Snafus Make Better Companies

It’s Valentine’s Day 2007.  There is a terrible storm plaguing the Northeast with ice and snow. Most airlines have canceled flights. But JetBlue, a newer, innovative, popular airline, is betting the weather would clear up enough for a few flights.

Well, the bet didn’t pay off.

The decision not to cancel flights created the largest fiasco in the young company’s history. Planes were stranded on the tarmac, frozen to the runway. Passengers were not informed about what was going on. Imagine sitting on a plane for 10 hours with the terminal in sight while the air gets hot and the smell from the toilets (which you have been politely asked to use as little as possible) creeps into the cabin.  How would you be feeling about JetBlue?

Apparently, not so bad.

Later that same year, JetBlue was ranked ‘Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Low Cost Carriers in North America’ by J.D. Power and Associates…for the third year in a row.

This success despite the snafu was not just due to the fact that David Neeleman, the company’s founder and CEO, was on every media outlet humbly apologizing. It was also not just due to JetBlue’s full refund and free tickets.

Most of the success was because JetBlue had done the legwork before the tarmac incident to build a relationship with their customers—more leg room, no price gouging or nickel and diming, in-flight television, etc.

JetBlue’s leaders also used the incident as a catalyst to change the way they do business.

“From the board leadership level into the organization, there was no doubt that this was a wake up call,” says David Barger, JetBlue’s current CEO.  One of the founders, Barger was COO in February 2007.  “We had tremendous growth and, at some point, all companies go through something like this.  But if you have the right attitude, amazing things can happen.  We created comprehensive fixes. We got to the core of those issues and solved them.  We wanted to become a better company as a result of it.  I firmly believe that we have done that.”

Since the Valentine’s Day snafu, JetBlue created a Customer Bill of Rights.  Among some of the more interesting entries, JetBlue will provide customers experiencing an Onboard Ground Delay with 36 channels of DIRECTV®, food and drink, access to clean restrooms and, as necessary, medical treatment. For customers who experience an Onboard Ground Delay for more than 5 hours, JetBlue will take necessary action so that customers may deplane.

Also, they changed their leadership structure to create more stability and continued to look for more ways to go beyond their customer’s expectations.  This sort of sweeping change could only take place in a company that created an environment for entrepreneurial thinking and flexibility.  A company that uses the unexpected to its advantage.
So, in the end, the bet paid off.  Their biggest screw up was turned into a catalyst for a different way of thinking about how they relate to their customers and allowed them the time to work out what was needed in their company.

Here is something that is not a screw up: their first quarter earnings reflect that the company is continuing to grow…most other airlines can’t say the same thing.

TRY THIS ON:

How can you turn your biggest screw up into your largest asset?  How well are you prepared for the unexpected?

5 Ways to Say “No” to Being Predictable

“Gosh honey! I’m so apathetic! Today, I shuffled over to that average deli and ordered myself a dime-a-dozen turkey sandwich. I tell you what, that service there was almost pleasant and the people were just passable and generally tolerable. I think I will go back tomorrow.”

People don’t get excited over average sandwiches and passable service, so why are you running your business the way that you have been told to? The last thing that our current economy needs is more businesses to think like other businesses. We need people unafraid to unleash their ideas.

Check out this video of a guy who refuses definition:

Here are 5 lessons from the video on Pete Carroll:

