to the single most important thing about this year's listings:
83 percent of eaters check out a restaurant website and try to find out more about the menu before heading out for the evening.
And so, to all the restaurant owners and chefs who are sitting around wondering where to start in their marketing plan, I offer these three questions:
1) Have you accepted the fact that Steve Jobs hates Flash and that your fancy website design pisses off a boatload of people? iPhones make up fifty percent of smartphone web traffic (Blackberrys are a shockingly distant second and third) and the iPad is, well, read this. Then, get rid of your Flash because the only boost it gives is to your ego, not your business.
2) Are your address, phone, and hours listed on the first page? I am still frustrated by the restaurant whose website doesn't even have hours listed, which is really only allowed if you are always open.
And, for the win...
3) Is your menu actually up-to-date? (And relatively typo-free?)
We could go on, adding in all the great stuff a website could do, but really, a great, effective restaurant website could be one page with a nice picture, coordinates, hours and a current menu.
One page is all it takes.
After all, it only takes one page, with Flash, loud annoying music, whathaveyou, to turn me off.
83 percent of eaters check out a restaurant website and try to find out more about the menu before heading out for the evening.
And so, to all the restaurant owners and chefs who are sitting around wondering where to start in their marketing plan, I offer these three questions:
1) Have you accepted the fact that Steve Jobs hates Flash and that your fancy website design pisses off a boatload of people? iPhones make up fifty percent of smartphone web traffic (Blackberrys are a shockingly distant second and third) and the iPad is, well, read this. Then, get rid of your Flash because the only boost it gives is to your ego, not your business.
2) Are your address, phone, and hours listed on the first page? I am still frustrated by the restaurant whose website doesn't even have hours listed, which is really only allowed if you are always open.
And, for the win...
3) Is your menu actually up-to-date? (And relatively typo-free?)
We could go on, adding in all the great stuff a website could do, but really, a great, effective restaurant website could be one page with a nice picture, coordinates, hours and a current menu.
One page is all it takes.
After all, it only takes one page, with Flash, loud annoying music, whathaveyou, to turn me off.
Honest Authenticity
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Ever walk into a restaurant and you can tell the owner spends time in a tanning bed?
There's always a lot of "authentic" stuff to look at -- in corners, on the walls. Often, it looks purposely old or it is all a bit over the top.
Those kinds of restaurants have always tended to open with a lot of hype. And in the past they could hang on for some time. I think that was because there wasn't a lot of anything else going on.
But these days, the manufactured environments crafted to capture authenticity, often down to the specifically selected tabletop, tend to fizzle fast after the first thrill. That's because there's more to choose from so you can always go back to the place that made you feel good, rather than be forced to hang in the place that feels full of itself.
There's something to be said for the chef who opens up a place with his own sweat and savings, goes commando in the decor, can only afford Buffalo china and concentrates on his food. I ate at a restaurant like that in Philly recently and, I must say, it had that magical feeling of "I could eat here every day" that so many in the restaurant world want to engender in their diners.
Restaurants are entertainment venues, to be sure. But some, I think, spend more time on being "authentic" than anything else. Thankfully, we all only have to go to those places once.
There's always a lot of "authentic" stuff to look at -- in corners, on the walls. Often, it looks purposely old or it is all a bit over the top.
Those kinds of restaurants have always tended to open with a lot of hype. And in the past they could hang on for some time. I think that was because there wasn't a lot of anything else going on.
But these days, the manufactured environments crafted to capture authenticity, often down to the specifically selected tabletop, tend to fizzle fast after the first thrill. That's because there's more to choose from so you can always go back to the place that made you feel good, rather than be forced to hang in the place that feels full of itself.
There's something to be said for the chef who opens up a place with his own sweat and savings, goes commando in the decor, can only afford Buffalo china and concentrates on his food. I ate at a restaurant like that in Philly recently and, I must say, it had that magical feeling of "I could eat here every day" that so many in the restaurant world want to engender in their diners.
Restaurants are entertainment venues, to be sure. But some, I think, spend more time on being "authentic" than anything else. Thankfully, we all only have to go to those places once.
Why keeping your options open closes doors
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The other day, I was going through my email backlog and realized that I hadn't gotten back to someone who needed some career advice. She's looking for a job--she has been looking for a job for some time. She's getting nowhere.
The email, basically, listed out the four different careers for which she felt she would be a good fit. The plan, and I think a lot of people do this, was that she would tailor her resume to fit whatever job she was going for. She was doing this so she could keep her options open to whatever job came along.
Did I mention she's been looking for a job for a long time?
