To Cold to Peep! Lessons in Play, Quality & Adventure

Posted by Joseph Michelli, Ph.D. on December 16, 2010

0 comments | 1431 reads

You gotta love how the Peeps maker takes care of their Peeps!

Bethlehem PA candymaker Just Born (whose product line includes that marshmallow, sugary delight that will keep a 10 year old energized for hours) apparently had a great sales year BUT the sales team failed to hit their loftiest goal which would have landed them in sunny 82 degree Hawaii. Rather than saying “bummer” for the near miss, the leadership team did the next best thing and sent their team to Fargo, ND where the ground was white with 2 feet of snow and the mercury hit a lovely 6 degree low.

According to the AP story on the consolation trip,

“The two dozen employees — including company co-CEOs Ross Born and David Shaffer — were “eating well and having fun,”….On their first night in town, they went to the VFW in West Fargo for a spaghetti dinner. Five bucks a plate, all you can eat. Afterward, they hauled an old-school popcorn machine into a conference room at the Radisson hotel and watched the movie. “Fargo,” of course. You betcha!”

Apparently Just Born’s sales number increased 2 percent this year and it would have taken a 4 percent increase to make it to Hawaii. Unlike some business leaders who would have said, “2% is close enough we are still going to Hawaii,” Just Born did the right thing! They found a playful way to provide an alternative team “reward.”

Performance rewards matter, so does making the most of life’s adventures.

Just Born reminds us all to stick to high standards while celebrating lesser victories in smaller (albeit colder) ways!

What would you have done?

Joseph Michelli, Ph.D.

Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., an organizational consultant and the chief experience officer of The Michelli Experience, authored The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and the best-selling The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary.

About Joseph Michelli, Ph.D. |
Connect:

Categories:

1431 reads
Print
Email

0 comments »

Post new comment

Your name: *

E-mail: *

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Homepage:

Subject:

Comment: *

Input format

Filtered HTML

Allowed HTML tags: <a> <img> <hr> <table> <tr> <td> <th><ul> <ol> <li> </li><blockquote> <colspan> <rowspan><object>
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

Post

Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

Notify me when new comments are posted

All comments

Replies to my comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image?: *

Enter the characters shown in the image.

MarketPlace

Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program

[May 30-31, Frankfurt; July 25-26, Hong Kong] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 34 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.

Join us on May 29th in New York City. Stuart Ryder, SVP, Mobile Research Lead for Ipsos IOTX & Roxana Strohmenger, a leading Forrester analyst, will be in attendance to share best practices and new trends in mobile market research.

[June 12, Sir Francis Drake Hotel] Gregson Siu, Vice President, Ariba Business Operations, Ariba and Bob Thompson, CustomerThink, will be in attendance to share best practices, new trends and latest research to help you develop your customer experience program.

Social Networking and sCRM International Congress in Colombia

[June 25-26, Bogota] Thirteen international thought leaders will present, from different perspectives, the trends, the uses, and the magic - as well as the reality - of Social Networking and how it impacts the way customers are doing/will do business.

Driving ROI With VoC

Walker has identified multiple ways to measure ROI – there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. This paper will address each and conclude with some recommendations to help B-to-B practitioners evaluate which ROI approach will work best for their particular business need.