The Weekly Impeachment Update

A 2016 twitter poll revealed that a misguided 60.7% of people prefer to peel a peach rather than eat the (yummy) fuzzy skin.

These are probably the same people who think that the peach emoticon looks like a bum.

Or who also frequently use scandalous emoticons in their messages to their attractive friends, spouse and co-workers.

Almost as arousing, and one of the earlier contributors to food porn was Lucky Peach Magazine, launched in part by Chef David Chang (who is all over streaming services). It was for 6 years a breathtaking, outrageous and unexpected innovator. From attributing the success of American cuisine to gay culture, to entire editions devoted to Pho, Lucky Peach did things like accepting just 1 page of advertising per issue. And it was successful, generating a fan base left adrift by its abrupt and mysterious demise.

Lucky Peach did what many of us in business want to do – to innovate and differentiate itself from a slew of lookalike competitors.

According to HBR, the most innovative organizations exhibit five key behaviors:

1. They always assume there’s a better way to do things.

2. They focus on deeply understanding customers’ stated and unstated needs and desires.

3. They collaborate across and beyond the organization, actively cross-pollinating.

4. They recognize that success requires experimentation, rapid iteration and frequent failure.

5. Last, they empower people to take considered risks, voice dissenting opinions and seek needed resources.

One of the more fun ways to motivate innovative thinking is through the Marshmallow Challenge. This is where teams of four are given 18 minutes, some spaghetti, a length of string and a bit of tape, then are challenged to build a structure that lifts the marshmallow as high above the ground as possible. The surprising (to some) part is that business school graduates typically perform significantly below average while Kindergarten graduates perform significantly above average. Their secret is rapid prototyping. While the biz school grads work towards one well thought out solution, the kids keep trying things and build on what works and abandon what doesn’t.

One of the challenges we face at Stormy Lake is that the work we do and the processes we use are eminently duplicatable. The only way to maintain a competitive advantage is to keep learning and keep innovating.

We live a philosophy that on every project we try something new. Sometimes it is a little thing or a process fix, and other times it’s a big thing. Then we discuss what worked, what didn't and what we would do better next time. We remain energized and focused on continual adaptation and improvement.

For example, we tried to replace a marshmallow with a barbecued peach in a s’more. It didn’t really work. But a toasted marshmallow on an (unpeeled) barbecued peach – that was peachy.

So, if we receive a text from you that says “peachy,” we’ll know you’re complimenting this weekly update, not uh, you know.

Stay safe. Stay strong. Don’t text and drive.