Culling the menu.
A message from Giles Coren
Several years ago, you may have tuned into the BBC television series called Supersizers (the series) which screened on ABC. The series, which featured a British journalist and food critic named Giles Coren and British comedienne named Sue Perkins, had the presenters dress in costume from various periods in British history and indulge themselves with food typically eaten by the upper class of the relevant period. It was informative and, depending on your appetite for British comedy, hilarious.
I come from a foodie household and on the back of the BBC series, my partner acquired a copy of a book written by Giles Coren titled "How to eat out". She was in fits of laughter while reading the book and encouraged me to read it too.
Coren writes with flair and creativity although some readers will find his language crude (foodie term) and possibly offensive. I laughed a lot.
Interestingly, Coren has no great praise for restaurants in Italy or France. He does however rave about Japanese cuisine. At one point in the book he writes "In Tokyo, any restaurant that is any good serves only one thing".
This reminded me of "sacrifice" which has been described as the "the essence of strategy". In other words, if you want a reputation as an expert, it is what you decide not to do which is important and which will determine your success or otherwise.
Coren also opines that "choice is an overrated thing and I would much rather restaurants focused on one or two things brilliantly than offered a whole lot of stuff done only okay (to say nothing of the extent to which huge and varied menus depend on freezers and microwaves)."
I wonder whether customers of professional knowledge firms might endorse the same principles in relation to the offerings of their professional advisers, as the principles espoused by Coren in relation to food.
It has been said that “Clients are more interested in what we know than what we do.”
The vision is to have identified the customers who are the right fit for us and to have developed the knowledge to deliver the outcomes required by those customers.
Is your menu longer than it should be?