Making It To The Top : Cooking Versus Technology

Technology September 17, 2009 6 Comments @niallharbison

I am a chef by trade and when I started out I wanted to be the best chef in the world. Marco Pierre White was my hero and I wanted to emulate him. To do that I would have to start by peeling potatoes for days on end and work my way through the ranks working 16 hour days, 7 days a week and learning from other great chefs in the industry. In short to become the best chef in the world there is only one way there and that is to get your ass kicked up and down every kitchen in Europe for 10 years.

From my short time in the web industry (Since May 2007) it seems that it is a very different industry. Anybody can shoot for the top no matter their experience, background or training and it seems to be an industry with many bluffers. When I say bluffers I don’t refer to the people who are fully qualified and have lived and breathed tech since a young age of which there are many. Using the chef analogy you would never see somebody looking at Gordon Ramsay now and saying they want to be as good as him instantly yet I meet people every single day of the week who want to “take on Amazon” or “are the new iTunes“.

One of the main factors is that that the barriers to entry are very low and the rewards extremely high if you get it right. Anybody with limited technical knowledge and a few thousand Euros can come along and have a go at creating a website or online product that could make millions in a very short period of time. Who wouldn’t be attracted.

The only thing that I would urge is caution. For every $1 Billion dollar Twitter valuation there will be 100s of small start ups closing their doors today who had the same lofty ambitions. I am not saying don’t give it a go because your idea could very well be a great one but what I am saying is that somebody with no cooking experience would ever walk into the kitchen in Gordon Ramsay’s 3 Michellin stared restaurant and start cooking the Fois Gras and expect it to go well.

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Padraig McKeon

Niall,

To a point I agree but at the risk of ‘he would say that wouldn’t he’ could I offer a different perspective.

Given the context of the blog comment I’m speaking specifically from within the PR / communications management sector which I appreciate is a narrower frame of reference than the web industry. In my experience, in this sector, the Marco Pierre White analogy holds up. It would if anything be less likely that somebody with no communications experience could ever walk into any substantive situation, much less the HQ of a multinational corporation or of a government (the PR equivalent of a Michelin 3 star) and expect it to go well.

The ability to give considered and balanced advice takes time and experience to acquire and is about a lot more than understanding how a (any) medium works and can work. It’s about knowing message and audience, in context and in flux ; knowing how one impacts on the other and how both are influenced by legacy and noise. As much as anything it is about the extent to which one has a feel for the existence and the potential impact of the known unknowns… and with no experience, one doesn’t know anything – it’s all unknown.

I appreciate that the ‘web industry’ offers a broader context than just communications and I take your point on the purveyor of ‘the new Amazon etc.’ Isn’t it the case though that such people are getting infatuated with the means or the medium (the web) when the real value in the idea that works – the next new thing – is where it provides something (product or service) that meets and satisfies a defined need on the part of a defined audience rather than â€˜justâ€™ being on the web..

The reality that so few succeed in actually doing so illustrates the truism that a low barrier to entry is generally indicative of a very slim chance of success. The opposite I think also applies.

Great topic for discussion…

http://www.simplyzesty.com Niall Harbison

Padraig. Good to hear it from a communication perspective as well because that is one industry especially at the moment where people with little or no experience are able to get in very high up the ladder and have their voice heard as well simply because they have a good grasp of technology. This post was more about the start up technology scene though and how people with a little cash and some balls can jump ahead of experts in their field which would never happen in most other industries. Very good point about the lower barrier to entry being indicative of a low success rate, hadn’t thought of it that way before.

http://www.loopthing.com/?a=BnGncukOwJ4 Donagh Mc Sweeney

Niall, interesting analogy. I guess it all leads back to the nature of people on the web today. There’s always an audience looking for new, fresh ideas and when something innovational comes along an explosion can happen. Probably the best example of this is Twitter. Two years ago most people other than a small web community hadn’t even heard about it, while now it’s a community of millions.

While yes there can be a lot of bluffers trying to get in on the action, it’s usually only those offering something truly worthwhile that will have longevity and survive.

http://www.simplyzesty.com Niall Harbison

Yeah the cream will always rise to the top I guess

Padraig McKeon

Niall,

I take the point entirely about the start up scene and am fully with you on that. From a different part of my head than that driving the first comment I think it is important also not to limit anybody’s perception that they can shoot for the top, no matter how raw they are, because the only certainty of doing so is that they will then not make it.

As to people with no experience getting high up the ladder in communications, I defer to the oft re-quoted line from Warren Buffett that “you only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out”…
http://cookingtipsrecipes.yolasite.com/ Carlton Sweet

A great idea for future recipes this. Thank you for sharing it. Have you noticed how so many people appear to be cooking again? I wonder if the lack of funds due to the current climate has something to do with it and we all appear to be cooking again! its great!

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Making It To The Top : Cooking Versus Technology

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