KISS the Chef
How Doing Too Much Can Kill Your Business
Kitchen Nightmares, featuring Scottish chef Gordon Ramsay, was a
long running hit show in Britain well before FOX brought it to Americans
in 2007. The show presents a critical lesson for business owners and
professionals everywhere: don't let things get too complicated.
From the elaborate menus to strange customer service habits, the
"broken" restaurants featured on the show persist, day after day, to
slowly choke out the ability to do what they are supposed to--fulfill
the need of customers efficiently and consistently. It's a lesson well
worth listening to, especially from Gordon Ramsay. He is recipient of 15
Michelin Stars and no stranger to success, but he's also admitted
losing a few of his own restaurants to mismanagement and over-extension.
Kitchen Nightmares makes the viewer keenly feel the validity of the
"KISS principle". KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple stupid" and it
was coined by U.S. Navy engineers in 1960 to stress the importance of
building aircraft that could be repaired on the battlefield by a regular
mechanic using only basic tools. Essentially, the KISS principle states
that most systems work better when they are simple rather than complex.
Here are a few ideas on how to keep things simple in your business:
Identify the need you fulfill. Whether you sell homes or
financial services you are fulfilling a need for your clients that has
nothing to do with real estate or stocks and bonds--try to think of the
psychological need you fulfill.
Build your plan to serve that need. You may
have the ability
to offer other services that don't serve the core need of your market,
but avoid the temptation to use them if possible. The likelihood of
confusing your prospects and customers is too high to justify the value
you think you're creating.
Don't get too elaborate with systems. Especially the ones that
impact customer service. While every business should have processes for
everything, the more common sense they are the better. If yours are
intuitive and easy to perform for both staff and clients, they are going
to be win-win.
Stay focused. If you're in business to sell houses or do
financial planning, don't extend your brand to include staging or
insurance--or anything else you can think of that might dilute your
ability to perform the core need.
Feel free to pass this along to clients and colleagues who might benefit from these tips!
Economic Calendar for the Week of April 08 - April 12
Date
|
ET
|
Economic Report
|
For
|
Estimate
|
Actual
|
Prior
|
Impact
|
Wed. April 10 |
02:00
|
FOMC Minutes |
3/20
|
|
|
|
HIGH
|
Thu. April 11 |
08:30
|
Jobless Claims (Initial) |
4/6
|
NA
|
|
NA
|
Moderate
|
Fri. April 12 |
08:30
|
Retail Sales |
Mar
|
NA
|
|
1.1%
|
Moderate
|
Fri. April 12 |
08:30
|
Retail Sales ex-auto |
Mar
|
NA
|
|
1.0%
|
Moderate
|
Fri. April 12 |
08:30
|
Producer Price Index (PPI) |
Mar
|
NA
|
|
0.7%
|
Moderate
|
Fri. April 12 |
08:30
|
Core Producer Price Index (PPI) |
Mar
|
NA
|
|
0.2%
|
Moderate
|
Fri. April 12 |
10:00
|
Consumer Sentiment Index (UoM) |
Apr
|
NA
|
|
78.6
|
Moderate
|
|