The obsession We love to make things more productive. We strive to be cheaper, more efficient, higher yielding. It is the holy grail, taking up most of our working hours. More for less in itself isn’t a bad goal, but who decides if we are being productive? Myopic measurement Imagine you flip burgers for a living and you […]
Rule 10: Build Systems
Serious fast food In 1954 Ray Kroc walked into the McDonald brothers burger bar in San Bernadino. It was clean and well run, but it wasn’t really any different to any other burger bar in the US. Every town had one. It was unremarkable. The system Ray made McDonald’s remarkable. He systematised the burger business. He took […]
McPizza
Imagine you worked for McDonald’s and you had a super new idea for a product, the McPizza. How would you test it? Option 1: Launch it nationwide Create the recipe Build a supply chain for the ingredients Buy the ovens Train all your staff Develop the marketing Put up the in-store banners Run the adverts […]
Eating at McDonald’s Gives You Acne
That is a libelous statement, but it is fairly obviously true, I was in McDonald’s with my children only last weekend and it was jam-packed full of spotty teenagers. It is a slam-dunk case of cause and effect. All those burgers will make you spotty. Really? What else could be going on? If you are a […]
The Easy Way to Manage Complexity
There are two lines of thought in most businesses; one says: “give the customers what they want, innovate, create new products, give them choice” The other says: “rationalise, focus, strip it back, cut the tail, decomplexify” (not strictly the Queen’s English that one) The irresistible force and the immovable object. On one hand flexibility drives […]