Are you a Papa Murphy’s lover? I am. The company is based near me, so I see some interesting tidbits in the local paper. Papa Murphy saw sales increase 13% in 2007. Great, but what caught my eye was this, “The privately held company also tapped into its loyal customer base to help in the pizza development department.

This summer, Papa Murphy’s hosted 63 regular customers at its headquarters near Westfield Vancouver mall to taste-test several new concepts. An industry analyst was shocked at the bold move when he first heard.

But after thinking about it for a moment, he said it actually made perfect sense since Papa Murphy’s has always operated outside the traditional business mold.

Right. Shocked because the company asked its customers, instead of a panel of “taste experts” and a marketing poll.

What’s the world coming to when listening to your customers and actually soliciting their input is considered “a bold move?”

If that’s “outside the mold” then I wish a lot more companies would start doing it!

How does your company/business innovate?

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Image: ian_ransley

Being at the forefront and engaging the minds and hearts of others isn’t limited to people, companies and ideas themselves can lead, whether long-term or in the instance.

Three cheers for Alice Waters and her restaurant Chez Panisse.

The leader in all things sustainable, organic and environmental has stopped selling bottled water.

It’s about time a high profile business took the lead on this.

The restaurant used to sell about 25,000 bottles a year. Now Chez Panisse filters and serves tap, flat or carbonated, in a glass carafe for free.

Alice Waters isn’t the only one, but she carries a lot of weight among foodies and water buyers

A New York Times editorial last August contributed to objections. San Francisco in July banned spending of public funds on the product, and New York City is encouraging people to refill containers. Chicago this month imposed a 5-cents-a- bottle tax. Many restaurants in the U.S. still serve tap to guests, which is unusual in Europe.

I’ve never been a bottled water person, especially considering how much of it is plain old tap water.

Nestle, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola control 60 percent of the U.S. bottled water market, and use municipal supplies for three of the four biggest brands, Aquafina, Dasani and the Swiss company’s Pure Life.

So take a hint from Alice Waters, who’s forgotten more about food and drink than most of us will ever know and switch to a refillable container filter your own water.

Stay healthy!
Check the number in the triangle on the bottom of water bottles and
all plastic containers.
Keep if the number is 1 or 7 and
send numbers 2, 4 and 5 to recycle heaven.

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It’s not my fault that this post is so late. After all that talk about procrastination I thought it was about time that I knocked a few of the repeater items off the list for awhile—stuff like vacuuming, dusting, etc. Egad, I actually fixed my pants—not because I mentioned it yesterday, but because it got cold.These were supposed to be food for Sunday thought, so you’ll have to find some other time to mull on them.

• When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as thought you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. –Harriet Beecher Stowe

• A woman is like a tea bag—you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. –Eleanor Roosevelt

What is the favorite quote that keeps you going?

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Not sure who to vote for? Wondering who to promote? Trying to evaluate the best candidate for CEO? It’s easy to choose, just vote/promote/hire the best jaw line.

A strong chin, that Hollywood staple, may also be a plus for aspiring CEOs. That’s the conclusion of New York plastic surgeon Darrick Antell, who presented his highly anecdotal evidence at the recent 2007 World Congress on Liposuction Surgery and Advances in Cosmetic Surgery in Dubai. Antell drew a line from the nose tip to the chin on photos of 42 CEOs from 2005’s top 50 Fortune 500 companies. Some 90% (including Carly Fiorina, then Hewlett-Packard’s CEO) showed nonreceding-to-prominent chins, vs. 40% of the U.S. population. People equate such jawlines with confidence and character, says Antell, who performed 20 chin augmentations in 2007. (Topping out at $7,500, the surgery’s a bargain compared with, say, a $92,000 MBA from Harvard.) Some dynamos have “deficient” chins, Antell admits. But most are entrepreneurs. When it’s time to pick a top manager, the one with the Superman jaw gets the job.

So now you know how to make that all important voting/promoting/hiring decision. And, for those not yet at those lofty levels the choice is clearer still—start a company or get a chin augmentation.

Whose chin would you vote for or like to hire?

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New for 2008 is a category to cover all the things that are done, often under the guise of leadership, by people who ought to know better—actions that are illegal, immoral, unethical, etc.—and not just the ones that make the front page. I’ll do my best to avoid subjective judgments and promise to clearly label those that are.

So, first up.

Who always considers themselves leaders in their communities? Doctors.

Who always presents themselves as taking the ethical high road? Doctors.

Which medical profession is the most highly paid? Invasive Cardiology with average earnings of $460,000.

For the heart surgeons from Cardiovascular Surgical Associates, Oct. 17, 2002, was another typically busy morning, with three bypass surgeries in three operating rooms at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene.
In OR 16, Dr. David Duke started his coronary artery bypass grafting, known as CABG, at 8:20 a.m. His colleague, Dr. Richard Hicks, was listed as the assistant surgeon on the case, according to federal investigators’ records.
Over in OR 15, another member of the practice, Dr. Stanley Baldwin started a bypass surgery at 8:24 a.m. Dr. Hicks was listed as the assistant on the case, the records show.
And in OR 3, Dr. Rob Burnett was the primary surgeon on yet another CABG, starting at 8:25 a.m. Assisting on the case: Dr. Hicks.
How Hicks was able to assist three different surgeries going on simultaneously in three different operating rooms is unclear. But that practice was repeated on other days, with different combinations of doctors listed as primary and assistant surgeons on cases going on at the same time, the federal records show.
This pattern of overlapping, intertwined surgeons and their assistants appears to be central to the federal government’s long-running investigation into four Eugene heart surgeons: Drs. Duke, Baldwin, Hicks, who is now retired, and Warren Glover. Dr. Burnett left the practice in 2003 to work in Idaho and has not been implicated in the case.