People are forever keeping their options open. To keep one's options open, people avoid committing to one thing about which they feel particularly passionate. To be properly "Option Open" one has to be vague about goals so as not to discount anything. The idea is that something fantastic one wouldn't have ever thought of might drop in their lap.
I, myself, always wonder how they'll even know if something that comes along is fantastic if they don't really know, with laser-like focus, what they want. I mean, there is a lot of fantastic in the world. But not all fantastic is really fantastic for each and every person.
And I worry that people miss the really fantastic thing that would be perfect for them because they are so busy running around chasing all the seemingly fantastic things that happen along but, upon further inspection, aren't actually fantastic because, well, in the end it wasn't a good fit.
Keeping one's options open has a lot going for it. It's easier than doing the hard work of figuring out what you really want. It means you don't have to really commit to something. It's like the aging bachelor, with all his good reasons, who still dates women in their thirties because he hasn't emotionally matured since then.
And it is precisely the thing to do if you want to be mediocre and generally frustrated with your job, your business, your life.
Mostly, in fact, I think it is the mediocre way out.
The email, basically, listed out the four different careers for which she felt she would be a good fit. The plan, and I think a lot of people do this, was that she would tailor her resume to fit whatever job she was going for. She was doing this so she could keep her options open to whatever job came along.
Did I mention she's been looking for a job for a long time?
People are forever keeping their options open. To keep one's options open, people avoid committing to one thing about which they feel particularly passionate. To be properly "Option Open" one has to be vague about goals so as not to discount anything. The idea is that something fantastic one wouldn't have ever thought of might drop in their lap.
I, myself, always wonder how they'll even know if something that comes along is fantastic if they don't really know, with laser-like focus, what they want. I mean, there is a lot of fantastic in the world. But not all fantastic is really fantastic for each and every person.
And I worry that people miss the really fantastic thing that would be perfect for them because they are so busy running around chasing all the seemingly fantastic things that happen along but, upon further inspection, aren't actually fantastic because, well, in the end it wasn't a good fit.
Keeping one's options open has a lot going for it. It's easier than doing the hard work of figuring out what you really want. It means you don't have to really commit to something. It's like the aging bachelor, with all his good reasons, who still dates women in their thirties because he hasn't emotionally matured since then.
And it is precisely the thing to do if you want to be mediocre and generally frustrated with your job, your business, your life.
Mostly, in fact, I think it is the mediocre way out.
Congrats to Big Bowl!
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I hear a lot about Big Bowl, seeing as my best friend is their out-of-house publicist. And I have to say, it is a fascinating company (with or without her -- sorry my friend), they are forward-thinking in a way Chipotle is. And by that I mean they use the buckets of money they can make by being a chain to do something worthwhile in the world. And in the end, THAT they are a chain restaurant, something that could easily lull them into resting on their laurels, makes their efforts all the more commendable.
It seems that every week, my friend is telling me about the latest thing she learned about Big Bowl and frankly, it is always pretty damn cool. This week, she shared how the Minnesota Big Bowls are going to start working with Hmong farmers to grow vegetables. Now, you might think a lot of chefs work with farmers to grow vegetables and they do. But the chefs who normally do are small, independent restaurants who compete, these days, via ingredients rather than big behemoth companies who traditionally buy from Sysco.
There's so much news, to be sure, that there is no way for them to get it out into the public marketplace in any sort of traditional PR way. Journalists wouldn't want to write that much about them, they'd worry they were seeming biased. And of course advertising is out, because we all agree advertising is out, right?
So, Big Bowl decided to tell their own story, on their own website. They just launched it and frankly, it is great and ambitious.
My friends' job is to keep the thing current and interesting, the idea being if the content can be compelling enough, people will visit the site and become Big Bowl fans and, subsequently, eat at Big Bowl more. Finding that much content, even for an interesting company, is tough because she can't just dial it in and hope that her efforts will produce the desired result. The content has to be interesting, it has to pull the reader back time and again, it has to fight through the firehose that is the internet and engage an audience.
But I challenge anyone to think of any better way to market an interesting restaurant. Really, please, share your thoughts here because I would love to be proven wrong -- but don't think I will be be.
So, hat's off, Big Bowl, I think your strategy is just brilliant.
It seems that every week, my friend is telling me about the latest thing she learned about Big Bowl and frankly, it is always pretty damn cool. This week, she shared how the Minnesota Big Bowls are going to start working with Hmong farmers to grow vegetables. Now, you might think a lot of chefs work with farmers to grow vegetables and they do. But the chefs who normally do are small, independent restaurants who compete, these days, via ingredients rather than big behemoth companies who traditionally buy from Sysco.
