Have you seen the movie “Snatch”? It’s about a bunch of guys who “kick-ass.” Why is it that virtually every movie is about a bunch of tough guys kicking ass? If women are more than 50% of the population why in God’s name will Hollywood not give up their obsession with men?
I hate action movies because I want to watch movies that I can relate to. I want to watch films with strong female leads that don’t look like Reese Witherspoon (and aren’t about how she has to choose between two men who want to sleep with her).
Two things.
1. The media needs to feature more dynamic real depictions of women in film.
2. The media will never give you permission to be strong. You MUST give yourself permission.
On October 12, 1492, a man discovered America. On October 12, 1923, America discovered a lady who was born to discover Weight Watchers. He was Christopher Columbus. She was Jean Nidetch. He took the mystery out of the world. She took the L out of ‘Flab.’ We all know his story. Here is hers.*
For such a little lady Nidetch has a big personality—but she wasn’t always little.
Nidetch, in her new book The Jean Nidetch Story, writes about her own weight loss journey through 72 pounds, and what spawned Weight Watchers International. She grew up near Coney Island where she took shelter from the Summer heat at the local Candy Shop indulging in “egg cream” drinks containing neither eggs nor cream but chocolate syrup, homogenized milk, and seltzer.
Nidetech’s father prided himself on his ability to feed his wife (a manicurist) and children keeping them plump through the Great Depression. He drove a cab in addition to being one of the first food delivery entrepreneurs. He painted a truck and drove sandwiches and ice cream to workers and playing children.
A family of resourceful entrepreneurs Nidetch’s grandfather came from a poor town in Russia and came to the U.S. for a better life. He worked a market in Williamsburg, Brooklyn selling pickles, herring, and sauerkraut out of a pushcart. This was before Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia outloawed pushcarts in the ‘30s.
Never Ask A Woman If She Is Pregnant If You Aren’t Sure
Nidetch was a fat kid and even fatter adult. But she decided to change her habits after a woman in the grocery store asked Nidetch if she was due any day.
With the help of a very old school New York City Board of Health Obesity Clinic Nidetch lost the weight. Nidetch wasn’t the only one who had a weak spot for egg cream and other obese neighbors started to wonder what Nidetch had done to lose all of her weight. A natural organizer, Nidetch invited a few girls over every week to help them with their food regimen and create a supportive environment. Word got out that Nidetch had the weight loss secret sauce and soon enough neighbors started knocking on her door.
From Nidetch’s basement she got a few helpers, borrowed a mimeograph machine (Xeroxes didn’t exist) and got some of her girlfriends type the food regimen on a stencil (in addition to the meetings and weigh ins). Turns out the secret was the support group as well.
Nidetch’s story started out like many others—a few people getting organized weekly turned into a global multi-million dollar operation.
F.F.H. AKA Formerly Fat Housewife
Nidetch was the face of the business, and the mind behind the idea, never saw herself as a “businesswoman” per say. But Nidetch understood her customer and only hired people who had been through the program and remembered what it felt like to be fat.
When Nidetch sat on a panel in the 1970’s with PhDs, M.D.s, M.S.N.s, R.D.s, she made gave herself a title F.F.H. (formerly fat housewife). She is her customer’s champion. There is something refreshing about the honesty of this self-proclaimed everywoman.
“Is Jean Nidetch Still Alive?” “Oh My God I Hope So!”
Nidetch, a happy Floridian living in a retirement community, recently phoned the Weight Watchers call center. She was greeted by a cheerful agent.
Agent: “Good morning, Weight Watchers, how may I help you?.”
Nidetech: “Do you know who founded Weight Watchers International.”
Agent: “You mean you don’t know?”
Nidetech: “No”
Agent: “Jean Nidetch!”
Nidetech: “Is she still alive?”
Agent: “Oh my God I hope so!”
*This was the introduction for a televised appearance for Jean Nidetch, former CEO and President of Weight Watchers International, who was born on Columbus Day.
Note from blogger: I wrote this for my previous blog at Customer Management IQ.
I have an Achilles heal for films about sociology, anthropology and pretty much anything ending with (ogy).
