Adam Menter’s Blog

It’s all over the business pages that The Gap is struggling. It had an abysmal holiday season. It seemed to put a lot of chips on the table for its Product (RED) campaign - which flopped from what I can see. Paul Pressler, the former CEO, has stepped down. The company is thinking of spinning off some of its other brands such as the Banana Republic and Old Navy. Maybe the entire company will go private.

The press is buzzing with advice about what The Gap should do next (for example, see What the Gap Should Do Now). Most of the outsider advice has to do with marketing and creating resonant fashions. While both of those things are certainly important, I’d like to add one more item to the list: improving quality. I have been sorely disappointed with the quality of the clothes that I’ve seen recently at both The Gap and Old Navy. For example, my girlfriend’s recently purchased Gap brand jeans are so stretched out and misshapen that she is hesitant to wear them out of the house now. My new Old Navy pants (one of the only stores that has pants that fit me) are perhaps the worst quality pants I have ever owned. They just feel cheap. I should not have bought them.

The Gap used to be about value for money and durable fashions. I don’t get any value for my money if my clothes aren’t even durable enough to last a few washes - fashionable or not. I’m sure that the marketing folks hoped that consumers wouldn’t notice the gradual slide in quality. I’ve noticed and am proud to hold up a (RED) flag.

Now that I’m back in the states, living in San Francisco, and becoming involved with a highly educated crowd of professional consultants, I’m noticing that the use of the word “right” is getting a little out of hand in some circles. For example:

“So, the iPod is a great example of how human-centered product design and interaction design can lead to category-killing hardware and software innovation. Right.”

Or

“A problem with the iPhone is that it might be trying to do too much with one device. Right.”

“Right” sometimes seems to punctuate sentences in the way periods do in written prose. When the word is over-used in this way and is not used to give pause for reflection and validation of what’s being said, it comes across to me as a bit pompous. Instead of, “You’re with me here, right? You’re able to follow this logic train, right” it often comes across as “What I am saying is right. It might even be brilliant. And that’s just the tip of my huge iceberg of knowledge.”

Granted, I know people aren’t thinking this when they use the word “right” in most of these situations. However, I believe we need to start thinking of the word “right” in this context as a speech tick. It is used unintentionally, almost sub-consciously, in the same way that “like” is – and is creeping into business vernacular in the same way that “like” has grown like a cancer within the speech of most people under the age of 25.

I find myself using “right” and “like” on occasion too. But I don’t like it. Does anyone else hear me here? Will someone else help me nip this phenomenon in the bud?

If you have not read Michael Pollan’s feature article in the New York Times magazine from January 28th, I’d highly recommend it (Unhappy Meals). He starts the article with the simply profound statement: “Eat food. Not much. Mostly plants.” If America ate this way, he argues, we’d have a lot fewer obesity, societal, and environmental problems.

The “Eat Food” component is particularly important. Food, as he defines it in the article, does not include many of the food products that most Americans eat. Food should be whole. Your grandmother should be able to recognize it as food. It shouldn’t have a huge list of ingredients - and you should be able to pronounce them all. Americans, he points out, have gotten away from this wholesome, holistic, balanced way of thinking about food - choosing instead to focus on the isolated, sterile nutrients found within the food (omega fatty acids, carbs, beta carotene, etc). The problem is that we don’t really know how these things affect us and how they interact. They distract us - and take our eyes off the prize (of a healthy, sane diet).

It’s interesting to think about the different ways to think about “food.” A co-worker of mine pointed out that “food” is usually found on the perimeter of the grocery store. I thought this was an interesting way to think about it. In the article, Pollan also notes that if a packaged food product is heavily toting its health benefits - it’s probably not “food” and really not that healthy. Next time you are at the store, cut through the marketing BS and keep an eye on what you are putting in your cart (i.e. how many ingredients are involved, how much of it is corn-based). Challenge yourself to stay on the perimeter of the store.

I have really enjoyed getting most of my food from my local produce market here in San Francisco. It is cheap, it is tasty, and it makes me feel good. Let’s get back to basics.

We went to the M. Ward show on February 4th at 365 Bimbo’s in San Francisco. He put on a great show. I first got turned onto his music when my friend Liz put a song of his (”Carolina”) on a mix that she gave me. Then his song “Chinese Translation” popped up on a Paste Magazine CD Sampler. I really liked his thoughtful lyrics and soothing voice on these tracks. What was surprising at the show is that he is also a very good guitarist. On most of the songs I’d heard, he plays simpler cords and lets the lyrics drive the tune. At the show he did some impressive guitar solos and was more powerful than I’d expected. Overall, I was impressed and would see him again in a heartbeat. Victoria Williams opened the show…I was not as impressed with her stuff (although I did like her hard-driving guitar style). Her high-pitched, whiney voice got very annoying and her songs were a bit too weird.

On January 15th I started work at an amazing company called Jump Associates. The official schpeel is that “Jump helps clients unlock big growth opportunities and create cultures of innovation.” I love the work - but sometimes it is a bit hard to explain. It sits at the intersection of social research, design, and management consulting. We help our clients better understand their customers, find solutions to meet people’s needs better, and turn these solutions into actionable business strategies. Along the way we try to build the capacity of the organizations we work with - so that they can come up with innovative ideas more consistently on their own.

I love the work environment - it is fun, fast-paced, creative, and flexible. The culture of the company is incredibly open, supportive, and really emphasizes learning. The people who work at Jump are fascinating, cool, and very smart. It’s a great place to be - I’m proud to be a Jumpster.