Universal card in your phone

The phone card is starting to roll out, Rick Broida explains

Today, that tool is Starbucks Card Mobile, a free iPhone app that kicks physical cards to the curb.

Well, almost. The app was initially designed to help you manage actual Starbucks cards. You could check your balance, reload depleted cards, and view your transaction history.

When everyone starts to accepts a phone scan of a credit card for payment, the journey to the dark side will be complete.

The rise of lentils

I grew up on lentils, peas and garbanzo beans. I thought they were part of everyone's diet. They are tasty, easy to prepare and every versatile. I love them on rice, pasta, with or without meat sauce and they go with fish.

Blake's AP article highlights the growing trend,

Lentils are a hot topic among gourmets these days, with recipes for them popping up in most major food magazines.

Lentil and other legume farmers hope to capitalize on this interest and convince consumers and food producers to use them in breads and cookies as well as the more traditional soups and stews. To do this, they've formed a new marketing venture aimed at promoting the health and other benefits of lentils, dry peas, garbanzo beans and other so-called "pulse" crops.

Passion is the secret.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter's guide to understanding passion,

To determine whether your passion matches your aspirations, try these 12 questions.

1. Do I feel strongly about the need for this?

2. Does the idea fit my long-held beliefs, values, and convictions?

3. Have I dreamed about something like this for a long time?

4. Do I think that this is vital for the future of people I care about?

5. Do I get excited when I think about it, and convey excitement when I talk about it?

6. Am I convinced that this can be accomplished?

7. Am I willing to put my credibility on the line to promise action on it?

8. Am I willing to spend time to sell it to others who might not understand or support it?

9. Can I make this the major focus of my activities?

10. Am I willing to devote personal time, above and beyond organizational time, to see that this happens?

11. Do I feel strongly enough to ignore negativity and fight for this?

12. Am I committed to seeing this through, over the long haul?

Passing the passion test is doesn't guarantee success, but without it, the journey can't even begin.

Looking to Sketch a restaurant

Dave Johnson introduces a new iphone app.

if you have an iPhone and you find yourself feeling hungry, you can zero in on dinner without typing a single character.

Yahoo! Sketch centers you on a map and then invites you to sketch a search zone with your finger [iTunes link]. Draw a circle around your current location, or an oval along the highway, or any geometric search parameter that suits you, and Yahoo quickly returns a list of restaurants in the area.

This is how people find you in the 21st century. Are you ready to WOW them when they walk in?

Chocolate is good, who knew?

Another day another wonderful study confirming the beneficial effects of consuming chocolate.
Maria Cheng reports in the Tribune,

According to a new study, small doses of chocolate every day could decrease your risk of having a heart attack or stroke by nearly 40 percent.

Have you had your chocolate today?

Only a thousand days left

Today is 3/27/2010, by my math that means there are 1000 days until 12/21/2012. Entrepreneurs have been struggling through the Great Recession, decrease customers counts, lower check average, low employee morale, horrific customer satisfaction surveys and a general malaise in the economy for what seems an eternity. The good news if you believe the dire predictions of the "end times," is that this will soon be over.

:)

Earth Hour

What are you doing tonight at 8:30pm?

This planet is the only home we will ever have. Let's help it stay habitable. Our lives depend upon it.

Economic round up

GDP was up 5.6% in the fourth quarter, did anyone notice?
The roads, stores and restaurants look empty to me.

Subway is serving breakfast.

Starbucks is paying a dividend.

Darden is reducing its price incentive promotions.

That about covers it, at least it is Spring.

Beer sweet beer

Joshua Lurie introduces a trend in desserts, beer;

in Southern California, beer is even finding its way into desserts, as pastry chefs use it to make dishes that are not only sweet but also have layered textures and flavors that wouldn't be possible otherwise. What started with quirky beer and ice cream floats has now spread to shakes, cakes, gelato, fritters and even candy.

Spring in the blossom of a flower

The vernal equinox occurred on March 20 at 5:32pm Greenwich Mean Time, however Spring officially arrived today as the forsythia in front of my house bloomed.

Welcome Spring!

Does organic benefit outwiegh the costs and is organic sustainable?

Julie weighs in on the organic food debate

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the National Organic Program, says that organic is a “production philosophy” and an organic label should does not imply that a product is superior. Moreover, some say there’s no need to eat organic to be healthy: Simply choose less processed food and more fruits and vegetables.

The crux of the argument often comes down to the nutritional benefits of organic foods, something that’s hard to measure. To compare the nutrient density between organically and conventionally grown grapes, for example, researchers would have to have matched pairs of fields, including using the same soil, the same irrigation system, the same level of nitrogen fertilizer and the same stage of ripeness at harvest, said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at The Organic Center, a pro-organics research institution.

