Insights From Sam Canning: Meat Done Well.

Something that I think is missing from many businesses is a certain level of self awareness. Looking at ourselves from another perspective. Trying to get out of our own day-to-day and get a sense of how others perceive us. It's not an easy thing to do. We're all so busy with our businesses that we forget to prioritise this important exercise.

From Day One at Cannings (in 2010), I always stressed to my staff the importance of stepping away from the back-of-house and into the retail space, so they could see things from the customer's perspective.

Ten years later, we're still talking about the same kinds of things but now we go quite a bit deeper than that. We're constantly reviewing ourselves. Challenging our own standards. Looking outwards for inspiration. Asking ourselves; "Is this good enough for Cannings?". With this amount of self assessment and critique comes a certain level of confidence or belief that we are doing things the right way. We are doing things as best we can. This is Cannings quality. This is 'Meat Done Well'.

Meat Done Well found its way into the Cannings vocabulary at one of our team discussions whilst looking to distil our values into a memorable soundbite that resonated with us (and our customers) on a range of different levels. Initially, we looked past the phrase, only to come back to it, again and again, as we found more relevance within it. On the surface, it's quite obviously a play on words (well done meat), but that's where the eye-rolling ends.

We feel that Meat Done Well cleverly captures many facets of our business. For example; when your butcher thoroughly researches their suppliers to make sure they reach very specific criteria prior to stocking their product - that's Meat Done Well. Or, when your butcher considers each and every aspect of the customer's experience (clean glass, uplifting music, clean air, how your bags are packed, solution focused and knowledgeable staff etc, etc) - that's Meat Done Well. Don't get me wrong, Meat Done Well is not a declaration of perfection. Far from it! We consider it a great reminder that we have a huge responsibility to our customer's to continue our self development and strive to be better in every way.

So, that's what Meat Done Well means to me. What does it mean to you? I'm really keen to learn more about your perceptions of our new mantra. If you'd like to share your thoughts or feedback please get in touch: info@canningsbutchers.com.au