The proof is in the pudding...

You know the scene. Someone nods knowingly, smiles and then says : "The proof is in the pudding."

Now unless that is yet another corny and macabre joke during the opening sequence of a CSI episode, it makes no sense. What proof is in the pudding? And why is it in the pudding?

The correct version of the expression is actually : "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." This makes a lot more sense. You are only really able to determine if the pudding is a masterpiece once you have tasted it. That is the test, that is the measurement of success.

The proverb can be traced back to the 1300's and was popularised by Cervantes' Don Quixote in 1605.

What does this have to do with your business?

Simply, when the proverb was coined - it made sense. It had a meaning, people understood it. Over time, the expression was still used but it had changed. Some people may have known that it was incorrect, some people may have applied the meaning of the original expression to this new one. If you look at the expression with no understanding though, it is meaningless.

This could be said for a lot of business processes. When the process was developed it made sense. Over time though the process has been altered, it reason for existing may have changed or people may simply not understand why the process is there.

It is very important to regularly review your business processes and the challenge the status quo. If you are fortunate to have your processes documented, review them and ask yourself these simple questions :

1. Why is this process performed?


2. Do I still need to perform this process?


3. Does this process actually achieve what it was desgined to?

If you answer "Yes" to all those questions, keep the process. If the answer is "No", then you might need to redesign the process or throw it out all together. If you have not documented your business processes, get started - it is part of your organization's value.

Customer communication is vital

It was not that long ago that areas of Johannesburg, South Africa were regularly plunged into darkness. The reason, rolling blackouts instituted by the electricity supplier Eskom. The cause, not enough electricity production to meet the demand.

It was a number of events that led to this position, one being that generation capacity had been severely hampered by a number of generation failures. Another being that total demand had been steadily growing over time while the total generation capacity had not. Long story short - business and political disaster.

Eskom struggled to communicate to its customers when these blackouts would occur, how long they would last, if the blackout currently in an area was a scheduled one or an actual fault. It was ludicrous.

Then appeals to all - do your bit! Save electricity, don't leave the TV on, install ripple switches on your geyser, consumers of bulk electricity such as mines must curtail operations, no new houses may be built unless they have solar heaters for water and maybe even gas ovens and stove tops. Also, electricity tariffs will have to be increased to pay for more generation capacity.

Hooray! The problem seems to be rectified. No blackouts for some time.

Then today Eskom announce so more news. Due to the drop in electricity consumption (partly due to a downturn in the economy and probably partly due to everyone trying to save electricity) the electricity tariffs will have to be increased.

Excuse me?

This illustrates how important it is to make sure your customers are not in the dark (please pardon the pun, but I think you will agree it would have been irresponsible of me not to use it). It also shows how important long term strategy is - but that is another discussion for another day. By communicating properly with your customer and being transparent on the basis of decisions you create trust.

Why is it important to create trust? Simple. People pay for it.

Good packaging!

Good packaging and good marketing can mean the difference between success and failure. And more expensive does not necessarily mean better.

There is a coffee shop in the building I work in. Instead of following the practice of other coffee shops in our area of having a happy hour where coffee is half price, they package their deal slightly differently. During happy hour when you order your coffee, you flip a coin and call it in the air. If you are right the coffee is FREE and if you are wrong then you pay the regular price.

Based on probability theory, over time all coffee sold in that hour will work out to half price. So the coffee shop is not losing any money over time. Patrons get a cheap thrill hoping to get their coffee for free. If they do, Hurray! If not, well you pay normal price - no big loss.

But on the plus side for the coffee shop, if I was buying coffee at that time of the day, I would try my luck. The outcome is that they could attract more customers by offering the exact option as their competition, just in different packaging.

So the question is, what are you doing to attract customers?

Recession or Natural Selection?

Recession is not necessarily a dirty word. In fact, there is actually an upside in recession - you just have to look for it. For consumers, the upside is that businesses which offer poor service, have higher prices or incapable management tend to fade into obscurity.

The natural selection enforced by recession forces these businesses to fold and remaining are healthy businesses which should allow the economy to prosper when the tide turns.

There has been much debate around the bail out of the motor manufacturers. Based on the analogy above, I would liken the bail out to messing with the natural order of things. Yes, many jobs are at risk but long term you really are not doing the global economy a favour. Other motor manufacturers who run more efficient companies should have benefited by a massive boost in market share, they deserved it and it has been denied them.

If you run your own small to medium size business, bail outs are not your concern but the lesson is still there. Aim to be more efficient, offer better service and you could find yourself gaining market share and even being a more profitable enterprise. This does not always mean spending less, it really means spending wisely.