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The Banana Of Progress

21 January 2018

Do you like fruit? Do you like mixing soft fruit with green veg? If you do …then you probably have a smoothie maker lurking in the kitchen.

It’s the only way you can mix kale and cranberries with a clear conscience. Any other form of culinary conjoining is probably adventurous and yet a bit misguided. Kale makes your smoothie go green too, for an added alien cook book look.

I have a smoothie maker now thanks to post Christmas exuberance. How I’ve managed to survive for over 40 years without blended greens and berries is something of a mystery. I am hoping that being late to the party isn’t going to cause a problem for my longevity. Although I have promised myself that, in order to maintain a healthy perspective on healthy eating, at least every tenth smoothie will be based around a Mars bar.

Which brings me to the banana of progress.

I’ve noticed that bananas comprise the largest part of a Rich-smoothie. They add bulk and fibre and taste and essential nutrients, such as potassium.

If we take our delicious smoothie, whizz it up into a business metaphor and decant it into our thinking, we can think about the ingredients which make our business a success.

And the point of focussing on bananas, as the single biggest element, is to prod our thinking to work out what is our single biggest contributor to success?

Is it brand reputation? Low cost? Impeccable service? Unique products? Handmade individuality?

A decent smoothie has many ingredients and whilst goji berries are meant to be good for you, we still need our faithful banana to make it a viable product. (Nobody really knows what a goji berry is, what it does, or where it comes from. They must be pure magic. There is a smoothie conspiracy out there amongst chefs, I’m sure).

Bananas are not as glamorous as specialist mystery berrries and it would be easy to forget them in the rush to add exotica to our breakfast comestibles.

The same applies to our business. If high class service is our ‘banana of progress’ powering our business along, then we need to audit our performance to make sure it’s still doing what we think it is. If standards have slipped then our banana has been lost to us and we’re heading for trouble.

So, this week we can all have a delicious smoothie and ponder what really drives our business. Then we can measure that element and make sure it’s kept firmly in view.

And if you’ve been affected by my reckless use of fruit and veg in this blog, or have issues related to goji berries please don’t write in. Just chuck in some chocolate when you next make a smoothie and the world will feel a better place again.

Next week: Hold The Boundary