1. Repeated failure is not necessarily an indication that there is something wrong with you. Perhaps, you just have not found what works, or you need to change your definition of failure. Carroll couldn’t win in the NFL and was despised upon entering USC’s campus, but he did not let past failures stop him from pouring himself into new opportunities. What is stopping you from working in the arena that you are most suited for?
2. True strength comes from something bigger than you. Your company or your brand has to be a cause. Carroll has been able, through his coaching and mentoring background to give hope to those most in need. He understands that the idea that he is a coach between certain hours and something else later on does not apply. He refuses to serve only himself with his gift. He is serving something bigger.
3. Authenticity is not always just a buzzword. Sometimes people really live by who they are, and it has an exponentially huge impact on those around them. I enjoy the interview with the sergeant who is a 13 year veteran of fighting gangs in LA. Even the most rightfully cynical of Carroll had to concede that things were better with Carroll in the picture. That he meant what he said. That he is who he is at all times.
4. Play is important. Carroll has a kid-like attitude toward his team. There is no failure in play. It’s always okay to ask “why?” when you play. While some would right it off as hopeless optimism, his attitude of looking for the next exciting thing has given him the freedom to have fun at all times in everything that he does.
5. Some people are plain crazy…in a good way. The most successful people I know do things that “normal people” think are unbalanced. Riding around some of Los Angeles’ toughest neighborhoods and handing out your mobile number is remarkable. It is unexpected, radical and powerful. You have to put aside the way that most people see the world. Allow people to see how crazy you are. You will attract the right partners, and you may change their worldview.

TRY THIS ON

What would southern California look like if Carroll saw himself as just a coach?

What would your community or business look like if you stopped allowing conventional boundaries to tell you what is and is not your business?  In the time we are in, we don’t need another small business. We need people dedicated to serving others in an authentic way. Small businesses are wonderful employers and excellent for the economy. But, behaving in prescribed patterns will get us nowhere.

It’s time we started thinking of our businesses as ways to reach others in new ways. We need to reawaken our imagination.

ANSWER ME THIS

Do you know anyone who has allowed for their creative imagination to run their business?

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Creative Freedom of a Restrictive Economy

The latest issue of Wired has a special feature on design. The subject that they hit upon is one that is close to my heart.  Here is the article. They are designing in a medium that predates embedded video and infographics. It is a blank white rectangle. “At Wired, our design team sees this as our daily bread,” they point out.

The constraint of the page actually inspires more creativity.

It reminds me of a creative writing course in college.  You would think that the most clever and creative work would come from a no-holds-barred approach to expression.  However, that was not the case.   The best work we produced came as a result of placing restrictive guidelines and forcing us to come up with a way to express an idea from inside a cage.  The most inspiring work happened when we had to write in iambic pentameter or rhyme certain lines or begin our stories with some random sentence (I saw the horse in the rain, and I knew I had to leave my wife…who couldn’t write a good story with that line?).

The constraint of the economy can inspire your creativity.

The beauty of our current economic situation is that it forces us to strip down our business into the essential elements.  I am not a neurologist, but it feels like there is a part of my mind that works better under restriction.  Be it real or imagined.

The same is true for many successful companies that I talk to.   They are coming up with ways to still express their value when prospects have less money.  One example is Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc., a St. Louis-based design firm.  They have spun off a new company, Stax Modular, a mobile display product that can be used for anything .  So far, the response to their new product has been exciting, and they are going to showcase it as trade shows in the Spring.

With markets crashing around us and a breakdown of the financial world, this gives those who have always been on the outside of traditional forms of capital even more reason to innovate.  Small business owners have always had to be creative and design something striking and beautiful out of very little.

The trick now is distilling your idea of what your business is and allowing constraint to design your business better.

THE LIST

Here are questions you can ask yourself to get to the root who your company is:

1. Who would notice if my business went away? List the people, institutions, etc. These folks are your champions.  Get to know them better. Most people cover up when times are tough. People will be more important than ever now.
2. What is it that is valuable about my company? Is it people? Is it a product that is unique? You service. Whatever it is, don’t fall into the temptation to cut it lose for budget reasons.
3. What makes us money or raises our funds? These are revenue streams.  Pour resources to them.  They, as our former commander-in-chief says, “keep food on your family.”
4. What other talents do I or others on my team have that we have allowed to go by the wayside? These are new revenue opportunities. You have good ideas already. Use them now. See the Kuhlmann Leavitt example above.

This is only a beginning to a job that really should not require a crappy economy.  You probably have some better questions.  Now is always the time to continue innovation.