Last night I watched the documentary “Freakanomics,” a take off from book written by authors Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The film is made up of shorts done by filmmakers Seth Gordon (The King of Kong), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), and Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight).
Each short features a case study zeroing in on a set of data to find the root of causality-to find the meaning behind the variation.
Sound familiar?
To my knowledge the film never mentioned the phrase “root cause analysis,” but that is essentially what they were looking for. Case studies range from cheating in sumo wrestling to financial incentives within Chicago high schools.
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a class of problem solving methods aimed at identifying the root causes of problems or incidents. RCAis related to the term Six Sigma, a methodology using statistical analysis to improve quality. The goal is improving quality and productivity by eliminating. Six Sigma was big in the late ’80s and early ’90s in manufacturing.
But in the social web, variation can be beautiful and tell us amazing things about our products, services and business processes.
Since this is The B(l)akery, let’s look at three kitchen and food related inventions that were happy accidents caused by variation.
1. Coca-Cola
Dr. John Stith Pemberton, American pharmacist, soldier, and inventor created a very popular drink called the French Wine of Coca, containing French Bordeaux wine, coca leaves, and caffeine (from the kola nut). When alcohol was banned in 1885 in his hometown Atlanta he had to change the recipe. He added sugar, citric acid and essential oils of many fruits to the drink, and the original Coca-Cola was created. It was named for its main ingredients, coca leaves and the kola nut.
2. Potato Chips The potato chip was invented in 1853 by George Crum. Crum was a Native American/African American chef. French fries were popular at his restaurant. A customer complained his fries were too thick so a vindictive chef Crum served the customer fries that were too thin to eat with a fork (trying to make Gladys customer furious). But the customer actually loved his french fry variation and thus you have the invention of the potato chip.
3. Microwave Oven
The microwave oven was invented as an accidental by-product of World War 2 Raytheon engineer Dr. Percy LeBaron Spencer. Dr. Spencer used magnetrons–vacuum tubes that produce microwave radiation–and one day found his candy bar melted in his pocket. After experimenting, he realized that microwaves would cook foods quickly. The Raytheon Corporation produced the first commercial microwave oven in 1954; it was called the 1161 Radarange.
Variation in data leads to innovation.
More importantly it leads companies to the truth. It’s the truth about what the marketplace wants.
So Freakanomics reminds us there is truth hidden in the customer data, and the truth will set you free.
In episode 30 of hit HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Larry David hires a bald chef for his restaurant (see above clip). Larry is accused of giving bald people preferential treatment by Jeff Garlin his manager.
In response Larry accuses Jeff of giving fat people preferential treatment.
After watching this show I thought about how people, in addition to Jeff and Larry, have an affinity for people who look like them. And it’s true. Most of us want to hang out with people that have a common denominator with us. It’s of course not always physical appearance.
At the 2010 Social CRM Summit (May in Atlanta) produced by Mr. Godfather Paul Greenberg of BPT Partners one of the topics was “I want to be sold to someone like me.”
After I left the summit I thought more about why people want to be sold to someone like them, and how that relates to trust. On the airplane ride home I came across an older (but still relevant) article from Nielsen featuring a survey of 24,000 internet consumers from 50 countries.
What Nielsen found is ninety percent of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
I Trust Someone Like Me
So there might be some truth to Larry and Jeff’s perception of each other. We do gravitate toward “someone like me.” Makes sense. Why? I assume that you are your own number one. Who do you trust the most? Hopefully yourself! And this DOES NOT MEAN someone with the same cultural or religious background that I have. It just means someone I identify with–most of my friends are not from the same demographic as I am.
Co-Creation of Value and the Mercedes That Runs on Corn Oil
And yes you are nodding your heads saying “yah yah Blake, we’ve read about the trust barometer.” But so few companies have truly put their money where their mouth is. We as an industry, haven’t made peace with the new reality of an increasingly social customer. Social media will bring a seismic shift to the “management of the customer life cycle.” It’s important for the folks behind big brands to have their ear to the ground.
Companies need to listen for innovative ways customers are using their products.
