Don't Get Caught with Fake Cheese

September 25, 2023

Good morning! All of a sudden we find ourselves in the season of autumn — and Yom Kippur. Our yard received a thirst-quenching inch of rain two nights ago. When did interest in the weather turn into a pseudo-editorialized entertainment genre? Public pressure is overwhelming… the pumpkin flag will be hoisted early, the pumpkin flag will be hoisted early; OK, got it.

The world is plagued by, among other things, fake Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
- Solution: Insert edible microchips in each genuine wheel — enough to authenticate each and every bite or the shreds topping your spaghetti.
- Don’t be caught with fake cheese; not sure how long the microchips last in your body — and/or what else they might track and send to the Russians.
  - Also don’t know what the penalty is if you get caught eating fake cheese.
The #1 producer, purveyor, and seller of sushi in the United States? Kroger’s (44,000,000 rolls last year)
Jams and jellies giant, Smuckers of Ohio, is addressing the so-called Back-to-Work issue by requiring all workers to be in-person twenty-two weeks each year.
- If you’re doing the math, that’s 42% of the year — or, on a traditional 2,080 hours work year, surprise, it’s also 42%.
- Smuckers calls them Core Weeks, and publishes the calendar a full year in advance.
  - (Don’t know if that means literally each week there is an announcement featuring 53 weeks out? Or, whether there is a literal two-years-out calendar?)
- Workers can live anywhere, work from anywhere at other times, but must be in-person, on-campus for those 22 weeks.
- So far, so good, report employees and employers.
- You would still have the challenges associated with illnesses, special family events, emergencies, Etc., but you’ve got those no matter what.
Among the many metaphors impacting my thinking over the years was one used by a friend and colleague about 20 years ago.
- “We’re driving an 18-wheeler around here when we only need a jeep.” (Benedict)
- The thinking and imagery were perfect for the moment and I’ve often returned to this wisdom when wanting to make sure something was the right size, the right scale.
- Too often, tradition or systems or policies will be the tail wagging the dog.
“… to deliver social value today, you actually need an activist mindset.
- That means addressing the issue in the world you are intrinsically involved with, because of the nature of your business,
- the footprint of your business. It means asking yourself what are we to that issue, and what is that issue to us?
- Whether it’s meat production, carbon emissions, water, living wage… the focus really becomes what can you do in your business
- that positively steps into the future, where you can say, ‘We could make a difference on that?’
- For example, consider Apple dealing with aluminum in their laptops.
- Apple wanted to minimize the footprint of aluminum production.
- They found the aluminum they were using in their laptops couldn’t be recycled multiple times, so they opted to invent a new form of aluminum.
- … you must be prepared to reexamine your own ways of operating, even your own business model.
- You’re considering this question: ‘What would make a difference?
- How can we move the business forward on this challenge and deliver business value and impact in a positive way?’
- These days, in the transition storyline on energy, you don’t win from a defensive position.
- You win by moving into the offensive and saying, ‘What’s needed here?’
- That, and then stepping toward it constitutes an activist mindset.” (The Activist Leader, Parker/ Miller, 2023)
“If a company has a turnover problem, it isn’t solely about bad leadership, it’s also about poor hiring practices.
- Consider these when evaluating talent:
  1. Drive — Stop coaching effort, hire for it
  2. Values — Alignment around core beliefs cannot be taught — or learned — because it runs deep within the soul
  3. Skills — Ability to learn and to produce quickly
  4. Habits — Daily actions that produce results (Eades, 2023)