Doug Cartland's Four-Minute Leadership Advisory
Vibrations
Doug Cartland
Doug Cartland, Inc.
10/27/2015

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I might be done with Panera Bread.
Something happened recently that is so devastating, so unworldly, so out of the spectrum of anything I thought possible.
I just don't think I can go into that place again.
You see, Panera Bread has done away with...yellow mustard.
Oh they still have that Dijon-like stuff, you know that darker, spicier, counterfeit mustard.
But the yellow is gone...
You just don't understand.
I order one thing and one thing only from Panera Bread. Or I did, anyway. And, yes, my daughter makes fun of me for it. I've got it down pat; been ordering it for years:
"I'll have a ham and Swiss on rye, only I'd like American cheese instead of Swiss please. And I'd like it plain," I say it slowly so as not to baffle the cashier.
"Nothing on it?" comes the inquiry from behind the counter.
"Right," I respond.
Then comes the check list of ingredients.
"No lettuce?"
"Correct."
"No tomatoes?"
"Right."
"No onions?"
"Nope."
"Plain then," she says.
"Yes, plain," I repeat.
"Except for the ham and American cheese," she somehow feels the need to confirm.
"Um yes, I would like the ham and American cheese on my sandwich."
"Ok."
"And I'll have some chips on the side and a medium drink."
"Ok." She does the final calculations, I pay my bill, she hands me my little red light buzzy pager thing that will jolt me and anyone in a four table radius when my food is ready.
In the meantime, I grab my drink and stroll over to the condiments and get myself two packets of yellow mustard.
Food comes out, I find a table, squeeze one packet of mustard per half a sandwich, pour my chips on my plate, sip my drink and open my book. Indeed, a pleasurable thirty minutes is about to commence.
But not anymore.
I walked into Panera last week. Did everything I had done before. Only when I went to the condiment table, there was no yellow mustard.
"Uh," I approached an employee, "I don't see any yellow mustard."
This revelation was apparently so startling that she...blinked. Then she looked over the condiment table. She began rummaging through cabinets. She found none.
She went to the manager. The manager told her that they had discontinued it. The employee relayed the disastrous news to me. I felt my world crumbling.
"Surely, you must have yellow mustard here somewhere," I stumbled broken hearted.
The employee saw my bewilderment. Tough to miss.
She suggested mayo, or the Dijon-like fake mustard or a new concoction that she said was "really good."
I gave her a deep and painful sigh, thanked her for her efforts, picked up two packets of the Dijon-like fake mustard and staggered over to my table. I squeezed some out on my sandwich, made a face and took a bite. It was as bad as I feared. God-awful.
Now, of course, it would be quite egocentric of me to think that Panera Bread should have consulted with the likes of me before they decided to off yellow mustard. I'm sure they did all of their cost and marketing analysis before they decided on such a dramatic mistake...umm...move.
But this little story helps illustrate the vibrations caused by decisions that leaders make. It's vital that we anticipate where all of those vibrations will scurry to before we make the decisions we make.
I'll bet the powers that be at Panera didn't know that their decision would cost them a picky, narrow minded when it comes to food, stuck in his ways twice a month customer in small town southern Wisconsin.
But it did.

On the other hand, this could be good for me. Now there's one less thing for my daughter to make fun of me about.
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Sincerely,  

Doug

 

Doug Cartland, President
Doug Cartland, Inc.

 

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