Review- Osprey Elroy pack

What is the perfect travel bag?  This question has driven me to spend a small fortune in an endless progression of packs.  I have come to view my pack menagerie as a team, rather than succession of tools.  Recently, I sought a bag that was more urban (less technical), and yet capacious enough to handle what normally goes into a daypack, to carry for brief periods.

My most recent analysis revealed that my Maxpedition Sitka is a bit too small, too technical looking for business, and too hard to put on/take off over a dressy coat.  That ruled out upsizing to the Maxpedition Kodiak, at least for this use.

The features of the Sitka I wanted included compartmentalization, and the ability to sling my pack from back to front for access on the go.  The feature which I wanted to depart from Maxpedition was appearance.  I was going to spend a lot of time in Paris and NYC with this bag.  So I ruled out backpacks, and focused on messenger bags, which are innocuous looking, easy to shoulder on either side, voluminous, and durable.

Search started with the standard, Timbuktu.  It is heavy!  But bulletproof, weather resistant, and has a feature that became a requirement- a quick cam adjusting strap.  But it was also just a big bag,  no organizing ethic, no computer section.  The other messenger bags were too small, too poorly constructed, too expensive, and too poorly designed.  Till I got to the Osprey line.  Messenger bags? You bet!

Osprey Elroy in Action

I have a bias toward Osprey packs, some of which are still sewn in Dolores CO.  Alas, not the messenger bags.  They are smart, have great features, have never failed me, and are light.  There are two bags, twins, one small, one large.  I went for the large size, the Elroy.

Padded computer sleeve, check- no need to add a case to the mix
Organizer pockets, check- not too many
Size, check- it is as big as the biggest when expanded
Strap cam, check
Strap pad that stays put when slinging it around, check
Durable, check
Lightweight, check
Post consumer recycled materials, check.
Smart zipper to access things without flopping up the flap, check

I am using it, and realized that I have not had a briefcase I didn't shoulder since the old Samsonite hard sides.  Why did it take so long to go messenger?  I guess because it took Osprey this long to make one.  It holds my needs, has room for extra clothes, protects my computer, is comfortable, and reasonably priced.  A winner that is ExecHobo recommended.

Collichio & Sons Restaurant Rant

Tom Collichio has made a reputation on television as a celebrity chef alongside Bobby Flay and Gordon Ramsay.  He can cook with the best.  But can he run a media empire based on food?

Reviewing a celebrity chef in NYC is gilding the lilly.  Professionals in the little circle of the restaurant trade make a living doing this.  Like Andrea Thompson in the New Yorker.  But as a paying patron, and restaurant professional, I recommend to other travelers where to go and avoid.  So here goes.

Eating in Chelsea is a challenge.  The quantity and variety of places make decision making a challenge.  After all, we can only eat in a limited number of places each day!  What a wonderful conundrum!

When kicking around the Chelsea neighborhood the other day, we were pleased to see another Collichio restaurant, having become fans of Craft.

We went in, an found a wait, but were very pleased to sit immediately at the kitchen bar, always my favorite seat!

From here we could see the workflow (our profession), the work skills, ticket flow, everything on the menu, and technique.  Happily, it was a pleasant way to spend the time while we waited.

The restaurant was full.  Service was non existent for us for about a half hour, but we were entertained.  We also noticed that with more than 100 seats full, the three cooks working the oven were not just in the weeds, they were in the forest.  Who designs a kitchen/dining room that is so far out of balance?  Imagine you and two friends cooking for a group of 100, ordering from a menu of about 30 items and expecting their food to be served within about 20 minutes.  Impossible?  Yes it is.

The menu is produced in a woodfired oven.  Simple.  I worked on developing such a concept and admire it.  Some of the food looked good, but the inconsistency was pronounced as food was produced at breakneck speed.  Three working individually, not coordinating or as a team.

Finally, we were served. Sort of.  We waited for water, to have the order taken.  All because of the imbalance between seats and kitchen capacity.  A fundamental design screw up.  Mr. Collichio?

