Just to give you a hint of why I haven’t been blogging as steadily the last few weeks, here’s the type of articles I’m reading:
Manual Focus on Work
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Monthly Archives: August 2006
Polarizing Cupcakes
I was recently reading about the new Apple Mac Pro computers on digg. What’s most interesting is the reaction Apple gets from any announcement. Apple fans usually love it. Apple haters hate it (go figure). Reading their comments on digg is not for the faint of heart.
Why does Apple alienate these people? All they have to do is make their operating system run on PCs, make their music software play nice with MP3 players other than the iPod and stop those condescending ads. Then what? Then they’ll win everyone over?
Nope.
Then they’ll be just like everyone else. Conformed.
Apple still follows the philosophy of their early evangelist, Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki encourages companies to polarize people. When I first saw that in one of Guy’s presentations, I wasn’t sure I agreed. Now, I couldn’t agree more.
Not many companies would advertise free cupcakes for professed Bush haters. Most anyone with “good business sense” would have at least added a second sign:
“Tell us you hate HILLARY and get a free COOKIE!”
But that destroys any semblance of a story. It tells people nothing about our company, except that we ride the fence.
And we fail to realize the fence we’re riding is made of barbed wire.
Update
After an offline conversation with a buddy, Jason, it became clear that I should clarify one thing. Whatever polarizes people concerning your business needs to be authentic. By doing so, detractors actually help galvanize your supporters.
What’s the 411 on last Friday?
I’m shifting priorities with the new career and it has made life a little chaotic.
This last week, the blog was the ball that got dropped.
My apologies. I’m still a work in progress.
Here It Goes Again…
Nearly 2.5 million views in two weeks.
I can’t stop playing this video.
I think the beauty of it is how a big, polished production doesn’t get in the way of the even bigger idea.
The music’s pretty good too.
Send a link to your friends.
Bloglines viewers click here:
Hat tip: Bill Kinnon
Empower Employees, Endear Customers
This would have been perfect if it were chocolate milk (see below).
Two experiences this week that caught my attention.
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First
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My family came by the agency to eat downstairs at Gina and Guiseppi’s. As we struggled to commit the kids to a drink selection, the waitress suggested chocolate milk (which wasn’t on the menu). She was met with a resounding “Yes!” from our little ones.
Later on, the kids asked for refills. The waitress politely offered soft drinks instead. She explained they ran out of ingredients for the chocolate milk. To make the first batch, she got what she needed from the coffee shop next door. She had just offered chocolate milk to us, she didn’t want tell us they were out.
In the end, she got a nice tip from us and we’ll definitely recommend Gina and Guiseppi’s to our friends.
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Second
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I stopped by QuikTrip to grab a cup of coffee the other morning. The place was slammed as usual. (You have to understand that QuikTrip dominates the convenience store business in my area) As I set my cup o’ caffeine on the counter, I notice the cashier isn’t as fast as usual. She hesitates now and then, seems just a little lost. The young lady at the other register slides over and says, “Let me take your register. We’ll switch.” Just like that, she takes over and quickly starts tallying transactions and cheerfully sending us on our way.
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Bottom Line
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The bottom line is to know the bottom line: make the customer happy.
How do you do that? Well, typically not through corporate policies and a command-and-control management style. Corporate policy wouldn’t want cashiers swapping registers. Who would be accountable for an unreconciled till? Command-and-Control wouldn’t want waitresses borrowing from neighbor businesses on their own initiative.
You make customers happy by empowering your employees to do so.
“I don’t trust my employees to do the right thing.”
Then you have big issues, my friend. Either you’ve hired the wrong people, or you underestimate their ability when given clear objectives (see a trend here? You should by 6 lines into it.).
What are your objectives?
Do you hire the right people to fulfill your objectives?
Do they know the objectives?
Are they empowered to do it?
How to Make What You’re Worth
Many people feel like they don’t make what they’re worth. The problem is you shouldn’t be paid what you’re worth.
1. Companies can’t afford to pay you what you’re worth. There’s an issue of margins.
2. If you are bent on being paid what you’re worth, then you’ll only consider yourself worth what you can be paid.
3. You may be getting paid more than your paycheck. You should be. The work experience, the social interactions, and other intangibles should be invested into you. If not, then either the company doesn’t provide what you need or you aren’t acknowledging it.
The bottom line is that YOU make what you’re worth. The company doesn’t make it for you.
A Past You Can’t Draw On
Michael Wagner has written a powerful piece for Logic+Emotion called Draw a Picture.
‘Look at her. That’s so sad. Our little girl was born without creativity!’