Remember classic puzzles like “What’s wrong with this picture?” from Highlights Magazine? Tell me, what’s wrong with this picture:
Yes that’s right, clowns and coffee don’t go together, particularly this clown. We seem to know that instinctively, yet the blogosphere reports that we are apparently ignoring sound instinct in the name of price. The Clown is cheaper than Starbucks, and so we are enticed away from something of known, predictable quality to something, shall we say, less predictable.
McTreachery
Despite being a loyal Starbucks customer, last week I too swung by the local golden arches for a McLatte. Here’s how it went down at the drive-up’s McSpeaker box (imagine Charlie Brown’s teacher’s voice as you read the McSpeaker’s part):
McSpeaker: Hello, may I take your order?
Me: Yes, I’d like a medium cafe latte with skim milk.
McSpeaker: Would you like whole or non-fat milk?
Me: Non-fat please.
McSpeaker: Hot or Cold?
Me: Hot.
McSpeaker: That will be $2.39. Please pull around.
So far so good, despite my deliberate avoidance of the word “McLatte” or my faux pas of asking for skim rather than non-fat McMilk. I pull around to window #1, pay and receive my change, and proceed to window #2. At window #2 I wait an eternity for the window to open. Eventually a young, ponderously pierced McDude opens the window and presents me with a see-through plastic cup holding a milky substance with ice cubes in it. A new dialogue ensues:
Me: I’m sorry, this should have been made as a hot latte. (said very politely)
McDude: Uh…really?
Me: Yes. (The petulant McDude now checks the overhead order display for confirmation.)
McDude: Uh…OK…one minute.
As I settle in for another eternal wait, my server surprisingly appears in less than 20 seconds with the proper looking drink: a brown paper McCup with a black plastic McLid. I drive away, yet something seems wrong. The cup should be warm even though there’s a McSleeve to prevent me from suing them over a burned hand. One sip, and I realized I’ve just been had. The devious McDude has poured the cold latte into a different cup and simply ditched the ice cubes. Surely there must be something in the Geneva Conventions about messing with a person’s morning caffeine fix. Where is Jackie Chiles when you need him?
So, disgusted but realizing I should have known better, I pointed my truck toward Starbucks. I paid a little more, but got exactly what I asked for with exactly the quality I was expecting.
The McLesson
Clearly, coffee is not Ronnie Mac’s forté. This was not my first failed attempt at getting a fancy coffee McDrink though I’ve tried on multiple occasions. Each and every time they have either botched it badly or been visibly irritated to have to break their burger making ritual in order to do obeisance at the latte machine. They pretty much bat 1.000 on the burgers though, because that’s what they’re really good at.
The lesson? Stick to what you do well and let the rest to somebody else, because you can’t do everything well. Not even if you have the deep pockets of Ronnie Mac. Industry type doesn’t matter either, as history shows us that Novell made this same mistake in 1994 when they bought WordPerfect. They strayed away from what they did best at the time (file and print sharing), got into applications, and everything went downhill from there. Their slow descent into mediocrity is well chronicled, but it all started when they took their eyes off of what they were really good at. Tragically, they are not alone.
R.I.P. Wordperfect. We knew thee well.
McApplication
There are only so many things you or your business can do with excellence – probably less than four – and usually only one in which you can truly excel. If, like the vast majority of businesses today, yours is a consumer of IT infrastructure rather than a provider, it will quite naturally be difficult and more expensive for you to try to deliver IT as effectively as a professional provider can. There is simply too much to know. It may even be a major annoyance like the McLatte machine. Why? Because it’s not your sweet spot. Your strengths will suffer while you’re focusing on things best delegated to others.
Servers, storage, networking infrastructure continue to evolve into increasingly more complex creatures. Unless IT is the sweet spot of your business, it doesn’t make sense to try to keep chasing infrastructure on your own, for much the same reasons you don’t keep factory-trained mechanics on staff to fix company cars. It’s too much, too costly and certainly not worth it. IT is no different. You absolutely need to have technology in your business, but there is no reason to bear the burden of it yourself.
Like Starbucks, professional IT providers may cost a fistful of dollars or just a few dollars more, but the results are reliable, predictable, and therefore very much worth it because it frees you to focus on what you do best. Just make sure your IT provider doesn’t start selling coffee.
Why the movie references to Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More? Well it turns out that Clint Eastwood’s most famous line came after a bad cup of Joe. If gun violence offends you, please don’t go here, otherwise…take a three minute action coffee break with Dirty Harry.
//spk
