All posts by Toby Kennett

Life Experiences

The Road to Recovery

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I received a phone call over 2 weeks from a mate that I have known for over 20 years, in fact he was the first person that I made friends with at my footy club when we moved over to Australia!  He called me to confirm that I would be attending his 4oth birthday on the weekend of 27th March and we agreed that we would spend the day with one eye on the tv watching the Formula 1 highlights and the other chatting to various people!  We laughed about it and that was that.

Then, Wednesday last week he rang me back.  There was the usual banter and a brief chat about the first round of the F1.  This was then followed up with “Hey mate, you know how my party was locked in for the 27th?”.  “Yes”.  “Well, we are going to have to postpone it for a later date”.  “Oh!  Ok.  Is everything alright?”.

What followed was him informing me that he had been feeling a bit crook in the last week and so he had been to the Doc’s on the Monday and after a couple of tests that day, then a HEAP of tests on the Tuesday, they had decided to rush him in for an emergency procedure to remove a cancerous tumour from his right kidney.  They would need to break a couple of ribs to do so, make an incision about 30cm+ long and he would be under for 4 hours or so!

He was (as always) pretty philosophical about the whole thing and said that it was great that they had found it and that the surgery was the cure and that in 95% of cases, that is the end of it!

So, last week he went in to hospital and had the operation and I spoke with his wife on the Thursday and then with him on the Sunday.  He said that he was in massive pain, but that the op had gone really well and that they were talking about releasing him “soon”.  The VERY NEXT day, I got a text from him to say that he was in the car on his way home!  I was shocked, but told him that I would be over to visit the next day (yesterday)!

I was even more shocked when I saw the state of him yesterday when I got to his place!  He could hardly move he was in so much pain and the poor bloke looked a lot older than his (almost) 40 years!  I said to him, “What the hell are you doing back at home in this state?” (the terminology has been cleaned up for the purposes of the blog)!!!  His response was along the lines of the hospital needed the bed and they offered to give him some strong medication to handle the pain and as he was ‘young and fit’ (young – defintely.  fit – not so sure!!!) he should recover well .

Now, I am obviously NOT a Doctor, but there is no way my  mate should have been let out of the hospital.  I won’t go in to the gory details, but let me just say that he had not even cleared his system since the operation so they should have at least have kept him until that milestone had been successfully achieved!  It should also be noted that he was released against the protestations of both his wife and sister AND that he was paying TOP DOLLAR in a private hostpital with a VERY good name!!!

I am gob-smacked that anyone would be released after such major surgery!  And to let someone go home where there was not going to be any care for the first two days that he was back there is beyond me and quite frankly bordering on culpable in my limited opinion!!!

However, from all of this there have been some real positives:

  • Primarily that my friend is better and should be fine from here!
  • It has woken him up to his unhealthy lifestyle
  • And has woken myself and a couple of our other close friends up to theirs (unhealthy lifestyles).  We have all agreed to getting a bit fitter and being healthier and to making some wiser decisions when it comes to our lifestyles (work vs play vs late nights vs parties vs etc, etc)!

Life is so precious, particularly when we all have kids involved!  We should therefore hold on tight to it and take the time to look at what is important us and make the decisions required to ensure that we are around and about to enjoy each and every moment that we have to spend with those that we love and cherish as ultimately we are all mortal, which for (relatively) young Australian blokes to admit is a MAJOR milestone!!!  🙂

Life Experiences

Good Peoples (intentional typo) !

Isn’t it funny how “Good Peoples” attract “Good Peoples” ???

What a treat !

I can quite honestly say that I work in a truly great organisation and am surrounded by a whole load of genuinely “Good Peoples” both professionally and personally.  And sometimes things happen that reaffirm this, such as yesterday (a work day):

My fantastic MD arranged through one of her contacts for me to be taken for a drive in a BMW M3……………………..something that I have always wanted to do.  (I openly admit to be a Revhead, but promise to do my best not to make this a car story as such !).