When we received our food, still in good humor because of our proximity to the oven, the taste was good.  But on a pie that was featuring artisanal sausage, we had one, yes one piece of meat.  We watched as the pizza, too long on the paddle waiting to get in the oven, was stuck to the wood, and as the cook tried to shake it off in the oven, the toppings slid onto the oven deck.  Lost.  But when in the weeds so deep?  Get the food out!  Any food is better than a re-fire.  Our roast vegetable dish was portioned in a laughable way.  Rather than grab vegs from each container, the cook used a spatula, reaching under the arms of another cook.  She simply neglected to reach the brussels sprouts.  This was rectified when we complained, and we were graciously given a side order of sprouts.

The flavors were good, really good.  The entertainment was fun.  The service was forgivable.  The restaurant design and conception is abysmal.  People can't overcome bad planning.

Mr Collichio, has your inattention to the restaurants been completely overwhelmed by focus on your media empire?  We see this over and over again.  The need to promote the business turns into a belief that the chef is a brand.  The demand for growth makes each additional restaurant less representative of the original.  Not knowing when you go from chef/perfectionist/craftsman to executive/media star/personality.

Lazy Restaurants

Editorial comments. The places in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives are the best joints around, and many of them are mediocre in my experience. What of the others, those places that don't get the notoriety? There are a few reasons.  Like baseball, the expansion has diluted talent.

1. The need for talent in the kitchen is greater than the number of qualified, committed people.
2. The restaurant business presents low barrier to entry- anyone can play
3. Related to point 2, the public has low expectations fueled by fast food and fooled by heavy spice use.  As I was once told "No one ever went broke underestimating the American public.
4. People are lazy.  Shortcuts and convenience trump passion and high standards.
5. The halo effect.  Put out a good item or two to build a reputation, and you can surround them with mediocrity that goes unnoticed.
6. Most restaurants are started as a business, not a passion.  
7. Once established, the creator of good restaurants feel compelled to move on, and leave a wake of disappointment behind.  

Good restaurants are run by people who are perfectionists, demanding, and fanatic.  The rest are run by anyone with a business license.  

Rubio's Restaurant Review

When you want to introduce someone to fish tacos, Rubio's used to be a good place to do so. The focus on ownership has had a negative impact on the restaurants. Obsessed with expansion during the 2000 era, like many restaurant companies they wanted to go public. That was the way to succeed and get everyone rich. Be careful what you wish for. Public owned companies enter a realm of administrative bullshit that is antithetical to developing a business. If you have a good thing going and aren't ready to cash in, sellout and walk away, don't go public. Ownership learned that lesson, like all of those before them.

Then, after more than a year of effort, Rubio struck a deal with Mill Road Capital of Connecticut. Now they are again private. This is a new level of hell for a restaurant chain as the pressure to perform
Actually ratchets up. Investment bankers are more avaricious than Wall Street Analysts. Bit at least a privately held company spent have the government as a full partner!

Well, we have seen the result of all this turmoil at the counter and in the dining room. Out last Rubio's experience was just after going public, when management was the founding team and all was right in their world. It has declined quite a bit since then. On all levels- decor, service and quality we see erosion. It is now a poor tortilla around a poor piece of fish stick with little and less tasty sauce and plenty of (cheap) cabbage.

No longer appealing, write off Rubio's.









- Paul/ BlogPress/ iPhone

Apple Demonstrates its Mainstreet Advantage

It is popular right now to hate on Apple.  They are too successful to like anymore. But good is good, and the lessons of Apple should be informing more enterprises.  I read a column by Christopher Ryan that reminded me of one of the aspects of Apple that I relate to- the retail vertical.  Lets leave the other aspects of the company for another time.  

Apple is opening a new store in Shanghai, the first of 25 planned so far for China.  

Like the Manhattan flagship, the store is underground, with a glass staircase leading down from the glass tower entrance.  This level of commitment to a market like China is a good start, and following the recent opening of the Paris Opera store really makes a statement.  

