What Can You Learn from a Jar of Spaghetti Sauce?

Who is Howard Moscowitz, what did he have to do with the Spaghetti Sauce revolution, what insights might it provide about subjective value, profitably anticipating and satisfying customer needs, and appreciating the value of diversity? Watch this 20 minute talk by Malcolm Gladwell and see for yourself.

Comments

[Alastair Walling]

Ben,
I loved this. When I was in 12th grade we had to write about our heroes. My friend Mikey (a rotund fellow with a penchant for hamburgers) wrote about how Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendy's) was his hero because he made it possible for someone to acquire what was (in his opinion) a high quality double cheeseburger on the fly. Sadly, our teacher failed him, which always seemed to me a grave injustice. Dave Thomas, like Howard Moscowitz created value for millions of people, although I cannot help but think that the intelligentsia would approve more of Dr. Moscowitz – which I think is a little sad. Anyway, considering that my high school teacher would probably consider Malcom Gladwell a philosophe and sophisticate, it is nice to see Mikey’s hypothesis finally receive the intellectual backing it deserved.

AL

[Ben Pratt]

He can definitely spin the yarn. I don't always agree with him (shocking, I know) - but I do enjoy reading his work and listening to him speak.

You might find his New Yorker article interesting - "The Ketchup Conundrum." It can be found on his website, www.gladwell.com, in his article archives:

http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html

[David McGinnis]

I saw "food and drink" as a category on the left and had to try it.

I remember this post, I eventually ended up buying "The Tipping Point" because of it. I'm glad I did.

Thanks for the post, Ben. Wish you would jump on here more often. (I throw that out there as if you'd ever come across this comment...!)

[Ben]

I always see comments - thanks for the kind words and glad you enjoyed the post. I post as I can - my world's changed quite a bit from GP days - and it's tougher and tougher to find the time to write, but I enjoy it. Fortunately, Ann and Andy have picked up the ball and are doing a great job contributing posts on this blog. Cheers - Ben.