Expansive, not expensive

A few years ago, I attended an interview for the role of Head Chef in a new contract that a prominent London caterer was rolling out a few months later. Despite my reservations about the kitchen being shoe-horned into a tiny space, it was going positively until we talked about menus. After a whole series of questions about my food and cooking philosophy while reviewing the menu samples in my portfolio, my interviewer asked me if I could draw up a menu that they could consider for the opening of this site.

Based (mostly) on the answers he gave me to my following queries, I pulled my application from the interview process:

What is your projected spend per head?
What type of dining clientele are you expecting?
Will it be busier for lunch or for dinner? (Perhaps requiring separate menus.)
Casual dining or destination dining?
How many staff will be in the team?
How many covers do you project in an average service?

To every one of these questions, his answer was the same: 'We don't know'.

I was not surprised then to read they were eventually pulling out of this contract as it was losing money. Going into a new project without the answers to these and other fundamental questions is an expensive way to do business. That was a lesson I had already learned the hard way. Maybe they should have ask me about that in the interview.

Settling. Scores.

Browsing TEDtalks last night I came across a fascinating presentation by William Ury, a world-renowned conflict mediator and philanthropist, in which he opens with his favourite story from the Middle East of a man who left to his three sons seventeen camels...

To the first son he left half the camels, to the second son he left a third of the camels and to the youngest son he left a ninth of the camels. The three sons got into a negotiation, or argument as we would call it at home, since 17 doesn’t divide by two, it doesn’t divide by 3 and it doesn’t divide by 9. Tempers started to fray and finally in desperation, they went to consult a wise old woman.
The wise old woman thought about their problem for a long time and eventually she came back and said ”Well, I don’t know if I can help you, but if you want, you can have my camel.”
So now they had 18 camels.The first son took his half (half of 18 is 9), the second son took his third (a third of 18 is 6) and the youngest son took his ninth (a ninth of 18 is 2). When you add up the nine camels, the six camels and the other two, you get a total of seventeen camels. Which meant one camel was left over which they gave back to the wise old woman.

You can watch the rest of his talk in the video below or here, but I think you will agree that there is something to be learned here. When the people nearest you (colleagues, subordinates, upper management, family, buddies, even your kids) have an issue with each other that they cannot settle because of seemingly irreconcilable points of view: what do you bring to the table to resolve that?
Taking sides is human nature, but not a good strategy in settling differences. If you are going to take sides make it the outside, where the perspective is much clearer. Narrowing the issues to the common point of origin for all concerned is the key to unravelling any deadlock. Find that and use it to build a bridge to all sides. Not to get into the issue, but to show the way out. Perhaps even on a camel.


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Are you earning too much money?

If you're an investment banker then I suspect you probably are. But for the rest of us I'm sure the answer is a resounding NO.

So we agree that you're earning just enough money (if there is such a thing). And when you finally get your hands on this hard-earned cash, what do you do with it? Generally it's used to pay the essential bills and get the basic things we need to keep us going until we are left with a little bit (hopefully) at the end that we can call our own. This is the bit I want to think about for a minute.

When you spend that money on say, a coffee or a sandwich or perhaps a beauty product in the sales, how do you expect to be treated by the person serving you? To be miserable, grumpy and rude? I don't think so. We want to be smiled at and spoken with. We want them to make us feel special. We want to feel that our custom counts for something. We want to be appreciated (not to be confused with just thanked). In an ideal world we want it to be a rich and warm experience.

Is this how we treat our customers who come in to spend their hard-earned money in our business. Do we make the effort to genuinely smile (even on the phone, it shows), or say a few words of chitchat beyond a mere 'can I help', or go that little extra and offer to bring it to the table or carry it to the door? These are the so-called 'little things' that count really big in turning that mundane transaction into a rewarding customer experience that might encourage a return visit. And paradoxically the experience can be as rewarding for us too.

One final point: Just think how much would it cost to buy an uplifting experience like that. Although great service is expected as part of our customer's purchase, how we deliver that service, for better or worse, remains something we give away for free. In the case of an exuberant, outgoing and talented Barista, it might just be the price of a coffee.

New Year Revolution

Give up drinking (for a while). This will save me money, help lose weight and give me the energy to do more productive things in my life. (I have an end-date in mind, but I will only tempt fate by telling you.)

Lose 20lbs by the time we travel to Kathmandu in August so I can look my tailor in the eye without embarrassment as he measures me for a new suit.

Become an eBay Seller: Again to earn some money, but mostly to clear the unwanted clutter in our lives. (Come to think of it...Grab a great gift by visiting kilroyskorner now.)

Write a Blog. This has been on my mind for at east three years and finally I have the courage to commit my thoughts and opinions to the World Wide Web. Who knows what doors it may open?

Clear the Debts: We have done well in this area since the recession came home to roost, but just once I want to wake up and not have that man from the not-very-helpful bank looming in the forefront of my thoughts.

Be the Linchpin at work. This is the motivator that gets me through the long days and nights that lay ahead when stress abounds and energy runs low. Read Seth Godin’s truly inspiring book on the subject. For me it was a game changer.

An ambitious list perhaps. But here’s the thing: each commitment is easier to achieve if all the others are in place. A fitter, healthier me produces better work, increasing the likelihood of bigger opportunities which together with the blog/eBay funds and lifestyle savings could help to clear the debts.

Writing a list is easy. Shipping it - that means delivering every single day - is where the real work begins. What's on your list?


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Every person. Every day. Every Time.

Are we delivering excellence? A profoundly simple question I put to my team this week on our first day back after a fantastic Christmas break. Giving it some consideration, a variety of answers came back ranging from 'yes totally' to others who felt 'we could do better'. I tend to agree with the latter.

But first, let me explain how this bout of philosophical navel gazing cropped up. As we neared the end of another hectic term last November I found myself looking for some nugget of motivation that would slingshot me through the hectic Christmas period ahead and into 2011. It came in the form of a rather innocuous question in my annual and first ever - appraisal at that time; “Are you delivering excellence?” Hmm, I would have to think about this carefully because truthfully I knew there was room for improvement.

A few days later in a very unkempt changing room I suddenly had an epiphany about this excellence I was meant to be delivering which has since given me enough motivation for months to come - enough to start this blog even! You see, while I had been thinking about the big showy VIP things that we tend to focus on most of the time, I was overlooking the everyday mundane tasks (such as keeping this changing room tidy) that also require excellence from every member of my team.

With this newfound perspective, I put it to them; how does our Kitchen Porter deliver excellence? How can HE deliver excellence when he doesn't cook fabulous food for a living? (Or even mediocre food for that matter). Nor does he serve Champagne to our guests with panache. After all that's not his job. His lot is to mop the floor, wash the pots, throw out the trash and keep smiling throughout. I guess in his case the more fundamental question is 'how can WE help him to deliver excellence?'

Picture yourself, I continued, standing in the changing room with the state it is in most of the time and consider the question again. Would a visitor, senior manager or contractor using the facility think so?

From this point of view, they all agreed we had some way to go. But in doing so, we had just taken our first steps towards this elusive state we seek out. Because in admitting to our deficiency in such a key component of Hospitality, we had taken our first small step towards delivering that excellence. Every person. Every day. Every Time.

My new mantra for 2011, and I have promised to bore my team silly with it, is for each of us to ask of ourselves 'Are we delivering excellence?' Because if we do so in the banal tasks, the big showy VIP ones will take care of themselves.

Look around at the area within arms reach of you. Are you delivering excellence in how it looks?...

Start there.