For example watch this video below. I am sure these local farmers and grocers were shocked when their customer drove up to their parking lot n a car powered by rapeseed (also known as Brassica napus), soybean, mustard, flax, sunflower, canola, palm oil, waste vegetable oils and alcohol.
Who knew that natural crops could be turned into Biodiesel Fuel? I’m sure that the guy from this video didn’t initially buy alcohol to fuel up his 1500 dollar Mercedes.
While most of you who found this article on twitter know it’s not enough to have a “google alert” on a product or brand, our customers and the brands we shop haven’t clued in.
Brands need to be out scavenging the beautiful desert that is the world-wide-web. The good news is we no longer have to go to the ends of the earth to find out how products and services are being used.
Companies who listen can accrue a real wealth of business intelligence. And it’s only a click away.
***
For an introduction to social business tools and methodologies please join us for this free educational webinar sponsored by blueKiwi “Social Business: The Business of Being Social” on September 23rd, 2010 featuring Martin Schneider, Senior Director of Communications from SugarCRM and Jacob Morgan, Principal, Chess Media.
Last weekend I went to a dinner party at a friend’s house. Although the host went to great pains to cook decadent food, provide the perfect wine, and play great music, the party proved to be a disaster. The hosts of the party had two small children who were having a bad night. The misbehaving kids were severely disciplined in front of the guests. It made everyone uncomfortable and changed the entire mood of the meal.
Bringing in the Jewish New Year With Sweetness
I’m not saying that Jews don’t discipline their kids–they (we) do. But this week we focus our attention on all things sweet. We also focus on replenishing our palates.
In just under 24 hours Jews all over the world will bring in the new year and celebrate Rosh Hashanah by sitting around the dinner table and eating apples and honey. We indulge in apples and honey to bring in the Jewish New Year with something sweet.
That makes sense to me–>Sweet food puts everyone in a good mood!
If you don’t believe me look at these numbers. Companies with high employee engagement had a 19 percent increase in operating income and almost 28 percent growth in earnings per share in 2007-2008. At the same time four out of five workers are not living up to their full potential or doing what it takes to help their organization succeed. As told to me by Jacob Morgan, employers are not harnessing the full power of their workforce and achieving the performance lift that high engagement delivers.*
Service With A Smile: Yes Please!
When you walk into a happy house (or switch that out for company, division, team etc) you can immediately feel the good energy.
Making your employees feel valued is important. Energy is important. VERY important. It leads to engagement.
I know when I went dress shopping this weekend-and the sales girl was chipper–dress shopping became fun. The sales girls felt comfortable in the space they were selling in. They felt ownership over their selling process. They felt supported by the manager who was wandering the store letting her team do their thing.
It put them in a good mood. It put me in a good mood.
I now have a cute new rose colored dress, and they probably made their numbers for the night. Happiness has a domino effect. Just like most things it’s cultural and top-down.
Is your house warm and welcoming? If it isn’t perhaps you should bring your teams in something sweet this week to make them feel appreciated. May the new year be sweet for you, your employees and your customers.
The honey flows that way.
*Both research findings from Towers Perrin Global Report 2007-2008
On the plane-ride home from CRM Evo I was tired and happy–my mind was jogging over my favorite moments including the tweet-ups, panels, presentations, debates and new faces.
CRM Evolution, the conference co-located with SpeechTek produced by CRM Magazine, was even spicier than last year. This is largely the result of conference chair Paul Greenberg, hard work from the CRM Magazine team and an exciting line-up of speakers on “social CRM.”
All of that food for thought and soon enough I was a famished traveler.
Always a planner (at least when it comes to food) I grabbed an airport-purchased soft-boiled egg out of my bag. As I gently tapped the pristine shell on my tray and nibbled on my treat I daydreamed some more about social CRM.
As I enjoyed my perfect egg, an image of Gulliver from Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels(1726) popped into my head. Gulliver’s Travels is the story of two groups of miniature people, the Lilliputians and the Blefuscudians, who fight over which way to crack an egg.
