Posts Tagged ‘People’

It IS personal…

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

I was amazed when I read the recent news that McDonalds has announced it won’t be serving Heinz ketchup any more at its 34,000 restaurants, as they don’t like the fact that Heinz have appointed Bernardo Hees, the former head of rival Burger King, as Heinz’s chief executive. Heinz was recently acquired by Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment fund 3G Capital. Burger King is controlled by 3G Capital.and they appoint Mr Hees.  So it appears a strategic global sourcing decision is made by one of the commercial giants on a similar basis to playground politics and “I don’t want to play with you..”

I have always believed that business is all about people, and people do business with people they like, also people like them.  So the best way to ensure your business grows is to take a genuine interest in your customers business and make sure that you help them to succeed. 

Making bread and using your loaf

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

 

My wife is a bread maker ‘par excellence’ and yesterday she made some bread that was simply The Best!  I simply couldn’t imagine it being any better.  So I said to her “That was perfect!  Can you make it exactly  like that every time?”    She told me that it was impossible as it all depended on so many variables like the atmosphere, the weather, one’s mood amongst a few.

That got me me thinking…. there are a great many things that are like this.  When one is working with people, one has to work with who turns up on the day, their moods, health, energy levels etc.  The unique cocktail that this interaction makes means that each meeting / interaction is unique.  Whether your are dealing with business teams or online communities this chemistry makes its mark and if one is to be successful, one needs to be sensitive to this factor.

 “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”   Mother Teresa of Calcutta

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”   Mahatma Gandhi