LET ME KNOW

Send me some better questions to distill a business down to its core.  I will send you a copy of the sestina they made me write in my poetry class. If nothing else, it will be a good laugh.

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Stop worrying about the credit market…get creative

Tom Schlafly is one of the most successful business people (and human beings) I have had the pleasure of talking to. He built the St. Louis Brewery in the town that has…um..you, know… THE Brewery. However, since InBev came to town, Schlafly now enjoys status as St. Louis largest locally-owned brewery.

As Tom points out in his witty column Top Fermentation, “In any discussion of local industry in St. Louis, Schlafly is now The Brewery.” The irony is thicker than the head on one of Tom’s stout winter brews.

The man who:

• claims that he “would never have started his business if he knew anything about business”
• attracts an entire team of people with liberal arts degrees and no business background
• had to change Missouri laws on microbreweries to grow his business
• holds an irrational love for St. Louis
• continues to bring a creative wonder to his business

…is now wildly successful against all odds and in the shrined shadow of a St. Louis darling – Anheuser-Busch.

Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle choice and a way of thinking differently about:

• what it means to be in business
• what it means to have success
• what it means to be professional

Many times at the root of this decision (to rip the employee label off your life and think in this manner) is a very emotional and peculiar drive. As my friend Richard Sacks (author, consultant and entrepreneur) puts it, “most entrepreneurs are on plan B.” They are creative, innovative, passionate people who got ticked off at the way that their industry was working, or feel that some population is grossly underserved.

If there is this distinction between an entrepreneur and a manager or executive, then why do entrepreneurs constantly feel they have to behave like the rest of business world when it comes to financing their business?

I have heard many entrepreneurs complain:

• The banks don’t take me seriously.
• I don’t have the right contacts.
• The credit market has dried up.
• Venture capitalists aren’t giving out money.
• Angel investors are watching their portfolios dwindle away.

This reaction to our current economy is not an irrational response. This is fear-based thinking that will be a secure lockdown to any growth that your business could hope to have.

To survive the slowdown and the limited access to capital, you must see this fear, name it and move along on the path.  You must be irrational. (For more on this see Dixie Gillaspie’s article on moving through fear.)

You are an entrepreneur…be creative. Here are some practical steps that I have seen the best entrepreneurs take to make long-term financial goals. (All of these steps were taken assuming that you had the right attitude, have had solid business ethics and want to grow your business.)

• Get skin in the game. This is a battle. If you can’t stomach a big personal loss, you may need to find a job. While it does not sound pleasant, I have yet to meet a financial backer who is comfortable taking on all the risk. Collect up your capital and what you have of value. If it was a comfortable process, then everyone would do it. Two retailers I know have doubled their business in the last year by leveraging collateral to get credit.
• Negotiate and make terms with your vendors. Make it as simple as possible. “Hey, things are slowing down for me. Can I pay you $x amount per month?” Most folks will allow you some latitude.
• Find easy ways to monetize what you do. This is dangerous because you may end up going down sales paths that can distract you from a primary purpose. What do you do already do that adds value and you can easily charge for? This could be scaled-back versions of a larger service for a reduced rate. However it looks, find new ways to make money at what you are already doing.
• Find like-minded folks that share your vision. They may not be instant sources of money, but you can certainly find advise, empathy, friendship and accountability. The monetary value of true friendship is immeasurable. The most successful people that I know found and inner circle that they went to in good times and bad. You start finding these people by becoming an approachable person.

It may seem as though the universe is conspiring against you, but take a look at Schlafly’s situation 17 years ago. You do not face nearly the odds that he did. He made it. You can too. It may not look the way you thought it would, but your company will be better for it.

And, if you are a St. Louis-based entrepreneur, then you have access to at least 49 growth opportunities that are unique to your city.

TRY THIS ONE ON:

If you wanted to hear what it was like for a passionate, eccentric business owner, then read Tom Schlafly’s book, A New Religion in Mecca. There is a great deal of hope in there. It seems that Schlafly contends that the universe conspired to make his business successful, but, someone who knew what she was talking about once said: Luck is the residue of rigorous, persistent action.

