The Value of Paying Employees to Walk Away

I've always been interested in people, passion, and connecting the dots between the two. Here's a fragment of an interview by Peter Hopkins and HP with Tony Hsieh that took my attention. He is the CEO of Zappos.com (and a millionaire by the age of 24). You'll find here one of his most original way to screen out passionate people and keep them as valuable assets in your company.

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Peter Hopkins: Go to the first question here, Amy Nichols and she writes, “This is in reference to a very interesting and much discussed aspect of your hiring practice where you have employees do a training, a rigorous training where they learn everything about the company, and then at a period you give them a bonus to potentially walk away where you pay them you through that time, but then a bonus on top of that.” And she asks, “How often do new hires take advantage of this $2,000 offer to quit Zappos?”

Tony Hsieh: Yeah, on average it’s about 2 or 3% of people take it, so there are some classes where each class is 20 to 40 people, so some classes nobody takes it, and some classes 2 or 3 people might take it. And we started this a few years ago, and it actually started out at $100 dollars, and we keep actually upping the offer. It’s at 2,000 now, and actually at the end of the training, which is four weeks, we up it to $3,000 and extend it beyond that. And we keep upping it because we feel like not enough people are taking it, and the original motivation was to get people that…We don’t want people at Zappos that are there just for a paycheck, and we’re headquartered out of Las Vegas. Starting pay is $11.00 an hour for a call center, so it’s a pretty significant chunk of money, and our thought was we want people that really believe in the company and really want to be with the company for the long term.

And the biggest surprise was actually from the people that didn’t take the offer because they still had to go home after their weekend and talk to their friends and family and ask themselves, Is this a company that I really believe in, that I really want to commit myself to? “Is this a company whose culture I want to be a part of and contribute to?” And when they decide to turn down the easy money, when they come back to the office on Monday, they’re that much more passionate and engaged and committed. And that has been, by far, the biggest benefit.
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The way I see it, losing those 2 - 3% candidates and the couple thousand dollar per person is worth more than having the mess later on. The mess of having unenthusiastic worker with no passion, that might snowball into numerous unsatisfied customer and explode later on with bad word-of-mouth. And by then it's already too late. Pay in advance, or pay it later. The latter in most cases are worse.

In other words, I'm on the same page with Tony. Let me know what you think. 

Cheers,

Fellexandro Ruby

Marvelous Seven (@JCF_2010 Food Blogger's Dinner)

It was around this hour yesterday, me and 32 other bloggers had the privilege to delight in 7-course dinner from amazing line up of topnotch chefs. Gracias Goorme.com and Ismaya for the invites and for arranging such a wonderful event. Not just solid food, we were feed with interesting insights on foodphotography and food reviewing, both from the experts in their field as well. However, on this post, I just want to relive that night once again with you beautiful readers, as I go through the photos and the menu.

In order of appearance:
1# Cold Appetizer // Balinese Chicken Salad with Coconut Vegetables and Sambal Matah
By Fahmi Widarte (Corporate Chef of Rotaryana Prima)
As the starter salad, the spicy taste kicks in real quick to my taste buds, and kinda jump start me to taste the next one. As spicy food lover, the hot-ness is simply yum!

2# Hot Appetizer // Braised Wagyu Beef Cheek in Sweet Miso
By Hugo Adrian (Executive Chef of Blowfish Kitchen & Bar)
Not a big fan of radish, however, I gotta say the miso complements the radish. It gives a good mix of sweet and salty, while the wagyu does what a wagyu beef does. It splendor my tongue.

3# Soup // Authentic Sultan's Tomato Cream Soup
By Agus Ishermawan (Head Chef of Ismaya Catering)
And now, we're talking. Very creamy soup (in coffee term this might close to an espresso), tasty tomato, and the surprise foie-gras! It wasn't on the description, that made us guessing, and @glister_blister got it right.

4# Pasta // Red Shell Pasta With Duck Ragout, Pine Nut and Rocket Salad
By Gianfranco Beltrame (Italian Chef de Cuisine at Casa D'Oro Hotel Indonesia Kempinski)
A plateful of pasta after a bowl of tomato cream soup is simply not the best sequence to taste them. A quarter way to this, my belly started to repulse. Sad that I had to left it halfway. However, the braised duck was a feast when munch together with the pine nut. I like the mix of soft and crunchy texture.

