Last night I was watching the men’s 1000 meter Olympic speed skating event at the Winter Games. The defending Olympic champion, Shani Davis, dominated the field of skaters, winning the gold medal.

What was interesting to me was a remark by one of the television commentators. He said that Davis, an American citizen, lives and trains in Vancouver—just outside the Olympic Village—and that one of his good friends, Denny Morrison, is a member of the Canadian speed skating team. For two years before the Torino Games they trained together in Calgary, pushing each another to excel.

The commentator went on to say that, for competitive reasons, the coach of the Canadian team would not allow competing skaters to practice against the Canadian skaters before this year’s games. He suggested that this decision might have been short-sighted, as members of the Canadian team may have benefited from competition beyond what was comfortable and familiar to them.

That got me thinking about the nature of competition in business.

Intuitively, business operates with a scarcity mentality that suggests that there is a finite “pie” and that, if you get a larger slice of the pie, then I somehow get less. That’s why companies file patents and trademarks—to protect their intellectual property, conceal it from competitors, and use it to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The most successful businesses do not operate from a position of fear and scarcity. They lead from a position of confidence and abundance. These companies recognize that the “pie” is not finite. The size of your slice of the pie has little to do with the potential size of my slice because the pie has the capacity to grow exponentially.

This brings to mind an old Xerox print ad. In one frame, a little boy’s lemonade stand was suffering at the hands of a little girl’s competing lemonade stand, where a line had formed.

In the next frame, the boy had added a vase with a single rose to his lemonade stand and, to the girl’s dismay, the line had moved to her competitor’s stand.

The caption beneath the second frame read: “When companies compete, products get better.”

Whether in athletics, business, or another endeavor, competition is not something to fear and avoid. It should be welcomed and embraced. From a business perspective, all of us have something to learn from our competitors that will enable us to improve the product and service quality we deliver to customers.

What will your lesson be?

A few years ago, The Broker Restaurant in Denver, CO participated in a local radio promotion. As a part of this promotion, the radio station mailed out $25 unrestricted coupons to area residents who completed a survey about their radio listening preferences. Because there were no restrictions, these coupons were essentially treated like cash in the restaurant.

Over the course of the eight-week promotion, tens of thousands of $25 coupons were mailed out to survey respondents and the promotion proved to be very successful at increasing the exposure of The Broker and attracting many new customers.

Toward the end of the promotion, unbeknownst to the restaurant’s owners, the radio station began handing the remaining $25 coupons out to passersby on the 16^th Street Pedestrian Mall as a part of a separate promotion.

As often happens when people are handed unsolicited promotional material on the street, they tend to scan it quickly before tossing it in the nearest trashcan. As a result, hundreds of coupons ended up in the trashcans lining the 16^th Street Mall—many of which were later retrieved by members of Denver’s homeless population.

The Broker Restaurant is located in the old Denver National Bank building and is situated in an old bank vault. The European antiques are dark cherry wood and the vault itself, including the huge round door, remains to make The Broker one of Denver’s most unique and elegant restaurants. According to its website, “Not a day goes by when an observer will not spot some of Denver’s most prominent citizens enjoying lunch or dinner.”

It was in this setting that a homeless man in his thirties and his young son entered during lunch service and seated themselves in the lounge area of the restaurant, prominently located at the base of the grand staircase directly in front of the immense vault door.

A server approached their table and the father inquired about using the coupon he’d found to pay for their lunch. The server was uncertain about how to respond to the man so she accepted the coupon and excused herself to phone restaurant founder, Ed Novak.

After explaining the situation to Novak, the server was instructed by him to honor the coupon and serve the father and son as she would any other guests. During the meal, the server learned that it was the boy’s tenth birthday and came to understand further about the family’s situation.

In reflecting on the experience later that day during a conversation with Novak, the server shared how her initial discomfort with the situation dissolved as she took time to serve the father and son, treating them as honored guests rather than out of place vagrants.

As Thanksgiving nears, this true story is a timely reminder to all of us of the powerful effect our personal service can have on the lives of others. As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Everyone has the power of greatness. Not for fame but greatness. Because greatness is determined by service.”

This Thanksgiving, don’t just be grateful. Look for opportunities to serve others and be great too!

Ever noticed the greeting you receive more often than not by the person bagging your groceries at your local supermarket? If your local supermarket is like mine, it probably sounds something like this: “Paper or plastic?”

All too often, appropriate greetings have left the repertoire of most customer-facing employees in the service industry. Appropriate greetings seem to have transformed from gracious messages to welcome customers to robotic questions designed to increase throughput…

Here are some other “greetings” I hear a lot:

“Two for dinner?”

“Checking in?”

“For here or to go?”

As customers, it’s just as easy to lower our expectations of service providers and simply comply with these robotic questions in the same manner. But there’s no magic there. Nothing is happening to engage the customer, to make it memorable, or to build loyalty.

That may be why it’s so refreshing to experience service providers who are less robotic and more unique. These employees get your attention and make an impression by demonstrating authentic enthusiasm for their customers in ways that transform typical bland, ordinary transactions into memorable and unique experiences.

Your thoughts?

I used to work with a gal in New York who was fond of saying, “Love ya, mean it” – all in the same unenthusiastic breath. While her irreverence endeared her to all, it demonstrated to me that words alone, apart from an authentic delivery, can be pretty useless in conveying a message.

To that point, we’ve all experienced greeters at retail stores such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Blockbuster, and others. Their role is to make shoppers feel welcome by greeting them and perhaps offering a bit of assistance as they enter the store.

At one time, there may have been a spark of enthusiasm – perhaps because it was new and unexpected – for the greeter role. Today, from my perspective anyway, it appears as though the novelty has worn off. Ironically, the greeter’s podium at one large retailer faces into the store so that the rep greeting shoppers has his or her back to them. This results, many times, in a half-hearted glance and greeting over the right shoulder. It appears to be more of a security post than a greeter’s station.

At another retailer, the greeting is so long and scripted that all of the warmth and authenticity that should accompany a sincere greeting has been squeezed out in order to reinforce the store’s marketing message.

So what’s your read on store greeters? Are they unnecessary roles or is the problem in the execution?

“I appreciate your comments, mean it.” : )