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Business lessons from George Carlin

Choosing to become a business owner is absurd.  Given the amount of businesses that fail, breaking from a career to start an organization becomes an exercise that is close to insane.  Only a certain type of person, the entrepreneur, who would forsake the glory of the paycheck to start something unique, something counter-industry, something that your market truly needs would do such a thing.

On June 22, the entrepreneurial world lost one such person.  George Carlin, who was not one for euphemisms, died (no “passing away”).

To appreciate what Carlin did for his industry, you have to go back to the time in which he started.  After working as a DJ, a marketing director for peanut brittle and being discharged from the Air Force for being an “unproductive man,” Carlin teamed up with Jack Burns and started performing comedy shows that were pretty close to conventional.  Then, in the late 60s, he and Burns watched as Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity.

Apparently, something clicked. Carlin saw an opportunity to expose a weakness he saw in the way that Americans view their freedom of language, and he saw a way to separate himself from the crowd of other comedians.

This is entrepreneurial fervor.  Here are four things that Carlin taught through his comedy and his life that can be applied to your business:

1. See the same thing in new ways

Small business is the best opportunity to walk customers through a new experience, and it does not require you to act or behave any differently.  Be a human first before you’re a business owner.

A St. Louis example of this is Joe Edwards at Blueberry Hill.  What started as a restaurant and bar turned into the largest neighborhood transformation in recent St. Louis history.  He organized other merchants to create The Delmar Loop.  His business became an advocacy for something bigger.

He achieved this by being himself.  It was not his aim, rather a natural occurrence of being authentic and willing to see the same thing (business ownership) in an entirely new way (community creation). Vuja De.

Carlin was able to achieve this for comedy, and you can do this in your industry.
Do your customers know you? Do you stand for something beyond your business goals? How can your business reinforce your beliefs and allow your light to shine?

2. Get down to the core

One of Carlin’s famous routines was the Al Sleet, the hippie-dippie weatherman, “Tonight’s forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening with some widely scattered light toward morning.”

The act stuck because it conveyed a simple truth that most folks take for granted.  Of course, there is much more to weather than the presence or absence of light, but what else can you say with this amount of certainty?  The same is true for many organizations.  Often we get hung up on tactics, projects or ideas that are really complicating.  These things are important, however, remember the simple truths about you, your business and the role you are to play.  Everything else is debatable, and, like the weather, difficult to predict.  What is at the core of you and your business?

3. Don’t take yourself too seriously

Carlin had an HBO Special titled, “Life is Worth Losing.”  To say, “Nothing is sacred to Carlin,” is an understatement.  His comedic topics ranged from airplane food and colloquialisms to death and rape.

While Carlin may have gone to the extreme, a lack of levity is a problem that I see in business all the time.  I have a friend who owns a contracting business, and he created a charter of 35 rules and regulations that he has difficulty in following.  Now he has to police his workforce and dole out punishment for stepping out of the bounds.

Here is the problem: People will let you down.  It is not a matter of if, but when.  Try to remember those times you have let others down as a necessary dose of humility.  The problem that my friend has is not the code of conduct, but his attitude toward it.  To approach people from a moral hilltop is dangerous.  Create a business that inspires others to take ownership.

Your legacy may outlive you, but only if you get out of the way.  Carlin was an example of this.  He was devoted to his craft and his creative legacy, however, he remembered that all of this was fading.  It is nothing more than life and death.  How are you taking your business too seriously?

4. Challenge everything…all the time

Carlin did not get ahead by regurgitating the same line of ex-girlfriend and cat jokes.  He pushed the limits of what it meant to be in comedy.

People were forced to think…to make a decision on something that they thought they could evade.  The perfect example of this was his “Seven Deadly Words” routine, which was based upon the seven words you cannot say on television.  This routine landed Carlin in jail and forced a Supreme Court decision on broadcast indecency.