I was instructed to be at a certain location at a certain time and as my Dad (a fellow Car Tragic) was visiting from SA, he was also invited along for the ride.  Upon our arrival we were greeted by the owner of the aforementioned M3 who saw my Dad was using a walking stick and so very kindly told us to wait there whilst he collected the car and brought it out the front.  As this gorgeous charcoal-silver M3 pulled up to the collection point, Dad and I prepared to load ourselves in to the passenger seats, but the owner had another offer – one that quite frankly blew me away.  He wandered over to me and handed me the keys to his VERY powerful and VERY expensive ‘pride and joy’ and told me that I would be driving.

Mouth agape and in a mouse-like voice I tried to decline but he insisted and so I climbed in to the driver’s seat and got myself comfortable.

I won’t bore you with the details of the drive as I know cars are not everyone’s cup of tea, but I will just comment that it was everything and more than I had imagined.  I came back quite literally shaking with excitement, nervousness and awe.  The car’s owner had happily let me have a pretty serious “go” and was quite obviously chuffed at my enthusiasm and enjoyment.

Upon returning to where we had set off from, we all went out for lunch where we shared a fantastic meal and some amazing company.  Dad and I spent nearly three hours with a person that we had never met before and he had managed to clear his very, very busy schedule to make time for us !  Dad had a ball !!!  He has been retired for a few years now and so rarely has the opportunity to mix in “business” circles which afford a level of intellectual conversation.  I had the opportunity to spend some quality time almost one on one with a highly intelligent and very successful businessman and in doing so discovered a person of great integrity and passion – a person that enjoyed the opportunity to give with absolutely no expectation of anything in return.  A truly “Good People” !

Yesterday was indeed a VERY special day !  I not only got to drive one of the cars of my dreams, but I had the opportunity to witness my Dad be genuinely happy (not that this is uncommon, but it is something that you never grow tired of) and I also got to broaden my network of “Good Peoples”.

To everyone involved (you know who you are)………………….THANK YOU !  THANK YOU !!  THANK YOU !!!  I wake up on a daily basis and thank my lucky stars for all of the wonderful things around me and yesterday was yet another moment to be thankful for !

You guys ROCK !

Life Experiences

It’s All About the Coffee

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I’m sharing this experience with you for what it was worth to me personally !  The experience was pretty

Smell the Coffee

 normal in many ways, but the process of blogging it was where the benefit arose.  You see by thinking about what to write and then drafting the story below, it has forced me to revisit our business to make sure that we are “making good coffee”.  Read on and hopefully it will all make sense………….

My three year old was due back to Daycare this week, so my wife and I promised him a brekky outing on the weekend as he had been “requesting” pancakes on an almost daily basis of late…………there are afterall priorities in a little boy’s life and pancakes just so happens to be one of them !  🙂

We set-off to a well-known Pancake House in town and my wife and I ordered a cup of coffee each.  Now whilst I have been criticised by friends for being a bit of a coffee snob (I refuse to drink instant), having spent years in hospitality I am partial to a good cuppa.  And so, I waited patiently for my coffee to appear and when it did I just knew it wasn’t going to be a good experience.  Firstly, I had ordered a mug only to be delivered a cup.   There was this tiny bit of tatty floating white stuff amongst what looked like very dirty dishwater and smelt like burnt coffee.  Lifting the cup to my lips, I could feel the heat of the beverage and was prepared for the fact that I was going to blister my tongue and unfortunately I was right, the milk had been burnt so the coffee was dangerously hot !

It’s funny because the rest of the meal was quite passable – nothing fantastic, but certainly nothing terrible either.  The service was satisfactory through the meal process and became good at the end when we were asked if everything was to our liking and I commented that the coffees were not at all good and explained very politely why.  The waiter apologised and whisked the full cups away asking if we would like another, which we declined.  He then came back to our table and informed us that he had removed the items from our bill, which I thanked him for and we went to pay the bill.

In the car on the way home my wife and I commented to each other that we would likely not rush back in main due to the coffee, which got me to thinking about the number of establishments that I visit where the coffee is poor and how I usually make a mental note not to go back unless something else about the visit is particularly special.  What it means is that everything/everyone else has to work that much harder to win my custom as they couldn’t get the little thing (making the coffee) right in the first place.