There's so much news, to be sure, that there is no way for them to get it out into the public marketplace in any sort of traditional PR way. Journalists wouldn't want to write that much about them, they'd worry they were seeming biased. And of course advertising is out, because we all agree advertising is out, right?
So, Big Bowl decided to tell their own story, on their own website. They just launched it and frankly, it is great and ambitious.
My friends' job is to keep the thing current and interesting, the idea being if the content can be compelling enough, people will visit the site and become Big Bowl fans and, subsequently, eat at Big Bowl more. Finding that much content, even for an interesting company, is tough because she can't just dial it in and hope that her efforts will produce the desired result. The content has to be interesting, it has to pull the reader back time and again, it has to fight through the firehose that is the internet and engage an audience.
But I challenge anyone to think of any better way to market an interesting restaurant. Really, please, share your thoughts here because I would love to be proven wrong -- but don't think I will be be.
So, hat's off, Big Bowl, I think your strategy is just brilliant.
Back in the Saddle
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Well, that was a refreshing, unintended, vacation. I won't bore you with pictures. But I will share a few scenes:
Power-watching Lost to get to the end of all six seasons so I could watch the finale live (it was a let-down). I became sick to death of the same Glade commercials that ran on every episode. By season four, I wanted to go firebomb the Glade aisle at my local chain grocery store. At the same time, I was being spammed by a club promoter who somehow got my cell phone and decided it was a good idea to add me to their blast message system. Push advertising is dead, or if it isn't, I don't think I am the only person who wants to kill it.
I bought a scooter. The Yelp! reviews on the place where I bought the scooter were horrible. My own experience was amazing. I asked the owner about it and he said the reviews were about two years old and since that time, they engaged in a Renaissance to improve their customer service. Yet did nothing about it on Yelp!. I keep wanting to take the time to go on there and write my own review and yet I don't. I've been wondering what businesses could do to get happy customers to post reviews.
I started mentoring a young gal with a rowing studio who needs marketing help. Her challenge is an interesting one: attract an audience who knows nothing about rowing to her small, start-uppy, no-frills studio located on a kinda barrenish strip of street. Rather than the obvious ideas (distributing flyers, offering discounts, getting hits in newspapers and magazines, facebooking like mad), our plan is to create a scenario that compels people in the door. It's infinitely harder than shoving flyers in car windscreens, sure, but infinitely more lasting. It feels great to be able to work on a marketing strategy with someone actually willing to work hard to participate in their own success.
A bunch of restaurants on the brink did Groupons. When you know the back story at the restaurant, it is always sad to see the email, usually the first email of the day. Sadder still to see the copy, mostly reducing the chef's culinary dignity to a snappy sales pitch. It feels like you just spied on your trying-to-get-clean druggie friend scoring H on the West Side.
I don't know why I stopped blogging and I don't know why I decided to start again. But the break was refreshing.
Power-watching Lost to get to the end of all six seasons so I could watch the finale live (it was a let-down). I became sick to death of the same Glade commercials that ran on every episode. By season four, I wanted to go firebomb the Glade aisle at my local chain grocery store. At the same time, I was being spammed by a club promoter who somehow got my cell phone and decided it was a good idea to add me to their blast message system. Push advertising is dead, or if it isn't, I don't think I am the only person who wants to kill it.
I bought a scooter. The Yelp! reviews on the place where I bought the scooter were horrible. My own experience was amazing. I asked the owner about it and he said the reviews were about two years old and since that time, they engaged in a Renaissance to improve their customer service. Yet did nothing about it on Yelp!. I keep wanting to take the time to go on there and write my own review and yet I don't. I've been wondering what businesses could do to get happy customers to post reviews.
I started mentoring a young gal with a rowing studio who needs marketing help. Her challenge is an interesting one: attract an audience who knows nothing about rowing to her small, start-uppy, no-frills studio located on a kinda barrenish strip of street. Rather than the obvious ideas (distributing flyers, offering discounts, getting hits in newspapers and magazines, facebooking like mad), our plan is to create a scenario that compels people in the door. It's infinitely harder than shoving flyers in car windscreens, sure, but infinitely more lasting. It feels great to be able to work on a marketing strategy with someone actually willing to work hard to participate in their own success.
A bunch of restaurants on the brink did Groupons. When you know the back story at the restaurant, it is always sad to see the email, usually the first email of the day. Sadder still to see the copy, mostly reducing the chef's culinary dignity to a snappy sales pitch. It feels like you just spied on your trying-to-get-clean druggie friend scoring H on the West Side.
I don't know why I stopped blogging and I don't know why I decided to start again. But the break was refreshing.