There are multiple complex issues here. One, the need to feed seven billion people daily; Two, sustainability of production methods; Three, overall impact on the environment; Four, sustainable business model.

Michael Specter in his book "Denialism" purports that the popular culture disdain of all things chemical flies in the face of reality. The improvement in the human life span has been largely due to chemical assistance in food production and disease eradication.

On the individual level, it is a cost and information decision. What is your definition of organic and what is the alternative if you do not buy organic?

On a business level, having a business model that utilizes organic can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace if you can sustain the source.

On a geopolitical level it is not possible to feed seven billion people organically.

The geopolitical will override all other considerations. You can a have large niche of organic products, however the future is in plastics, chemicals and nanotubes.

Have you hugged your chef this week?

Well you should!

Chicago Chef Week

Water everywhere?

Treehugger's great image about water.

Restaurants should not serve plastic bottled water ever and every process should involve conservation.

Reflections on a bridge

Bridges in the city of Chicago are wonderful places because they provide a scenic grand view. One should not shuffle papers, search out lost items in a pocket or fumble with your phone while crossing the bridge. The unintended results of such activity is never positive. Experience teaches many lessons, the most essential is patience.

Sandra Jones' article makes clear that the economy is sailing in very uncharted and treacherous waters.

Retail sales in the Chicago metropolitan market fell 8.7 percent, to $92.9 billion, in 2009 from the year before, marking the biggest annual decline since at least 1985, when Chicago-based Melaniphy began tracking the figures. The dismal performance follows a 4.8 percent drop in 2008, a record decrease at the time, the report said...

The restaurant and bar scene, by far the largest retail category in the city, was particularly hard hit as fewer business executives dined out, tourism waned and more people ate at home. Sales at drinking and eating places in the city fell by $270 million, or 5.4 percent, to $4.7 billion.

Patience

Teachers Everywhere

Alan Webber's book "52 Rules of Thumb" offers this rule which I hope everyone will adapt.

Stay Alert! There are teachers everywhere

tax the heck out of unhealthy foods

Here is a gamechanger for you!

The researchers say their findings suggest that the taxes were more effective than subsidies. This conclusion doesn't surprise Karlan. He sites the theory of loss aversion: "People are just more responsive to price increases than decreases."

Karlan says a "sin tax" — charging more for unhealthful foods — would not change families' diets or approach to nutrition overnight. But it could serve as a first step in raising awareness of bad habits, alerting us to the kinds of things we choose to snack on.

Pizza Wars in NYC

Stunning as it seems there is a pizza war in New York,

The shops are two of a growing number of New York delis and pizzerias offering $1 slices, a phenomenon that has delighted, dismayed and disturbed pizza lovers, food bloggers and rival pizzeria owners while defying a basic fundamental of the city’s economy — charging as much as you can whenever and wherever you can.

About 15 eateries around the city now sell dollar slices of pizza. The owners of 99¢ Fresh and 2 Bros. have turned bargain pizza into a business model: There are four 99¢ Fresh shops in Manhattan, and four 2 Bros., too. Next month, 99¢ fresh will open its fifth shop on 34th Street near Third Avenue

A solution to every complaint

Margaret Heffernan details how to find solutions to every complaint,

I introduced a rule: all complaints to me had to be accompanied by at least one proposed solution.

The rule was a big success. Here’s why:

• It made people consider why things were the way they were, and what the costs of fixing them might be. Many aspects of a business aren’t perfect but just aren’t worth fixing. The cost, in terms of time, attention and resources, is too high, the return too slight. But it takes time for a leader to explain that, and it’s better if your employees figure it out for themselves. They learn to prioritize, just as you have had to.
• It helped me, as the chief executive, distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Nothing is more important in running a business than creating an environment in which everyone feels welcome to raise questions, concerns and doubts. If you create the conditions in which legitimate concerns are raised easily, each employee is an early warning system. But you want everyone focused on fixing the faults that have real impact.
• It generated good ideas. Instead of my software engineers complaining that the sales team made impossible promises, they asked to go on sales calls to ensure promises were practical. That didn’t just save a lot of anger and disappointment; it meant we could also offer easy product enhancements the sales team had never dreamed of.
• It made every employee act and feel like an owner. They took responsibility for a business they felt invested in, rather than behaving like whining children.

Who v how many.

Seth's philosophy offers a business model for everyone,

In the race between 'who' and 'how many', who usually wins--if action is your goal. Find the right people, those that are willing to listen to what you have to say, and ignore the masses that are just going to race on, unchanged.