Am I being a bit harsh ?

Possibly !  But I don’t think that I would be alone in thinking this way.  I am not for a moment suggesting that I cannot be won over simply because of a bad cup of coffee.  There are certainly places that we frequent where the coffee is only just passable, but everything else is brilliant !  But it is JUST THAT point that I am making……..everything else has to be way above par, when in reality all they needed to do was get the small stuff right. 

We are spoilt for choice here in Australia and in general we are well informed about the way food & beverages should be served, not to mention how a venue should present; the cleanliness of toilets and food facilties and a myriad of other “small” things that add up in the “big scheme” of things !!!  So, metaphorically speaking it made me think about the “quality of OUR coffee” and made me retrace some of our practices with the view to considering if any of our services are working harder to make up for some of the others…………….

……….when was the last time you checked on your coffee ???

Life Experiences, Values

Working for Dough !

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Isn’t it funny how your perception of a business can change ?

When we moved in to our new home two years ago,  the process of unpacking the multitude of boxes made the hunger pains start however the fridge had not been plugged in and the food boxes contained nothing that appealed to the appetite !  Fortunately we had relocated to the Inner West and two minute’s walk from our place is a run of shops.

I grabbed my wallet and my then 18 month old and I walked (he got carried) up to our very local shops.  Within quite literally ten metres of each other there are two bakeries.  I strolled in to the slightly closer one and was met by 3 smiling faces and a big “can I help you ?”.  We were off to a great start !  The lady serving me was very helpful whilst the other two ladies were very taken with my little boy.  They clucked and cooed and after I spent my $20 or thereabouts and was about to leave they gave my little boy a cookie and said, “see you soon”.

Needless to say we started going back on an almost daily basis and would easily spend on average $30 a week, which I would suggest should have made us a “regular customer”.

The service remained reasonably consistent for about 12 months and we could not have been happier – buying bread became a bit of an outing/event and my son was always the first one at the door, champing at the bit to buy bread (and maybe score a free cookie……………he was only two and a half afterall !!!).

Both my wife and I enjoy a nice chunky sandwich and so we have always bought our bread UNsliced – the added benefit being the bread seems to remain fresher for longer.  Upon arriving at the bakery every second day, if not every day we would ask if they had an UNcut loaf or if there was anything fresh out of the oven ?  (There is NOTHING better than warm/fresh bread with a chunk of butter on it).

Now,  for the purpose of this post I am going to ignore the fact that we had to request an uncut loaf each and every time, which in itself is frustrating.  What we both began to notice was that we were gradually being treated with more and more disdain until eventually we were almost ignored and then one day the owner’s wife came out and informed my wife that the cut loaves were fresh each morning and why couldn’t we just take one of those ?  Shocked, my wife left the bakery without purchasing anything and she came home to tell me the story.

Interestingly enough and against my usual mode of doing things; rather than speak directly to the owner or his wife about loyalty and customer service, we “voted with our feet” and now we buy all of our bread from either the bakery two doors up OR we go to the less expensive and much friendlier again bakery that is a car trip away !!!

All of this got me to thinking………………

All of the hard work that these people did at first to gain our repeat business was undone over a period of time by making us FEEL like we were being difficult !  And then, it came to a head when they then confirmed our feelings by confronting us.  Would it not have been much easier to just keep a loaf aside for us each day ?  Worst case scenario is that someone else would have bought it later on.  As os often happens with this sort of experience, I shared it with local friends and family and they too have stopped using the bakery as my experience was echoed (if not to the same degree) by them.  Overnight, their business is potentially $2000-$3000 a year less profitable due to the loss of “our” business.

Will this send them broke ?  I sincerely hope not !  It is a family owned business and they have a small family to feed.

Someone once said to me “there is plenty of dough in dough” !!!  Unfortunately, no matter how much money there is in a product/service without CUSTOMER SERVICE it can be worthless…..