Out of the Crisis.Org

[MattFMN]

One of my favorite hobbies outside of "the industry" is cooking. I'm not positive when it started, but I seem to remember watching cooking shows on public television with my mom. Sometimes if she saw something she thought looked good, and somewhat plausible in performing, she'd send in a self-addressed stamped envelope for the recipe. We'd receive it in the mail weeks later and go shopping. Then on whatever night she had arranged, we'd attempt to reproduce the meal the show did. More often than not, even though the result was good...it just wasn't the overwhelming culinary experience we'd hoped. Rarely did we make the dish again.

Fast-forward to present day. I'll tell you, there are three sources for my culinary information from which most of my opinions are rooted in. 1.) My mom. 2.) America's Test Kitchen (Cooks Illustrated). 3.) Alton Brown (from Good Eats fame). I will also honestly tell you that often the information from the latter two will out weigh even my mom's.

I own all of Alton Brown's books. I was reading one the other day, and in it Alton was explaining how he went through culinary college, had seen his public television cooking show grow in popularity and then get picked-up by the Food Network, and then become a national hit...and yet he still could not reproduce the hot baked biscuits his Grandma consistently made. Try as he might, he could not get the taste and texture his Grandma (who was responsible for developing his roots in cooking) routinely created. He tested his oven's temperature versus hers; they were equal. He copied ingredient brands. He tried using his knowledge from college to alter the recipe (ex: melted butter vs. cold butter, room temp milk vs. cold, etc.). Heck, he even tried making them at her house. Nothing, it seemed, was going to allow him to reproduce "Grandma's biscuits". Then, while on a routine visit to her, he looked on as she made biscuits for what seemed like the thousandth time. She measured out her ingredients, as he had. She dumped them into a bowl, as he had. And then...it happened. She kneaded the dough with her hands! But wait...so did he. But there was a difference. He kneaded dough as a young, strong, adult male. She kneaded her dough with her painfully arthritic hands. She didn't so much knead the dough as she did massage it lightly. He literally ran home to try to duplicate the procedure. BINGO! He had done it.

How could this story be applied to our/your business?

Later, Matt.

_________________
Matt Fanslow
ASE CMAT/L1
Crag-Technologies, Inc
www.wavehook.com

[Dave]

I guess that we need to knead our business carefully.

When copying someone else's example be sure to include all the steps exactly like they do or it will not come out the same. In a business sense this is very hard to do, if not impossible. We can learn principles and tips from other people. We then need to fit them into our situation.

_________________
David Wittmayer
Owner / Manager
Hansen Enterprises Fleet Repair, LLC
Camp Verde, AZ
www.hefrshop.com

[MattFMN]

Thanks for the reply, Dave! You bring up a good point. Just carbon-copying what the shop down the street is doing may not work for you, just like any recipe. Many of the business management classes we attend are selling just that, recipes.

My true aim, why I wrote the post, where I got the inclination to relate cooking and the experience of a celebrity chef and author was that we can have all the same components. That may mean the same equipment, the same brand of parts, the same information systems...but the end result still may not be the same. Technique is vital. We can separate ourselves from any other competition by using superior techniques and by constantly improving upon them. One of my very favorite "Deming-isms" is: "Improvements need not be revolutionary, but only evolutionary." Revolutionary is great, but doesn't happen often. Evolution happens incrementally slower, but far more often. Very much like Louis's post on his Honda trimmer (we all know he should have bought a Stihl ) and the improved gas cap. All the things he liked about his old trimmer were still there. A small change helped him feel very good about his purchase.

Everyone in our businesses can work together to find and make little improvements that over time make BIG differences. And...it doesn't hurt to look over someone else's recipe from time to time.

Later, Matt.

_________________
Matt Fanslow
ASE CMAT/L1
Crag-Technologies, Inc
www.wavehook.com

[Louis Altazan]

Hi Matt,

You make an excellent and very often overlooked point. There was a shop owner that I very much liked. He would often criticize things I would write as not being useful. He was looking for a recipe, something to copy and put to work.

There is nothing wrong with taking insight from others. This must be done in one of two context, in my opinion.

1. You fully understand their philosophy and that of what is being attempted.
   
2. You adopt their idea and integrate it into your own philosophy

In either case, the theory must be understood. Simply copying a successful methods rarely works out.

This is a great post and very well constructed. The point I take from it is subtle yet immensely important. Thanks Matt, I appreciate your insight.

_________________
Louis Altazan
Owner/Manager AGCO Automotive Corporation
Baton Rouge, LA

[slimmv]

Hi Matt,

An owner and his wife, for whom I once worked, had the habit of going to trade shows and trade meetings, gathering ideas from fellow businesspersons than forcing them on their clients, employees and suppliers. Most of those ideas went by the way side for a number of reasons. Having a client become unhappy and quit you over some "new procedure" or rule is the one I seem to remember the most.

Thank God for the assistance that I received from some very unselfish individuals. They made it possible to operate more professional with great advice and encouragement.

Over the last five years, I have had to implement ideas that I would have rather worked PDSA before they became practices. In my case being inexperienced in the automotive repair industry has cause me to bridge the gap with concepts that have not been tested enough.

My aim and vision is not to provide services that are just as good as the best among you, but to provide services that solve client problems that are superior to anything that has been conceived. Although I find myself behind the industry in many areas, my belief system tells me that I can contribute in a positive way.

In my opinion a concept can be copied and reproduced again and again with very similar results. Some franchises are good examples of this.

The recipe examples are great. Salt is one ingredient in lots of recipe, but in a cake the amount is extremely important. If you use the same amount of salt as you do sugar you would have a salt lick rather than a cake

My wife and I also enjoy cooking. We do PDSA cycles with different ingredients and practices long before we expose any of our guests to a change in a recipe. Our first test is to feed it to one or more of our 9 children first. They will eat anything. We have learned that just because we enjoy a recipe our quests don’t always share our views. The voice of the customer will tell you if the recipe meets their expectations.

One of the great things about being in this position is to see some of the ideas one has developed succeed.

Thanks for the great post.

_________________
God Bless You!
Mike Viator