Fast Food is Fast Enough…
October 5, 2009
Every once in awhile, a title strikes me as so utterly ridiculous as to elicit a spontaneous guffaw, and I’m not a big guffawer – at least, I don’t think I am. Five words lept out this morning from a Google Alert I had set for online restaurant: “Fast Food is Faster Online”. Um, what? …Seriously?
Quote: “How many times have you stood in front of a fast food counter and end up gawking at the mega-sized menu attached to the wall?” Um, what?…never? …Seriously?
I don’t come close to frequenting them, but I do have a fairly solid idea of what each place has to offer, and their menus haven’t changed enough (at all?) in the last 20 or so years to stump me and leave me gawking. If you have to ask someone what a Big Mac or a Whopper is, chances are you don’t eat at those establishments in the first place. At all. Ever.
And it really needs to be faster? That seems about one step past the edge of rational, at least to me. I get the whole time management thing, and if I’m in the mood for a little take-out, I call ahead to save myself that ten or fifteen minutes. But fast food? I’d guessing the mean wait time in procuring a chicken sandwich from Wendy’s is probably about two. Do we really need to clutter technology and the Internet even further to save ourselves two minutes? Or are we now attempting to scrounge new ideas from the depths of insanity because all of the cool applications are already spoken for?
Bit out of hand. Just my two cents…
Thick or Thin? More Than Merely a Question of Pizza
August 4, 2009
Last Friday, Umair Haque presented a thought-provoking discourse on his Harvard Business Blog in which he defines the difference between thick and thin value in business and his belief that those companies who choose the latter will meet their demise in the 21st century. In my opinion, Haque offers up some of today’s most compelling theories on corporate culture and leadership, and this post doesn’t disappoint.
Haque assigns thin value to profit that “…leaves others worse off, or, at best, no one better off,” using the example of cell phone companies needlessly and purposefully eating up customers’ minutes with 30 seconds worth of useless instructions each and every time they check their voicemail. In contrast, he defines thick value as profits that are a by-product of providing “…sustainable, meaningful value” and quotes the Generation M Manifesto that he posted in early July as a litmus test for this concept. There’s a lot of food for thought in that proclamation, however there are two items in particular that stand out to me:
….You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage.
….You wanted more money, credit and leverage — to consume ravenously. We want to be great at doing stuff that matters.
Haque concludes his article by asking the reader “… how thick is the value that you are creating?” At TwoTables Internet Marketing, we are committed to providing exceptional service, unparalleled quality and “sustainable, meaningful value” in everything that we do, in business and otherwise. It’s as much a commitment to ourselves as it is to our families, our clients and the communities in which we live and work.
Give Haque’s article a read and post your thoughts here. We’d love to see how others are putting this notion of “thick value” into practice.
A Few Days In Big D for the Southwest Food Expo
June 28, 2009
We landed in Dallas yesterday afternoon, getting ready to exhibit at the Southwest Food Expo, held June 28 – 30 at the Dallas Convention Center. We checked out the preliminary set up yesterday and it looks like there is going to be a lot of great stuff.
If you’re headed to the Expo, stop by and say hi…. we’re in booth 2216, near the culinary showcase and the education session stage. We’re releasing our new white paper “Feast On This: “Big Picture” Internet Marketing Will Fill Your Tables” exclusively at the show but don’t worry, if you’d like to get a copy we’ll make it available on the website next week.