Anyone who watches Grey’s Anatomy knows that assisting on a surgery means being hands-on in the OR, but according to

“Donald Diment, a Eugene attorney representing Glover, said the surgery times listed on paper can be misleading, and that it doesn’t necessarily mean the surgeon is standing at the operating table. In the long haul, all of us believe strongly our clients will be exonerated.”

But that was then and this is now.

On December 28, 2007, the four agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle the allegations, but, of course, none of them admitted liability or wrong doing.

Do stories such as this annoy/disgust/revolt you? Have you seen a leadership breach in your own community?

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Here’s a great sentiment for all of us this year. Print it out and tape it where you can’t miss it—you probably won’t need it right away, but it’s ability to inspire will increase dramatically as the year goes on!

What are you doing to break out of your box this year?

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I’ve added a new category for 2008 that I think will prove interesting for you to read—and for me to write, which is always an important consideration.

Being at the forefront and engaging the minds and hearts of others isn’t limited to people, companies and ideas themselves can lead, whether long-term or in the instance.

Leading factors will look at these, some serious, some a bit light-hearted and some downright silly. They’ll all be grist for the leading factors mill.

We’ll start with Sgts. First Class Budge and Boe, shortly deploying to Iraq as the Army’s first therapy dogs for soldiers in combat.

The two black Labrador retrievers will be stationed with the Army’s combat stress units in Tikrit and Mosul. Their role? To help soldiers deal with the stress of fighting overseas. According to occupational therapist Sgt. Jack Greene, “The major thing is, they are going to help us knock down the stigma around mental health.”

Having lived in San Francisco I remember when the SFSPCA started training volunteers in Animal Assisted Therapy. AAT has made an amazing difference in thousands of lives and it’s nice to know that it will soon be helping in Iraq.

Do you know someone who has benefited from AAT? Do you have a leading factor story to share?

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The Challenge

Kay’s finally settling into her role as entrepreneur. She’s enjoyed hearing success stories from others, learning new tips and techniques and gaining advice from this great group of business bloggers at b5. Her days are full and she rarely has time to sift through the volumes of content on the web. So, she asks you: if she only read one post ever on b5’s Business Channel, what would it be?

Congratulations, Kay! You came through this holiday season with flying colors and your KidChef products are still selling like crazy. By mail and email, every day brings glowing letters from parents and kids about how much they like them and how they never thought cooking together could be this much fun.

Your kids love telling all their friends about them and your daughter even insisted on wearing hers to school on show and tell day. Even your husband is impressed at how fast your business is growing and how well you’re handling it.

You weren’t sure at the beginning that you could do it, but now you know that you can make KidChef into a real business selling across the country and maybe even internationally. Who knows, maybe even a spot on the Food Channel. The possibilities are dazzling and you can’t wait to make them all happen.

And that’s why, beyond all the great advice, how-to’s and information available to you I want you to read 1st Surefire Way to Sink Your Start-Up over at Small Business Boomers. (Yes, I know you’re not a Boomer, but read it anyway:)

You see, Kay, you’re facing one of the most dangerous things that can happen to an entrepreneur—run away success. This kind of success often gives rise to, as it’s called in Silicon Valley, founder ego—the underlying belief that since you were smart enough to think of the idea and take it this far you’re smarter than your advisors and employees. Not a good way to move forward.

So, read Jim’s wise words and feel free to give me a call at 866.265.7267 if you’d like to discuss it further.

Have you every succumbed to founder ego? Or worked for/with someone who did?

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A friend who is in stealth mode for his startup took a moment out of his 18-hour day (no exaggeration) and sent me the following, the first is advice to me and the rest is for Kay.

Miki, be more of a firebrand and iconoclast (gee, I’m usually told to be less of these:) in this and I think you’ll have more fun at the exercise.

If Mark Twain could give advice to an entrepreneur: (I’m channeling Samuel Clemens)

Like remodels, startups cost 3X your budget and take 2X your time estimate.

Play rugby, not Football: everyone must punt, tackle, pass, catch

Marry up. Hire people 5x better than you at what THEY do.

Like 3 year olds, be passionate, humble, impatient, grateful…daily.

Like gypsies, channel your customer.

Superb advice, I recommend it to everybody, not just entrepreneurs.

If this post seems out of place this week then you haven’t been following our b5 Apprentice Challenge. I have to post this today if I intend to stay in the running for (sound of trumpets, roll of drums) an honest-to-goodness b5media T-shirt! Can you think of any better motivation?

And no more team (my team took four out of the first five Challenges <smirk>) it’s me on my own, but you can help by voting for me at Tax Girl (or for the other contestants if you’re mad at me:), my editor-cum-judge’s blog.

The background is that Kay, the intrepid entrepreneur, had a blowout Christmas season thanks to our fabulous advice (details at the first link) and now I need to give her the best business advice I can in 50 words or less.

Obviously, this advice will be of just as much use to all of you as it is to Kay.

So without more ado here’s the best business advice you’ll ever receive (in 43 words)

• Spend less than you make;
• under promise and over deliver;
• never be afraid to ask;
• hire people smarter than you, listen to them and then make your own decision;
• treat your customers the way you want to be treated; and
• plan tactically and strategically

That’s it, practice these six actions every day and I guarantee that your business will flourish!