Lousy Chicken AND Tomato Experience

Small Business Owners, there is more!  I had no sooner finished my last post about the $5,000 chicken that I opened an email from Seth Goden who was waxing poetic about lousy tomatoes.  His words were so in sync with what I had just written, I had to borrow them and share them with you here.

Without his permission, but with full credit to the author, please let me share what he said:

Lousy tomatoes and the rare search for wonder

My local supermarket stocks waxy, tasteless tomatoes from Chile and Mexico and Florida. They even do this in early September, when local tomatoes are delicious, plentiful and ought to be a bargain.

Are they clueless, evil or incompetent?

Perhaps none of these. This supermarket, like most supermarkets, is a checklist institution, one that is in the business of providing good enough, in quantity, at a price that’s both cheap and profitable. You need a staple, they have it. They have flour and salt and eggs and macaroni and cheese. They’ve trained their customers to see them as an invisible vendor, as an organization that satisfies demand. It’s too much work, too demanding and too risky to do the alternative…

They could program the store instead.

Program it the way a great theater programs the stage. No one goes to the theatre two or three times a week, expecting a good enough show. No, we only go when we hear there’s something magical or terrific happening.

Over time, as institutions create habits and earn subscribers, they often switch, gradually making the move from magical (worth a trip, worth a conversation) to good (there when you need it). Most TV is just good. Magazines, too. When was the last time People magazine did something that made you sit up and say, “wow”? Of course, you could argue that they’re not in the wow business, and you might be right.

One of the disrupting forces of the new media is that it makes harder and harder to succeed without wow. Since you have to earn the conversation regularly, phone it in too often and in fact, attention disappears.

What Seth is referring to, of course, is systems.  Systems allow the ordinary to become regularly extraordinary.  It starts with the business owners.  Execution is only following systems.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! Are you a clueless business owner? Do your customers say “Wow” on a regular basis?  To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

To receive the Weekly eMail Update, simply fill in the form to the right of this page in the sidebar.

And, invite your industry friends to www.ensanity.biz!

Roger McManus (magazine publisher, speaker, author and consultant) has for over 30 years has coached, funded, counseled and published for entrepreneurs and small business owners. He has had the rare opportunity to see inside businesses resulting in the conclusion that many call themselves entrepreneurs, but few truly achieve the levels of freedom that the title should imply. Roger and his wife, Patsy, work together to counsel business owners in the exploration and development of the Freedom that actually gives the business a greater tangible value. You may reach Roger by email (Roger@EnSanityPress.com).

Related Posts:

• When is a Chicken Worth $5,000?
• More Life Control in Seattle
• Four Step Management Method
• Manage by Numbers
• Energize Your Best Sales Tool