 But what is important is what happens inside these stores.  The experience of retail is in fact the definition of the concept, and an important reinforcement of the brand itself.  There is no question that the look of the Apple Store owes some cues to the Gap people who migrated over in the 90's: austere, clean, accessible, product focused.  That is good.  Apple goes out on a limb to have its associates represent what Apple is.  Sometimes, as a 50 something professional consultant, I am not appreciative of what I see in the hires on the floor, but then they approach and disarm me with enthusiasm, service, knowledge and energy.  

The thing that really makes Apple Stores work for me is the Genius Bar.  Imagine!  A place to go where the technicians are expert, the process is hassle free and in my experience, always beyond what one expects.  Go in with a problem, armed with arguments and armored for "User error" attacks, and by the time you leave with a resolution you are bewildered by fact that you didn't have to enter into mano a mano combat to succeed.  And these people really like what they do, and that they are part of Apple.  

Now that is what's Magic.

#Starbucks thinking of Jamba Juice?

At first blush my consumer side thought it a good idea- I love them both.  Then I thought about it as a shareholder, and was less and less thrilled.

I have been in the smoothie business, and it was very, very good.  In California, and in the hot weather in the northeast.  In fact, during summer in Washington DC, it was like selling crack.  Of course when winter hit, we couldn't give smoothies away. We hoped global warming made it a long term growth item, but that hasn't worked.

But think of the real estate footprint- there is no synergy to the two that would argue for a combination- the units overlap almost 100%.  And please, please don't think of following the YUM! Multibranding model-fiasco!  Can you add Jamba to Starbucks stores as a featured brand ?  Not likely, they should devote any additional asset space to increasing sales of the base concept, and besides, the smoothies they sell at Starbucks are pretty good already.

How about the juice case?  Well, lets see, does strategic partner Pepsico like to share space with a competitor to Naked juice?  No, they don't.  And they are a real partner, with more potential to grow Starbucks sales- don't piss them off.

How about just operating and growing Jamba as a separate division?  With some great international potential, this makes sense.  But, and I have been here too, when your base business is in recovery mode, the distractions that analysts worry about are real, no matter what management says.  Stay away, stick to the knitting.

The core business of Starbucks is healthy, profitable and has the potential to double and redouble- stay focused on that, and to use the title of a good book and Bain consulting plan- Profit from the Core.  In my concept we recognized smoothies as a menu item, not a concept.  Jamba was a contemporary, and we marveled at how they managed to continue to get funding to grow a flawed business model.  Now they have run out of investors, and the most recent owner to find that out is looking for a way to make some money off Jamba.  I think this is a rumor and would short JMBA, if I traded in short selling.

#Starbucks Solution For Success

History lessons for Starbucks 
Big quick service chains reach a tipping point around their 40th anniversary  or 10,000 units, whichever comes first.  For context, Starbucks is at listed at number 4 in QSR Magazine's flawed complete top 50 listing of QSR (LAZY research!) chains.  Keep in mind that this list is only US units, in an industry that is eminently global (YUM revenue from operations in China are equivalent to any one of the brands revenues in the US).  If you don't want to follow the link, consider that McDonalds operates over 35,000 units worldwide, and the three brands of YUM! account for more than 36,000.  Starbucks operates 16,635 units according to the 2009 Annual Report.  


When a chain gets so big, it achieves a kind of runaway critical mass- the size and the demands of growth trump the values and core founding principals.  This is not the function of dumb executives, avaricious owners, or evil capitalism.  It is a chain of events that forces companies to a centralized mindset to control every aspect of the business, including the customer experience.  In foodservice, the most personal of businesses, this is when things get pear shaped.

Starbucks' solution 
Partners first. That is THE cornerstone of the SBUX future success model. It is the best way to ensure the kind of path ahead will be different, better than those companies that have preceeded it.

The path of Starbucks has been well documented. It has negotiated the past couple of years, it's first significant challenge with success.   The day to day leadership of Howard Schultz is a significant ingredient.