He stated his purpose in one of his many comedy routines, “I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

Entrepreneurs and business leaders are situated to do the same thing.  Challenge conventional beliefs about how people should be served.  Not only does this set you apart from other businesses in your industry, but it is increasingly becoming the way that our economy will survive.  We don’t need people who can play the game.  We need people willing to change it.  What do you do that is worth a Supreme Court decision?  What are you doing to change perceptions about your industry?

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business
Monthly

Helping others understand your innovation

I am not a wine connoisseur, nor do I understand the intricacies of what makes a good wine. I have pretended to know in the past, though. Swirling the Merlot around in the glass, swishing it between my teeth and saying, “hmmm…quite dry…and a faint hint of almonds.”

One thing that I do know is that they are prevalent in the St. Louis area. While many are based in outlying locations, they logically advertise to and service the urban and suburban markets. This means that your average St. Louis consumer encounters many marketing messages about wineries on any given day.

Two friends of mine opened a winery in Ballwin, Missouri that “provides quality wine with your personal touch.” Wine Necessities is a winery for do-it-yourself-ers. They have an area where you can make your own Pinot Blanc or Italian Sangiovese or whatever your palette desires. You can even customize the labeling that goes on the bottle for personal or business use. It becomes your wine – inside and out. They host parties and have social and community events around wine, etc.

This business presents interesting marketing challenge. How do you cut through the clutter of all the other wineries, appeal to wine lovers/wine makers and present an innovative idea (a wine-making, fun, social experience) to potential patrons?

How would you communicate what you do in a short and concise way to capture your innovation? To help people understand you are not just some other winery?

One place that I would look for help is from Chip Heath and Dan Heath of Made to Stick fame. In a recent Fast Company article, they outlined a great way to do just that. They call it the anchor and twist.

According to Chip and Dan, the best way to help others understand your new, innovative idea, is to start them with something that they already know, the anchor. Then, you hit them with what makes it different, the twist.

The challenge is that you sacrifice some amount of accuracy for the sake of helping people understand your company, product, etc.

One example that they give has to do with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The “cardio” part — pumping on the chest — forces blood to circulate. The “pulmonary” part – mouth-to-mouth breathing — gets oxygen to the lungs. CPR has been ingrained in mass culture for the past 35 years, but what if a new innovation came along that supplanted it? That’s precisely what happened in March 2007 when a team of Japanese researchers published a surprising paper in the prestigious Lancet medical journal. It tracked 4,068 adults who’d gone into cardiac arrest with bystanders present but not in a hospital. The shocker: Victims who received only the chest-pumping part of CPR had slightly better health outcomes than those who received full CPR, including mouth-to-mouth. For most victims, then, mouth-to-mouth was pointless.

The American Health Association had to take an old idea (CPR) and get the word out quickly about the new one (no more mouth-to-mouth). How could they communicate this new innovation to so many who were used to good ol’ CPR?

Eventually, “Hands-Only CPR” was the term that they decided to use to express the new idea. CPR serves as the anchor, and “hands-only” is the twist. This is not completely accurate…really there is no longer the “P” since there is no mouth-to-mouth. But, for the sake of helping an audience understand, they let some inaccuracy go.

Here are some attempts at doing that for Wine Necessities from my feeble mind:

• Wine Necessities is the Build-a-Bear of wineries.
• Wine Necessities – the DIY winery.
• Get your hands dirty winery.
• The you-too-can-crush-grapes winery.

TRY THIS ONE:

Do you have better ideas for my friends at Wine Necessities? Can you come up with one for your company or organization that you would be willing to share?

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What word cloud would your customers write about you?

When I meet someone for the first time, I have often wanted to hand them a preface. This would contain a few key moments from the past, failed relationships, funny/tragic stories, a songlist and a stack of DVDs (mostly bad 80s movies).

That way, when I say something like, “well, at least I have that going for me,” people would immediately recognize what I was talking about. Whether they would find me funny or not is another story.

