I Like Pie

Every Thanksgiving I hold a tournament. Various people bring pies to the party and I eat a piece of each pie. By piece I mean I each an entire piece. Not a sliver or just a taste. I eat 1/8 of each pie. Then I declare a winner and eat a second piece of that pie. There have been years that I have eaten 8 pieces of pie. I realize this means that some years I eat over 4,000 calories in pie.

I like to have these blogs relate back to a life lesson or part of Willmar Electric’s foundational principles. So today my self-imposed challenge is to relate my Pie Tournament to each of the core values, brand promise, marketing slogan and BHAG.

Core Values

Thrifty-Eating this much pie has very little to do with being thrifty but the chances of us having leftover pie is decreased by my eating so much of them.

Meeting Customer Needs-The people that make the pies typically ask me what kind of pies I would like to eat.

Treating others the way they want to be treated-I try them all. All pies get a shot at winning. No pie is left out.

Merit Shop-Every pie gets an even chance but in the end the best one (and only one) is declared as the best and elevated above the rest based on its merit (taste).

Brand Promise

On-time-You need to get started on pie eating right away or the party runs out of pies.

Organized-Eating 5-8 pieces of pie needs to happen in a certain order and at a certain pace. You need to figure which ones might have a run on them (French silk) and eat them early before they are gone. Others (sour cream raisin) can be eaten at any time.

Approachable-During the tournament I am very approachable especially if you are bringing me pie.

Marketing Slogan

Design-Like I mentioned above I often help select the pies that are brought to the party.

Build-I play a very small role in the baking or making of a select few pies.

Beyond-I help with the dishes.

BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

Choosing the projects we want to do and making money doing them. Every year I manage to get a second pie of the party’s most popular pie, French Silk.

Happy Thanksgiving. Give thanks to the Lord and enjoy the pie.