At the shareholder meeting he recounted the day when, in the deepest part of the downturn in SBUX fortunes, he was confronted with the choice to legitimately dial back the ever escalating cost of health care benefits. It is to his credit he declined. His passion for this particular benefit, informed by his youth, is well known. I believe he has it exactly right- this feel-good, humane policy is a competitive advantage that helps define the brand. It also symbolizes a corporate strategy to significantly and meaningfully keep the sloppy, informal, messy human interaction at the counter "real", in spite of the risk of inconsistency.  And in doing so to express real confidence in the people of the organization, top to bottom.

And the stores matter
In the coming years Starbucks will continue to grow. This is a big brand, with a need to get bigger. The comparisons come easily- QSR chains have been on this path with a 20 (or more) year head start. How can SBUX avoid the QSR pitfalls?  SBUX revealed a growth strategy of building billion dollar brands launched from the credibility of the Starbucks store system. Leveraging this asset base seems obviously brilliant. It only works if the magic of the Starbucks experience is evident where it begins, the store.

When a company stamps out tens of thousands of points of distribution, real estate, systems and capital allocation start driving the bus. The front line operators live on the traditions of excellence that built the business. They erect bulwarks of resistance to change that delay the erosion of their importance to the business model.

What happens at the counter dictates long term success
Operators suffer when they have to face customers in buildings that are deteriorating, or with too few co-workers to properly serve, or having to serve product they know has been "improved" to a state of mediocrity.

There is an alternative. High standards, disciplined reinvestment, and a real sense of the importance of front line people. The latter is the most difficult attribute to nurture. It, unlike sincerity, can't be faked. Starbucks has always valued its people, above all else. And it continues, in the Starbucks tradition.  That is the delicate thread that will hold the concept together, that will enable the company to imbue partners with a legitimate sense of ownership, that will enable growth in the brutal QSR industry.      

Resume Sunday

We spent this sunny Sunday morning writing resumes for our partners to use when they sell our collective services to clients.  We both hate doing this.  It is really mind-explodingly aggravating.  We have not really used a resume to get a job in many, many years.  But everyone wants one.  Like business cards they get passed around, and have a prestige cache that businesses crave like a security blanket no one uses, but is there.  

Oh, and that bullshit about Linkedin or Facebook replacing resumes?  Ha Ha! The only ones who think so are so deep geek they don't even matter outside of their mother's basement world.  


And at this stage of life, having to put our resume into a format that is dictated by someone else just goes to show, once again- no one doesn't have a boss.  Except a US Senator.  They don't have a boss because that implies they are part of a system of productive effort.  Ha Ha again!


Anyway, this therapeutic rant is over.  The resumes are done.  Once we got past the egotism it went well.  We do have to admit to being proud of the many accomplishments professional we would have long forgotten if we didn't have to relive it all for resumes.  Thank you.  

Why and How- Restaurant Reveiws

Balance.   That is all I ask.  If its a dive, make everything cheap and home-made.  If its a $100 menu restaurant, make sure the towels in the bathroom are the right linen and the soap is scentless.  Everything a customer sees, smells, touches, tastes or feels defines the experience.  The experience for which they are paying in full.

Play with your food, take it apart a little.  Appreciate each element.  For example, a chile cheese burger, if you look at the fresh roasted Anaheim chiles, you should see a lot of work, and a lot of chiles.  Perfect heat and flavor.  Little charred areas but almost no skin.  Cheese that is a bit browned on the edge as it drapes over the burger on the grill. This makes it worth a premium, not the menu description or the crap on the dining room walls.   Look at the burger patty, pull it apart, taste it alone.  Peel back everything on the pizza- is the dough cooked?  Feel the food, smell it, really pay attention to it.  Hot?  Cold?  Temperature is a basic. Think about that shake. Is the texture right?  Is the aftertaste pleasant?  Is the sweetness balanced with the flavor?  Is the glass the right type?  How about the straw and spoon?  Consistent liquidity- not melted around the outside?

Going out to eat is expensive.  It should be a pleasure lasting more than 40 minutes.