5# Fish // Chilean Sea Bass With Lee Kum Kee Ginger Oyster Sauce
By Sofyan Joshua (Technical Culinary Chef of Sukanda Djaya)
It was one of my favorite simply because of its lightness, kinda refresh the palate after all the creams. And again, intriguing blend of soft swirly fresh fish and crunchy pine nuts. Oh, yum!

6# Meat // Short Rib, Truffle Demi Glaze, Charcoal Oil, Glazed Carrots, Potato Hot Foam and Nuts Fake Cous Cous
By Ignacio Virgen Jimenez (Chef de Cuisine of Potato Head)
Now, this is a tricky menu for me. On the plate was five different flavor. I tried the ribs alone, was grilled with exact tenderness that I like. Then tried mixing it with the charcoal oil and the carrots. I gotta say, the carrot was truly something. Unlike any other I've ever tasted, the partly glazed skin with slight bitterness and the partly stewed carrot-meat with its full sweet taste was gooooood. However, I didn't quite get the chopped 'something', was it the nuts fake cous cous? Gotta be it, it smells weird for me. I left that part and finished the rest though. =)

7# Dessert // Green Tea Cake Ala Tropicale
By Rinrin Marinka (Artistic Chef)
Finally! The part that I've been waiting for, the la finale, the cherry on top of the cake! Yeehee! Anw, photo-wise its a very tricky food to shoot, however, I kinda nailed it, didn't I? Back to the taste, as I expected, it was a great closure for my tastebud, the sweet that I've been waiting for. You know this Asian tongue likes it that way. Dipping the sliced green tea cake with the yellow sourly passionfruit sauce was delightful. The best part for me was the crunchy biscuit covered in chocolate and the baked crispy apple slices. It was outstanding =)

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Sad that it has to end, but with a happy belly and a stream of good foodphotos I'm twice happier a man. =))  Marvelous seven course dinner, awesome night, cheers to the beautiful people that accompanied me that night Ivan, Dessey, Michelle, Astrid, Natalixia, Imel, Selby, Daniel, and Adhi Putra. It was an honor sharing the table with you. Until our next toast together (oh sigh, we forgot to toast together, o well, save it for the next time =)

Smile on, Shine on,

Fellexandro Ruby 
Snack on my tweets @captainruby
Email me at fellexandro.ruby@gmail.com

Wine Me. Wine Me Not. (Pairing With Food)

The common and simplest rule-of-thumb is red wine to complement red meat, and white wine to complement white meat. However, as to which red wine to choose for a particular red meat, and which whites to fit a particular chicken or fish menu, that would be up to you. Yes, YOU! Why? The answer is best explained by Chef Will Meyrick & Dean:

"Everybody has their own palette, its about finding one that suits yours."

After all the recommendations by friends, or even your favorite Sommelier, in the ends its your tongue that decides, not anybody else. Of course, there's guidelines, and Sommelier knows it best, however, after trying several wines from Champagne, to German's Riesling Kabinett, to French Viognier in one streak, Chef Meyrick has got his point delivered. And that is everyone's wine experience is personal. From those selections of wine, I like the Riesling Kabinett the most while my friend like the Viognier, the rest might find Champagne most acceptable for their palette.

Same thing when it comes to Asian food. Chef Meyrick had us tried his Roasted Duck and San Choi Boi along with different types of wine. And over the years, he has concluded that when it comes to asian food, there's no such thing as red meat red wine, white meat white wine. With its spicy characteristic, wine as it come close as drinks to augment your palette, what you look for is something that suits you. Dean even stated that its almost like drinking es-teh-manis, he like it and it complements most asian food as our asian tongue usually crave for sweeter cuisine and that explains why I preferred the Riesling Kabinett which was sweeter than the rest of the wines that night.

All in all, when it comes to pairing food and wine, its about opening up your options and giving it a try with different ones. As for my conclusion, I've found that right, and I think once I find that one wine that fits me best, I'll still enjoy it even with various kind of food. Don't you think so? Its like "apapun makanannya, minumnya .... "

One final toast with my favorite Riesling Kabinett,

Fellexandro Ruby
Snack on my tweets @captainruby