Making water out of... water (work AMP blog no. 3)

Do any of you remember the Pepsi Challenge ads?  Blind taste tests to see whether people liked Coke or Pepsi better.  So we conducted our own Pepsi Challenge in class, with one hard-core Coke fan, one die-hard Pepsi fan and one major supermarket executive (who of course stocks both brands).  Three cups of cola, one Pepsi, one Coke and one generic cola.  The challenge was to identify which was which.

With confidence, they each approached their three anonymized cups of cola.  They swirled, they sniffed, they sipped, they let the cola rest on their palate.  And...

The Coke fan guessed that Coke was Pepsi, the Pepsi fan guessed that Pepsi was Coke, and basically everybody guessed everything wrong, except the supermarket executive who managed to identify that generic cola was generic cola, but still wrongly swapped Pepsi and Coke!  The class was in hysterics :D

Cola is, in the end, just brown sugar water.  So how is it that Coke and Pepsi make billions of dollars?  How is that that there is enough space in the market and enthusiastic customer adoption for two massively successful companies to sell brown sugar water that is not only indistinguishable from each other, but actually indistinguishable from generic cola?  What is the magic?

Want to hear something even more incredible?  I don't know if you know this, (and this is not the incredible part yet) but the likes of Coke and Pepsi are actually just concentrate producers.  Generally speaking, they have franchising agreements with bottlers who are the ones who actually mix the carbonated soft drinks and then tie up with supermarkets and restaurants to distribute the drinks.  Because the concentrate (or more accurately, as seen from the taste test, the Coke/Pepsi brand) is the secret sauce, Coke/Pepsi exercise massive pricing power over the bottlers, whose services are highly commoditized (cans, pet bottles, water, sugar) and hence subject to fierce competition.  So Coke/Pepsi make nice margins.

I managed to catch up with a soft drink executive (and this is now the incredible part).  Did you know that even bottled water is made from concentrate?  How can that be, you ask?

Well, the water is essentially "manufactured" through reverse osmosis (like our New Water).  But pure, distilled water is apparently pretty yucky.  No one wants to drink that.  So what do they do?  Yes, they have a concentrate for "water", to make the water taste like water!  And they sell the concentrate to the bottlers, who then make the "water".  And then the water gets sold to us in supermarkets for $5 a bottle (or whatever).  Unbelievable huh?

What kind of takeaway can one extract from this?

Mutually indistinguishable brown sugar solutions should have been a cheap, commoditized product.  But neither Coke nor Pepsi have engaged in a mutually destructive price war (like the bottlers did over their commoditized products, ending up with razor-thin margins).  Instead, Coke/Pepsi compete over brand, and brown sugar water has become the foundation for two world-iconic brands worth billions.  Heck, they've even made plain old water more than water, and we're paying for the privilege of drinking it!

Of course, there was a massive confluence of factors that led to the creation of these unusually profitable brands and market.  But the point is, things can be more than they are.  What are we doing with our products?  Are we characterizing them as commodities, and waging mutually destructive price wars with our competitors?  Or are we framing them so that they can become more than they are?  Is there something we can do about our brand, our customer service, or creating an eco-system around our products (@@@@@-@@@ is one example of how we're trying to do this).  What else can we do?  If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it of course, but, definitely something to think about deeply.

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And what about making people more than we are?

When I got to the AMP, I was concerned about my ability to understand the accounting side of things.  But it turns out, it's been one of the coolest parts of the course.  A ton of credit goes to the faculty for being able to explain concepts in a business-centric, practical way.   I still have to remind myself anytime I get intimidated by the numbers that, hey, I've got this.  And I do think it helps that I really want to grasp this, and I'm genuinely happy when I get it (and not too upset when I don't get it!).

Sociability was another concern.  Some people are champions at small talk and socializing.  I wish it was easier for me.  I am the Eddie-the-Eagle (google him if you don't know) of small talk.  But hey, as with accounting - I just need to remind myself - I've got this.  And then just go out and do it.

Is there something in your life that you look at and think - "there must be more than this"?  Or "I can be more than this"?  This is an office blog, but your application of "there must be more than this" doesn't necessarily have to be in the office.  The obvious one is, I've gotta to step up to the next level in [insert your company name :)].  But maybe you say to yourself, I've gotta be a better Dad.  Or I've gotta get involved in giving my time to the disadvantaged.  Or I've gotta find my purpose in life - why on earth am I on earth? 

You've got this.  Now just go out and do it!

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And finally...be the sort of person who can help others be more than they can be.  In my life, and yes, that includes life in the office, that person is my wife (sorry [insert your boss name] :D).  Why?  She always believes in the best version of me that I can be, even when I fail. She is not afraid to tell me when I'm wrong.  She fills up my weak points, and lets me shine my strong points without jostling for the spotlight.

Consider this: are we this type of leader?  This type of colleague?  If our worklives are just for ourselves, then our purpose and sources of satisfaction are quite severely constrained - because we are looking for satisfaction in only one person's success - our own.  But if our goal is to make others succeed - well, in [insert your company name], we've got [insert number of employees] shots at satisfaction!

"It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35

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