No one goes into the restaurant business wanting to serve cheap slop to people who don't care.  Not even a soup kitchen does that.  So hold the proprietors to a high standard, you are half the equation that makes your local dining ecosystem function.    You have eaten about as many times as anyone else your age- over 30,000 meals by the time you are 30.  Have you learned from all those experiences?

The reason reviews are important?  To reward those who run good establishments?  Only partly.

Historically hospitality was a practice of aiding pilgrims.  Imagine walking from say, France to Jerusalem.  Many dangers would confront you along the way.  In about 600 AD, Pope Gregory directed Abbot Probus to care fore the pilgrims.  Out of this concern grew the  Knights of Saint John Hospitaller, who grew to protect and see to the housing and feeding of pilgrims all along the journey.  Inns and routes evolved.  From this basis grew "restaurants".  The long history of hospitality is deeply seated in all cultures, and suggests a responsibility to those we serve.

Historically, hobo "reviewers" would mark a house's fence with chalk to let other hobos know about the reception they could expect.  A kind of review, and system of protection.

Modern reviews are part of that responsibility- to show other travelers where to stop, what to expect.  

Exechobo- Hospitality Professional

I really love it when a hospitality establishment delivers.  Whether its the giggly smile you should get at a dairy stand window, or the "lifestyles of the rich and famous" wonder of a hotel gem, or the simple pleasure of a friendly pub owner caring about the time you spend in his or her place.  These are the moments that can define a memory, or simply bring a little joy to an otherwise mundane day. That's why  hospitality careers are a vocation.

If you don't get a bit of a thrill when you see how impactful your work is on individuals, move on to another trade.  If you divide your pay by your hours, you won't like the business.  If you think anything, ANYTHING AT ALL in your establishment is not your responsibility, not defining you, not part of what the guests pay for, you are mistaken.

I have been in the business for more than 35 years, doing a lot of stuff, all of it relating to operating restaurants.  I have done it around the world, and at all levels.  I have worked with great talent to develop food and concepts.  I know about the business.  Now I enjoy it as an observer, and sometimes a consultant.  I like to make it a better business.

Drivethru- bane or boon?

There are a lot of people who don't want to go inside a business to get what they want.  This is for them.

Investors- In a good QSR, the revenue periods are everything.  People eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  No marketing program has effectively changed that.  So what you have at those times is a high demand for food.  Assume any QSR has a constraint at the point of food delivery- the cash register. Assume there is excess capacity in production.  Assume any QSR  has already installed all the registers it can hold.  Assume customers limit transaction time to no less than 60 to 90 seconds- it is hard to make em mooove faster, damn it!  Now, if only we could get people to just come to a window in the wall and get food there, wouldn't that be something?  We could increase transactions by a significant factor by adding a register, without the capital investment of making the building bigger.  Good stuff!

Customers- People want to stay in the car, not go inside.  They would rather wait in their own environment, continue listening to the radio, putting on makeup, tweeting, whatever.  Customers also think it is faster, and whether it is or not, the perception matters.  Making customers happy is what makes business thrive.  Until the things they want are not consistent with the core benefit that drew them to your concept.  Did you start a place for local discourse and entertainment?  Probably not drive thru compatible, even if people say they want to get your crepe faster and easier, from the car.

Image- nothing says QSR chain like a D/T. In fact, we used it as a key part of brand identity.  If you are a QSR chain, and don't have a drive thru, you are weird.

Public Perception- I have linked to a study commissioned in Canada by Tim Horton's.  It is favorable to drive thrus, as you would think.  Its logic is that the emissions from restarting cooled engines in a parking lot is greater than from those idling in the drive thru.  Believable.  But of course I added a link to a blog that refutes all that, and as an added bonus uses the word "Piffle".  No arguing with that, nor with the accepted greenie logic condemning drive thrus.  So any company, say in the UK, wanting to develop this access channel better brace for some severe blow-back.  Goes back to image and concept doesn't it?