Instead, what usually happens is that I get a few minutes into conversation, I say something that sounds inappropriate or misguided. Then, I attempt to explain my choice of words or reasoning for the placement of a story.

Personally, I am waiting for the folks at Google to come up with the iCloud. This is a digitally generated keyword cloud that would display above your head at all times. This way people would know what is important to you, how you define yourself and what your personality is like.

Here is what I think mine would look like:

This is how your iCloud may look after you realized you deleted all your episodes of your favorite reality TV show from your DVR:

You’re ready to make a killer sales presentation:

While you are dreaming at night:

All that would be required for this to come to fruition is some form of brain scanning device. This should be easy to come by for the Google folks. Aren’t they the royalty of the Inter-webs?

All of this is leaving out the possibility to tie this in with the social networking software and text messages. The Twitter people could grab a hold of this and the need to constantly update people on where you are and what you are doing. It could be the iCloud autoTwitter.

TRY THIS ONE OUT:

Go to wordle and create a word cloud for yourself and for your organization. Then, make one using the text from the last reviews of you or your company. You may notice a discrepancy, and that creates an opportunity to change what words your customers associate with you.

Really, the people at Google don’t need to create these. Everybody already sees them anyway…for better or for worse. They are writing one for you right now. As much as I would like to have a preface to make things easier for folks that I meet, people are already writing one for me. The cloud that we create for ourselves is pretty useless in relation to how others interpret who we are.

Your marketing does not belong to you, and you don’t get to write your word cloud.

So, what words are you putting out there? Please email me or comment below with your word cloud.

Now we are just blatantly bragging

I received an incredible honor last month, and, in my usual fashion, failed to give thanks where thanks is due. The folks at HR World seem to think that this little CEO experiment is worthy of recognition.

Thanks to the intelligent humans that bother to read this thing, Creative Energy Officer was recognized as one of “The Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs That All Managers Should Bookmark.” It was in the section on Creativity and Inspiration.

That’s right, I made a list that will NOT be posted at the Post Office or on the Men’s bathroom stall. While I am still on those lists, it was awesome to see someone take interest in what I write.

I am flattered at this recognition especially for a project that is so young. Also, the fact that I am listed with some of my favorite blogs such as, Mavericks at Work, Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Chris Anderson and many others makes this a special honor.

But, what I am curious about is this:

• Have you ever received recognition for something you felt was no big deal? How did you feel?
• Have you ever been passed over for a raise or award and knew that it was due to you? How did you feel then?

If you answered “yes” to both of them, welcome to the human race. Most of us, it seems are ego-maniacs with an inferiority complex. The trouble is being who we are – authentic.

HOMEWORK

How do you recognize people on your team for a great performance or a big win? Do you hold a ceremony or quietly drop something off? When are rewards not appropriate for employees? What type of awards have you or others received that absolutely bombed?

Curious to see your ideas.

*************

Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

****

What is blocking you from more creativity?

“We’ve already done that.”

How many times have you heard that at supposed “brainstorming” sessions for your organization? Perhaps, you have even been responsible for starting these meetings.

These often involve post-it notes, a guy with gelled hair and leather patches on his sport coat, fired-up talk of “creativity,” and dishes of candy. The meeting becomes a veritable business term BINGO game.

Let’s see…”paradigm shift”…”synergy”…BINGO!

This has to do with a skewed perspective on what creativity is. Creative thinking is not something bestowed upon a certain group. It can be learned.

To do so, you have to begin to understand a few simple things:

1. You don’t know everything. This has to do with things that we assume to be true. So often, we get wrapped into our ideas. Creativity has to do with the idea that you don’t have all the ideas. There is no end to how deep you can take this idea. Even the way that you think about creativity has to be changed.

