I was invited to give a talk at Brian Kurtz’s Mastermind Group in Florida last January.
When I met the attendees I had to ask myself: “What the heck can I tell these guys? They’re already superstars.”
Then I was looking at the newspaper and saw that McDonald’s had just started offering breakfast all day long.
So I talked about the all day breakfast at McDonald’s
What happened after McDonald’s starting offering breakfast at McDonald’s?
Just reported: Their profits are up for the first quarter of 2016 35%.
For a company this big and in a niche this established to make an improvement like this is simply epic.
So what’s the point?
It’s this:
Serving breakfast all day at McDonald’s was the most obvious idea in the world.
How many people work strange shifts?
How many people like to eat breakfast foods later in the day?
How many customers over the years have gotten pissed off because they missed the breakfast cut off by two minutes?
Millions of people.
McDonald’s finally did the obvious and the payback has been phenomenal.
Now here’s my million dollar question:
What “obvious” idea are you neglecting in your business?
What things have your customers asked for that you’re not giving them?
There’s a book with the great title “The Elusive Obvious” and indeed the obvious can sometimes be that hardest thing to see.
Or, as my favorite definition of “creativity” goes:
“Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.”
Huge results do not always require huge efforts. Sometimes they come from simple ideas that can be summed up in one phrase.
My new code phrase in my own business when things are getting complicated, convoluted and unproductive:
“Breakfast at McDonald’s”
Let’s work at finding these things because the fact is, you rarely find what you’re not looking for.
P.S. The System Seminar is alive and well but only for members of the System Club. We’ve taken the annual seminar and spread it out over the entire year and put it behind a private firewall.
Easier to digest, more convenient, and a whole lot more affordable: System Club details are here.
P.P.S. This film came out in 1993.
McDonald’s changed its breakfast policy in 2016.
It only took them 23 years to get the clue.
Better late than never, eh?
But don’t be as slow as they were.
– Ken McCarthy
P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.
If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.
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