My View- If you want to be QSR, get a drive thru.  If you want to be a neighborhoody kinda place, avoid one.  If the bean counters have discovered you will sell more stuff with a drive thru, you are going to have them everywhere they will fit and are allowed.  The concept will be what it is, just get the incremental sales and let the next generation of management worry about how it all turns out.  After all, concepts are frangible, they have shorter and shorter half-lives, and once they are not intrinsically appealing, marketing will generate the traffic needed to keep it all going, for several years.  I call that renting customers.  They will be with you as long as the coupon is in the paper, or the ads are in the front of their mind.

I am completely drive-thru agnostic.  They are part of the restaurant environment, like bread.  They can be a good thing, or a bad thing.  Like any part of a concept, they telegraph information to customers, information that defines your business.  If you are the Chief Concept Officer, make sure you are using this important tool to work for you.  Consider it carefully.

Air Travel is a $5 Pizza

It takes a while to amass more than a million air miles. In my case, I started before anyone knew what airport security meant. And before air travel became a commodity.  That, I think, gives me authority to comment on the subject. Of course, I may be the only person on earth who hasn't already done so.

We are closing out a trip from Seattle to NYC to DC and back. It is costing about $290 each. That's the good news. The bad news? You get what you pay for. If you set aside the fact that you are traveling more than 4000 miles in about 10 hours. But this is about the airline hospitality, not hygeine factors. And its about bitching out airlines. What can be more fun- bitching out lawyers?

OK, I'll take a pass on security. That is another rant. Focus on the airlines. First off, let's just deal with United and move on. The employees took over United. At the time it was #1 or #2, depending on the rating service. Had a sterling record. It was my airline of choice. Now it is at the bottom of the heap in an industry that makes up its own self serving rating rules. (that's them second from last on the chart) It is piss poor at anything except alienating customers. The "owners" of the company actively loathe their customers. I will fly anyone else to avoid this plagued excuse for a business. They make industry consolidation something to hope for.

American. I used to hate flying AA just because of the hell that is DFW. But now they have a great train at Dallas and its OK. Except the pilots still think you want to hear them rambling on over the PA for half the flight. And the PA is as loud as a KISS concert. But AA is OK if you have to fly them.

We like Alaska for now. They are a bit less miserable than others. In the rating I linked to they come out well.  I would like to fly SWA, but how is it they always cost more to go anywhere?  And if you want to go into or out of Texas you still have to sneak out like a Russian journalist. Thanks Jim Wright for the most offensively corrupt legislation ever!  Imagine- the entire US government dedicating itself to make sure a little start-up company can't compete with AA!  And now imagine SWA being more profitable- take that!

But in general, the tiny seats, charging for checking luggage, the cattle herding processes, the lackadasical treatment of passengers. It is just so irritating! 

So what about that pizza?  The airlines have done what the big pizza companies did in the early 90's. They discovered that when they reduced the price of a pizza, say a medium cheese pizza, to $5, a lot of people bought them. But those people didn't come back later to buy a full price pizza. They waited till the price was $5 again. They finally trained the pizza companies to just make the price $5 and figure out how to cheapen the product till it was profitable at that price. And so they have.  And now the airlines have too.

Oh, on another subject.  After 10 days in New York, the only nasty rude person we met was a ticket agent at American Airlines.

2009- LaborCentric

Last year we built a plan to grow the Time Standards business with intent. The business model for http://LaborCentric.com was already developed and proven, we just had to decide what to do with it.

Looking around, we confirmed for ourselves that indeed our methods of developing time standards have a competitive advantage, but we lacked the benefit of a big name. A set of circumstances that are not unusual for a small enterprise.

A cornerstone was to build a firewall to prevent loss of revenue. Our client list showed we already had a valuable relationship with a Workforce Management System consultant. We simply needed to ensure the relationship flourished. That was accomplished in December, setting us up for 2010, with potential for more work and the independence we seek. Our flexibility, speed and economical cost structure were what we offered in return for broader exposure.

Three weeks into the new year we are moving in the right direction. We anticipate a successful 2010, and look forward to realizing the rest of the plan as we go.