You may have heard it, but I am on a less is more kick. Less working, more living. Anyways here's a collection of motivational materials related to improving your life and doing more of what you love!
Quick Story:
Thanks to: "Living the 80/20 Way"
Thinking about lunch, the vacationing businessman stared at the calm, blue sea. A small boat, laden with large yellow-fin tuna, docked near the pretty Mexican village. A lone fisherman jumped ashore.
"That's a great catch," said the tourist. "How long did it take you?"
"Not so long," replied the Mexican.
"Why didn't you stay out there longer and catch more fish? It's only noon!"
"That's enough fish to keep the family provided for," replied the fisherman.
"What do you do with the rest of your time?"
"Sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, have lunch, take a siesta with my wife, Maria. Stroll into the village each evening, sip wine, play guitar and cards with my amigos - a full and rich life, señor."
"I think I could help you," the visitor said, wrinkling his nose. "I'm a Harvard MBA and this is the advice you'd get in business school. Spend more time fishing each day, buy a bigger boat, make more money, then buy several boats until you have a fleet. Don't sell your catch to the middleman, sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You'd control the product, production and distribution. You could then leave this small town behind, move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, perhaps eventually New York City to run your expanding firm."
"But señor, how long would this take?"
"Fifteen, twenty years."
"But what then, señor?"
"That's the best part," the businessman laughed. "When the time is right, you could float on the stock market and make millions of dollars."
"Hmmm, millions you say. What then, señor?"
"Then you could retire. Move to a pretty village by the sea, sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, Maria, stroll to the village in the evenings, sip wine, and play guitar and cards with your friends!"
Two of my Favorite Speeches:
Thanks to Ivette for these!
1) Steve Tomlinson:
Click the little "Play" to hear .
Listen up until he takes questions from the audience.
2) Steve Jobs:
I've listened to both a bunch of times now!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
A Note From Starbucks
As a follow-up to Dave's post against public companies and their misdirected focus to please the street, I have found a great letter written by Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks, to Jim Donald the CEO. While this letter is seen as something of a coup where a private letter has become public in which they are admitting their weaknesses, I see it as an amazing departure from the strategy of a public company looking back to thinking more like a private company. Building a business for the sake of the business (either service or product) verus always working for Wall Street. In my opinion this is not the sign of a weak company but the sign of a great company, maybe even one that will rise above the world of Publicly Traded Stocks (but probably not).
I am not yet sure how, but the future of great companies is different than today's version of the public company.
Starbucks chairman warns of "the commoditization of the Starbucks experience"
Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz wrote this to CEO Jim Donald earlier this month. The memo's authenticity has been confirmed by Starbucks.
From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor
Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience
As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.
Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.
Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.
Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.
I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.
Onward…
I am not yet sure how, but the future of great companies is different than today's version of the public company.
Starbucks chairman warns of "the commoditization of the Starbucks experience"
Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz wrote this to CEO Jim Donald earlier this month. The memo's authenticity has been confirmed by Starbucks.
From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor
Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience
As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.
Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.
Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.
Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.
I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.
Onward…
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Shelby Derby
I could write some whimsical story about how Shelby ran in the Kentucky Derby this weekend and won. I could have a great back story about this race being the climax of yet another career change. And I could tell you how proud of her horse racing skills we are. But I won't. Instead I will just tell you how great Shelby is for putting up with my humor.
Go Doggy Go!
P.S. Props to Dale for a great concert and an awesome party at the conductor's house. Had a great time!
Go Doggy Go!
P.S. Props to Dale for a great concert and an awesome party at the conductor's house. Had a great time!
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