In our effort to understand and define social CRM, we are spending more time acting like the Lilliputians and the Blefuscudians–debating the social CRM definition rather than connecting with the brands who have the specific business challenges.
I fear we are spending too much time fighting over definitions and theories, and we are losing time reaching out to the dirt poor. No not poor as in dollars. Poor in the sense that–if social business knowledge could be equated to dollars–there would be a great class disparity.
In this situation, poverty seems to be a result of very old legacy systems, cultures and command and control management. We can’t really blame them. Most executives have not been educated about the transformation that social business can bring to an organization and its ecosystem.
And rather than battling over the definition of social CRM, we will have more success focusing on the business challenges caused by obsolete internal technologies and processes. Soon enough the horse and buggy will collapse. While Henry Ford was obviously not a fan of VOC (voice of the customer), in social CRM we desperately need to talk to customers. Every industry, and specific organization, has different challenges. We need to find out what those are on an ongoing basis.
Putting Bread on the Table With Social Business
Do you feel you do a lot for free? I am sure that when your family members want a 101 session on social media, you are the first person they call. Are you like the local doctor who is constantly asked for free medical advice because of his profession.
And it’s expected–not just by family members who need to use Facebook for a school project. Solid free information is expected by our prospects and customers. The good news is we are eventually rewarded for providing relevant, timely and actionable information.
The popularity contest, as we knew it, is over. If you are still hiring Britney Spears marketers and sales people to hit prospects over the head “one more time” you will be greatly disappointed.
The word “blanket” can only be used to describe a member of the Michael Jackson family tree–not a marketing campaign.
So what does this mean? It means Britney Spears isn’t “avant garde.” You are. Avant garde literally means the “foremost part of any army advancing into battle.” But which battle are we fighting? The one against each other–or the larger battle against old school ways of thinking about corporate structures, customers and transactions.
In the battle to make sense of this newer phrase “social CRM” we are fighting the good fight! So why aren’t more brands willing to take the leap…now?
How can we expedite the adoption, or at least exploration, of social business strategy? Social business brings better work design, happier customers and overall healthier customer interactions.
Everyone wins!
When People Are Digging For Gold It Pays To Have Picks and Shovels
It’s no secret to anyone reading this blog that social business will eventually be a goldmine. And supposedly when people are digging for gold it pays to have picks and shovels…
So if it so obviously profitable, considering the effort to inspire interest and open mindedness, why does it feel like trying to get water from a stone?
The truth is as it stands social business vendors are still very ahead of the market. I would love to see more of what we saw at CRM Evo–a entire program (or track) devoted to social CRM inclusive of simplistic education. We need to deliver mass amounts of education to business people in a shorter amount of time.
You are saying “Blake! Easier said than done.”
Yes I agree with you. But instead of fighting over the definition of “social CRM,” I believe it’s time to get our armies organized and ready to fight the real battle–legacy systems and old school ways of thinking.
Check out this short video to get you in the zone of “carpe diem.” Let’s “seize the day” and start educating the market with intent.
Paul Greenberg, arguably the most important educator of our time on CRM, put some intelligent phrasing together in his ZDNetblog yesterday called “Sigh: CRM Is Not Dead, OK?”:
….its an evolutionary time for CRM – thus the rise of Social CRM, which is a program designed for engaging customers in a changing business world. And it has a direct impact on the customer experience if done well – or if done poorly.
There are enough battles right now taking place regarding CRM, let alone social CRM. We are lucky to have people like Paul who are spear-heading this movement, and spending time with other people to help them understand social CRM.
By teaching through story-telling, we can educate more brands and practitioners. While no one really remembers Michael Gilbert, author of How to Win AnArgument, his ideas have been used many times over. If you want to make a point, tell a story. We learn through stories.
Most of us want to see how our peers were able to achieve results–from a tactical perspective. Everyone has business challenges right now–let’s get our hands dirty.
Instead of fighting over which way to crack the egg, we can provide timely, relevant and simplistic information to inspire companies to change their thinking–to leverage social to make our companies more agile, internally healthy and proactive with customers.
We agree that this sea change is inevitable, right? So let’s crack the egg, and bring the goods to the public.