2. The “been there, done that” model has no place. What you have done is your experience. You have had it for a reason. Be willing to look at the past in a new light. Just because one marketing tactic did not generate much in the way of results does not mean that it never will. Use experience as an opportunity to see what was behind those decisions. What motivated you to make the decisions that you have in the past? How commited were you to those ideas? This will allow you to see a different truth about the same circumstances…that is, after all, what we are after since…(see #3).

3. Creativity is an ability to see more of the truth. Some people that I have worked with in the past have tossed work on my desk. “Jeremy, we need some creative eyes on this thing. Can you take a look at this and give us some of your creative notions.” Well, no. Not really. Creativity is not a magic wand that I can hover over a set of numbers, ad campaign or article. It is just a truth that underlies a set of ideas. Often it takes more than one set of eyes to do that. Thus the reason for things like Pixar Studios‘s collaborative approach…or the way that most national chemical labs work. The truth requires more eyes than just two to see.

Creativity is an energy or a willingness to toss aside what is commonly understood to pursue a deeper truth. It is not a virtuous or noble pursuit, and engaging in creative thinking does not make you a superior human. However, it is necessary to grow a business, organization, project or a happy life.

A recent article that Adam sent me from Copyblogger does an awesome job of outlining the major blocks to creative thinking. I think that I have been the perpetrator of all of these at some point or another.

HOMEWORK

Read through the copyblogger article and find new ways to discover the truth about your organization or your team. Ask yourself which ways you are blocking creativity on your team, and find ways to stop or work around them.

*************

Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Why your organization needs a wienie

I was in an airport recently and trying to get some quick lunch before getting onto a connecting flight.

For those who have not flown in the past decade, let me translate that sentence:

I was in an out outer ring of hell with thousands of other disconnected souls, and I decided to get indigestible chunks of preservative-laden, fried stuff on a stick to grant me some release from my misery.

Airports suck, and airport food sucks even more.

I know that there are folks out there that always look for the positive…well, I would encourage you to spend sometime in these way-stations. Travelers are away from their families, in a hurry, and angry about all the security. On top of that, I was nearly unable to get my fatty sustenance because the person at the taco-themed counter hated being there too.

In the midst of this suffering, here is what came to mind:

Airports are an awesome opportunity for a breakthrough approach to doing business. Imagine if you had a fresh idea to offer the most vibrant service. Your only mission would be to make people smile while in something called a terminal…using nearly whatever (reasonable) means possible. Plus, you could charge a fortune and business-class travelers could expense it.

All around me, though, I see managers taking the opposite approach. Instead of empowering employees to think differently and to make their business more approachable, managers punish their employees for exhibiting behavior that is welcoming and magnetic…or just plain human.

Airports desperately need a wienie.

Seth Godin recently posted about Mark Ramsey’s take on the necessity of a wienie.

Mark retells a story about old man Disney working on a draft plan for the 1964 World’s Fair “Carousel of Progress.” The GE executives loved the preview of the show, but Walt wasn’t quite satisfied – “It doesn’t have a wienie. Come back in a few weeks, and I’ll show you,” he said. Upon their return, the executives noticed that Walt added an animatronic dog with a wagging tail.

Here is Mark’s take on the wienie:

It was the “wienie.” The “finishing touch.” The delightful, magnetic bonus. Wienies are extra. Wienies are what you give the audience after they think they’re already satisfied. Wienies are what you add when what you have is good – but not good enough.”

Airport vendors have the awesome opportunity to offer something beyond expectation because really expectations are quite low. There is plenty of room for a wienie.

Your organization needs a wienie.

In the midst of an economy where people are slashing budgets, leaders can make their company stand out by offering that something extra that helps people understand more about you and how you do business. Plus, a wienie helps your customers to understand that you don’t take yourself so seriously.

HOMEWORK:

• What’s your wienie?
• What are you doing that no one else can touch in your industry?
• How are you adding a magnetic bonus?

WARNING:

This is not about wearing an obligatory 15 pieces of flare. This is about a genuine way to engage your customers beyond their expectations in a way that they may not even notice…a subtlety that is authentic to you and your business. Be proud to be a wienie.

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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly