Carnivore in Nairobi, Kenya is a theme restaurant where you are served rare and unusual foods. It's a festive atmosphere and caters to those wishing to be both entertained and gluttonous. Meat is on the menu in many varied forms, some familiar, some rare and some not. Service is done on swords and sliced at your table by waiters with machetes. The presentation as you might expect is more than half the experience though the food itself is wonderful.
What impressed most though was the driveway and security. It was a restaurant sitting amidst a huge plot of land with multiple security checkpoints. Entering the Carnivore compound was akin to gaining access to a secured government facility. This was impressive in and of itself and lent a feeling of security that was understated and appreciated. However my party hadn't sought this out when selecting this venue - this was simply a value add. Or was it ?
The lesson (and very full belly) I took from this wonderful evening was that the intangibles or value-adds in our businesses are what makes the customer experience quite special. If we dissect (perhaps a poorly ironic choice of words in this case) the Carnivore experience to it's core elements, we are looking for a comfortable environment to enjoy a great meal. Conversely, if said another way, we cannot truly enjoy our evening of great food without the comfort of a secure environment.
What does this mean for those of us not in the food business in Africa ? It means we need to boil down our offering to it's core components and ensure we are meeting and exceeding customer expectations on each and every point. We cannot just "serve great food", that's not enough. Be extremely granular when doing this, as all too often we expect our customers to make connections for themselves as to how to use our product or service and we overlook gaps that we create. Assumptions we make based on our over-familiarity with our own products can be very problematic. In our expanding age of self service spurred by exponential growth in online adoption, nailing the customer experience is critical.
One of the reasons the Carnivore experience sat so nicely was that less than 12 hours later, I found myself attempting to work a CSFB bank machine - not my normal bank. After three aborted attempts, I finally got the knack of their user-interface. Now, I don't consider my self a dummy with ATM's, nor do I have a limited experience with them, but this particular design was very ill-conceived. As I not so silently cursed the Swiss design, the beauty of the Kenyan execution popped out. The irony of the situation caused me to pause and smile a little.
If you happen to be in Nairobi, check out Carnivore. Besides a great evening out, it's a strong example of a solid business in action where they "get it". They understand what it takes to deliver. We could all learn from them.
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Roof of the World
When I was 46, I climbed Kilimanjaro - the highest peak in Africa and second tallest mountain in the southern hemisphere. It was a difficult physical effort but an adventure nonetheless and one worth doing. It took 8 days and our party covered more than 100 kilometers on this, the world's largest free standing mountain.
Th peak has very little oxygen, is covered by glaciers and protected by a relentless freezing wind, but it is filled with exhilaration. The road to the summit is slow and winding and dotted with those that couldn't make it and the scars of those that did. We saw people give up mentally, fail physically and push themselves to as yet unforeseen limits. It was a vivid, realistic example of a group of people all trying their best, and testing their limits.
Our equipment failed and yet we didn't. We witnessed what will be regarded by those in our party as the most sublime sunrise in history standing atop the world. Looking across the great rift valley at Africa's third highest peak, well above the clouds and earthbound concerns, we each celebrated our accomplishment personally. We have the requisite photos but an observation by one in our party struck me deeply. The peak itself wasn't a matterhorn of jagged rock to cling to precariously but rather a small rise above the surrounding area, sitting on top of another small rise and another. Peaks are not always clear to us when we see them, and yet we know they have been reached when we look at our achievements in context of how we had to push our-self. This effort that I have heard described by many as "the most difficult task of their lives" was very real to each of us there, and so the summit was defined and imaginable as we climbed and climbed. Life isn't always so clear-cut though, and our everyday mountains come in ranges and not just as as freestanding, conquerable tasks.
I learned more about myself in this adventure than I had thought and I urge you to seek out your own personal Kilimanjaro - but remember to prepare thoroughly and wear a base layer, it's cold and unforgiving where you dare to go.
Th peak has very little oxygen, is covered by glaciers and protected by a relentless freezing wind, but it is filled with exhilaration. The road to the summit is slow and winding and dotted with those that couldn't make it and the scars of those that did. We saw people give up mentally, fail physically and push themselves to as yet unforeseen limits. It was a vivid, realistic example of a group of people all trying their best, and testing their limits.
Our equipment failed and yet we didn't. We witnessed what will be regarded by those in our party as the most sublime sunrise in history standing atop the world. Looking across the great rift valley at Africa's third highest peak, well above the clouds and earthbound concerns, we each celebrated our accomplishment personally. We have the requisite photos but an observation by one in our party struck me deeply. The peak itself wasn't a matterhorn of jagged rock to cling to precariously but rather a small rise above the surrounding area, sitting on top of another small rise and another. Peaks are not always clear to us when we see them, and yet we know they have been reached when we look at our achievements in context of how we had to push our-self. This effort that I have heard described by many as "the most difficult task of their lives" was very real to each of us there, and so the summit was defined and imaginable as we climbed and climbed. Life isn't always so clear-cut though, and our everyday mountains come in ranges and not just as as freestanding, conquerable tasks.
I learned more about myself in this adventure than I had thought and I urge you to seek out your own personal Kilimanjaro - but remember to prepare thoroughly and wear a base layer, it's cold and unforgiving where you dare to go.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Are you ready ?
When you're about to do something BIG, how do you know you're ready ?
You can prepare, train and plan certainly. The old adage about failing to plan = planning to fail comes to mind, but when it comes down to it, when there's no more prep time, and it's now perform or die......you have to decide if you're ready.
This, like so many things in our lives is a mental state - it's a mind-game we play with ourselves. We can be certain to fail - and probably not disappoint that inner voice; or we can be determined to succeed and do our utmost to achieve that end.
When it comes down to it, to that moment when you're stepping on stage, standing up in front of the customer, facing the other player to be tackled literally or figuratively, or looking up at the mountain to be climbed - each of us has to decide.
It's what makes life interesting, the placing of yourself into those situations where you test your own resolve. Some thrive on it, others cringe in front of it. In the end it's very personal for each person and few others have access or insight into us as we make the choice.
What about you...are you ready ?
You can prepare, train and plan certainly. The old adage about failing to plan = planning to fail comes to mind, but when it comes down to it, when there's no more prep time, and it's now perform or die......you have to decide if you're ready.
This, like so many things in our lives is a mental state - it's a mind-game we play with ourselves. We can be certain to fail - and probably not disappoint that inner voice; or we can be determined to succeed and do our utmost to achieve that end.
When it comes down to it, to that moment when you're stepping on stage, standing up in front of the customer, facing the other player to be tackled literally or figuratively, or looking up at the mountain to be climbed - each of us has to decide.
It's what makes life interesting, the placing of yourself into those situations where you test your own resolve. Some thrive on it, others cringe in front of it. In the end it's very personal for each person and few others have access or insight into us as we make the choice.
What about you...are you ready ?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Coaching
This is something with multiple meanings for me.
I do it for a living in a manner, both directly on a 1:>20 basis and indirectly through materials, media and so forth to help people become more effective in their roles.
I also do it on a volunteer basis for 13 & 14 year olds as they learn the game of rugby.
There are some parallels as you might imagine, and some great business lessons that flow from working with young people. Allow me share some truisms that I see.
Lesson 1: Whether you consciously admit this or not, you have roughly 30 seconds to get your core message across, so think about it carefully, and nail it.
Little kids have grass to throw, flies to catch, a neighbor to poke and a giggle to make every time you say "ball or ruck". Big kids have blackberries to vibrate, emails to answer, spouses to think about and bosses to please. Each of them will only give you so much attention before drifting off
Lesson 2: Learning is only properly reinforced by doing.
You could lecture a 13 year old boy for an entire practice session about the way to run onto a passed ball, or crouch and wrap while engaging a tackle, but the only way to get it to stick is to get them to do it - apply the words, turn them into actions and feel it for themselves. Big kids can be given powerpoints and the theory behind "how to sell" all day long, but until they start to create their own plans, with their own live, real-world data, they don't really 'get it'.
Lesson 3: Half the battle is over-coming your fear of being able to do it
Tackling another person is scary, they're bigger often and you could hurt yourself. Our primal instincts tell us to avoid this action. Asking someone for their business is scary as well. They judge you and new salespeople want to run from this kind of confrontation. In neither situation, can you successfully fake it.
Lesson 4: Reinforcement is key
With adults, it's very easy to acknowledge that there's a smarter way, but we all tend to fall back into established patterns to try to accomplish a task. Golf lessons are a classic example, but so sadly is training to be more effective in sales. (This isn't conjecture, this is proven). With kids, they also need to keep focused and keep coming to practice. If they don't practice, they tend to forget how to play the game.
In rugby as in life, there's some wonderful rules as well that we can apply to our daily business lives:
I do it for a living in a manner, both directly on a 1:>20 basis and indirectly through materials, media and so forth to help people become more effective in their roles.
I also do it on a volunteer basis for 13 & 14 year olds as they learn the game of rugby.
There are some parallels as you might imagine, and some great business lessons that flow from working with young people. Allow me share some truisms that I see.
Lesson 1: Whether you consciously admit this or not, you have roughly 30 seconds to get your core message across, so think about it carefully, and nail it.
Little kids have grass to throw, flies to catch, a neighbor to poke and a giggle to make every time you say "ball or ruck". Big kids have blackberries to vibrate, emails to answer, spouses to think about and bosses to please. Each of them will only give you so much attention before drifting off
Lesson 2: Learning is only properly reinforced by doing.
You could lecture a 13 year old boy for an entire practice session about the way to run onto a passed ball, or crouch and wrap while engaging a tackle, but the only way to get it to stick is to get them to do it - apply the words, turn them into actions and feel it for themselves. Big kids can be given powerpoints and the theory behind "how to sell" all day long, but until they start to create their own plans, with their own live, real-world data, they don't really 'get it'.
Lesson 3: Half the battle is over-coming your fear of being able to do it
Tackling another person is scary, they're bigger often and you could hurt yourself. Our primal instincts tell us to avoid this action. Asking someone for their business is scary as well. They judge you and new salespeople want to run from this kind of confrontation. In neither situation, can you successfully fake it.
Lesson 4: Reinforcement is key
With adults, it's very easy to acknowledge that there's a smarter way, but we all tend to fall back into established patterns to try to accomplish a task. Golf lessons are a classic example, but so sadly is training to be more effective in sales. (This isn't conjecture, this is proven). With kids, they also need to keep focused and keep coming to practice. If they don't practice, they tend to forget how to play the game.
In rugby as in life, there's some wonderful rules as well that we can apply to our daily business lives:
- Support each other, it isn't a one person game, it's a team sport
- Communicate. If you don't talk to one another, how are you supposed to understand what to do ?
- You can't score unless you have ball possession, so don't always play defense.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Work work to Fun work
Work is wonderful, isn't it...? It provides a sense of accomplishment when done well, and helps pay the bills. It keeps us busy and makes weekends seem great. We meet friends through work and spend a huge amount of our lives there, so it should be little enjoyable.
Sometimes though we get to do something similar just for fun. It might be a charitable cause, it might be anything we volunteer our time for. It probably is something related to what you might do for pay as when we are good at some task or have some skill, we often find it straightforward to that with some ease. This is probably less true if your job happens in an aluminum extrusion factory, and more true if you happen to play guitar in bars for a living. But the point remains I think.
I've wondered lately what the best balance is between work-work and fun-work. I have historically subscribed to the notion that work/life balance is fleeting - like learning to ride a bike. You're falling for sure, the only unknowns are how fast and in what direction. These days though, I'm not so sure about that anymore. I'm coming around to the notion that we need some fun-work in our lives. Does that mean the landscaper wants to cut his own grass, or the chef to cook her own meals..no, but giving back to your greater community (in whatever form that takes) is rewarding in itself, and if you can offer something that you have a skill with, then all the better for all involved.
This idea needs more thought, so I'll be working (or funning ??) on it a little more.
Sometimes though we get to do something similar just for fun. It might be a charitable cause, it might be anything we volunteer our time for. It probably is something related to what you might do for pay as when we are good at some task or have some skill, we often find it straightforward to that with some ease. This is probably less true if your job happens in an aluminum extrusion factory, and more true if you happen to play guitar in bars for a living. But the point remains I think.
I've wondered lately what the best balance is between work-work and fun-work. I have historically subscribed to the notion that work/life balance is fleeting - like learning to ride a bike. You're falling for sure, the only unknowns are how fast and in what direction. These days though, I'm not so sure about that anymore. I'm coming around to the notion that we need some fun-work in our lives. Does that mean the landscaper wants to cut his own grass, or the chef to cook her own meals..no, but giving back to your greater community (in whatever form that takes) is rewarding in itself, and if you can offer something that you have a skill with, then all the better for all involved.
This idea needs more thought, so I'll be working (or funning ??) on it a little more.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Perspective
I'm doing a job right now where I need to dive into another perspective to make it correct. Wow that feels good - the forcing of it I mean. Perspective is one of the first things to get lazy about I always find. We settle into a way of thinking, and it's comfortable - we rarely stretch ourselves to grasp another perspective in the average day.
So having it forced on me is a good thing. Like exercising strong though rested muscles. It's like shaking off that dazed and confused feeling you awake with after an unplanned sleep.
I'm alive again.
So having it forced on me is a good thing. Like exercising strong though rested muscles. It's like shaking off that dazed and confused feeling you awake with after an unplanned sleep.
I'm alive again.
Old Friends
It's nice to have old friends, it means that you were personally able to maintain a friendship (which says something about you) and it means the person(s) that is your old friend is worth be-befriending over a long period of time, which says something about them.
Friendship is one of those misused concepts in this day and age I believe though. I'm told I'm not popular enough as I have 1/10th the 'friends' on Facebook as my kids. So be it. I'm pretty comfortable with that as in reality I don't have 400-5000 'friends' - people I'd be happy to share an evening or weekend with gladly, enjoying their company, their news and the stories of what's going on with them. I think friends should be measured against a higher standard, and acquaintance should rise in prominence as a concept and a word. Acquinatncebook doesn't have much of a ring to it though.
Friends don't count money - as in who owes who for whatever as it all comes out in the wash over time. Friends do make a point of trying to participate in significant events in each others lives - both on the invitation front (as in we'd like them to be there) and a genuine desire to participate too. Friends are preferred over extended family in terms of company often - after all, you picked your friends. (I'm talking beyond immediate nuclear family connections)
Real friendship once developed is very hard to destroy. I've seen that firsthand, and despite years of hardship, friendship has survived as there was tremendous investment on both parts initially.
So, I'd like to move that we create a new designation for the status of the lifelong, strong friendship. (BTW - I don't like the term "best" as in best friend as it makes a relative judgment on friend vs friend, and in that sense misses the point completely.) My new term blends family and friends as that's as close as I can get to the core value concept I think. Two choices would be Framily or Famiend. I prefer the latter but it sound too much like famine I think, and there's a bad joke waiting to happen there.
So - for the sake of one or three people in your live that are your lifelong "framily", who is with me ? I'm guessing we can make this stick with some social networking, mass engagement style. And if you check, I bet Framilybook is an available domain name.
Friendship is one of those misused concepts in this day and age I believe though. I'm told I'm not popular enough as I have 1/10th the 'friends' on Facebook as my kids. So be it. I'm pretty comfortable with that as in reality I don't have 400-5000 'friends' - people I'd be happy to share an evening or weekend with gladly, enjoying their company, their news and the stories of what's going on with them. I think friends should be measured against a higher standard, and acquaintance should rise in prominence as a concept and a word. Acquinatncebook doesn't have much of a ring to it though.
Friends don't count money - as in who owes who for whatever as it all comes out in the wash over time. Friends do make a point of trying to participate in significant events in each others lives - both on the invitation front (as in we'd like them to be there) and a genuine desire to participate too. Friends are preferred over extended family in terms of company often - after all, you picked your friends. (I'm talking beyond immediate nuclear family connections)
Real friendship once developed is very hard to destroy. I've seen that firsthand, and despite years of hardship, friendship has survived as there was tremendous investment on both parts initially.
So, I'd like to move that we create a new designation for the status of the lifelong, strong friendship. (BTW - I don't like the term "best" as in best friend as it makes a relative judgment on friend vs friend, and in that sense misses the point completely.) My new term blends family and friends as that's as close as I can get to the core value concept I think. Two choices would be Framily or Famiend. I prefer the latter but it sound too much like famine I think, and there's a bad joke waiting to happen there.
So - for the sake of one or three people in your live that are your lifelong "framily", who is with me ? I'm guessing we can make this stick with some social networking, mass engagement style. And if you check, I bet Framilybook is an available domain name.
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