Knives, Santropol Roulant and Happiness
Last year, I spent a couple of mornings working at Santropol Roulant, a non-profit group in Montreal that prepares meals for elderly people. Every morning they prepare hundreds of delicious meals that are then delivered by bike and car throughout Montreal.
As a volunteer, I cut, chopped and prepped the food. It was a lot of cutting. As an amateur chef, I was amazed at the dullness of their knives. Any chef worth his Michelin stars will tell you that knives are your best friend and dull knives, your worst.
Santropol Roulant’s entire organization is centred around food, which is prepared by volunteers. Keeping the volunteers happy and efficient seems like the most important thing there, yet their most basic tool was horrible. They all complained, but no one did anything – not the head chef, the volunteers, or the management!
So, instead of donating money to the very good organization, I went out and bought a set of new, sharp, high quality knives. For about 60$, the knives made volunteers ecstatic. Efficiency, safety and happiness increased for a tiny cost.
Too often, we overlook the most basic elements, but when those elements are part of the core work – they really, really matter. On top of that, keeping your staff, or volunteers happy should always be your priority. Constantly ask yourself, how can I make my colleagues happier and more efficient; often, it takes very little.
Sharp knifes make volunteers happy.
To volunteer at Santropol Rouland, click here.
Published on July 15, 2010Relaxing when late for a flight
Flying out of Hong Kong is an amazing experience. You hop on a bullet train downtown and before you know it, you are whisking past rice paddies to the airport. Travelling is stressful, especially when you are a bit late. Waiting for a train to take you to your flight has a certain element of unknown to it – When will the train arrive? How long will it take? Will I make my flight?
Coming down the escalators at the train station, you see an amazing sign that truly does comfort you. The sign reminds you to relax, a train will be there in a couple of minutes. All airports should have some equivalent sign – for example, at the security check-in where lines can stretch quite long. Brilliant!
Keep urinals clean on the cheap
In light of my promise to show some great design that has a big impact, here is a urinal.
I took this photo in the Copenhagen Airport (I think). Basically, the urinal has a little fly printed at the exact spot that, if peed on, leads to the least amount of spillage. This makes cleaning up much easier and less frequent – saving money and improving sanitation. Brilliant design that costs absolutely nothing. Of course, men being the simple beasts that we are, always aim for the fly.
Free business ideas
Ideas are worth little to nothing, execution is everything. So in light of that, here are a few ideas I simply do not have time to work on. If anyone wants to use them or build on them, go for it, if you want to join forces, send me an email at jbrun@jonathanbrun.com
Update: there is a good conversation going on at Hacker News.
1. Health Ticket Restaurants
Meal vouchers for employees that are only valid in “healthy” restaurants. In France, many companies offer meal vouchers to their employees – these vouchers are deducted before taxes (payroll, income, etc.) and so there is an incentive. The employee pays part of the cost and the company pays part of the cost. A similar system would be used for Healthy Tickets, though the financial incentives are less interesting than in the french system, the tickets could potentially have insurance premium advantages and be integrated into the company’s wellness program.
I have a more detailed document about this idea, contact me if interested.
2. EventChase (www.eventchase.com)
A website to find and organize pick-up sports games in the park. When you are bored on a Saturday afternoon, you would use this site to find a hockey game, ultimate frisbee, soccer, etc that is going on in your neighbourhood. I made a beta version of the site, found at www.eventchase.com and there are links to other similar sites that actually have a community. I think this is one of those problems that on the surface seems easy to solve, but is in fact very hard.
I have a more detailed document about this idea, contact me if interested.
3. Fight Bullies.com
A website dedicated to help kids cope and deal with bullies. We would post a help hotline, useful texts, videos and information on how to stop a bully. Also give the kids examples of people who were bullied in their youth and turned out to be great people. This would be a non-profit venture.
4. A Bunker for rich people during a catastrophe
I had the idea a few years ago to build a bunker in northern Canada that could be used in the case of an emergency. People would reserve their place in advance – like an insurance policy and be guaranteed a spot when they arrive. Capital costs would be fairly high and it looks like someone has beaten me to it, best of luck!
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/82/20100414/ttc-50-000-dollars-la-place-dans-un-bunk-29d0bca.html
5. Rent a Life for students
Basically, students who rent unfurnished apartments are in desperate need of basic items (plates, glasses, sheets, …). Since they have limited money and often go away for the summer (especially true of exchange students), they may be interested in renting the items rather than buying them. When I was a student abroad I would go and purchase the cheapest possible items because I knew that at the end of the year, I would probably throw them away. I would much rather have spent the same money on a rental of better quality items. Basically, we would stock small containers of items (two plates, two glasses, two sets of sheets, …) and the student would rent it out per semester with a deposit.
Once we have rented everything out for the semester, we could use the space to sell basic food items to the same students who have little cash. We would stock a very limited number of items – pizza, pasta, tomato sauce, … and offer them at very reasonable prices. We could hire reps who live in university housing to push the products and do marketing for us.
6. Airbnb.com for businesses
Create a website that allows companies with extra desks in the office to rent them out to small companies and freelancers.
7. Homeless people profiles
A website (wiki) that has the profiles of homeless or people in difficulty in your neighbourhood. We would conduct interview and post their info (with their permission) on the site. They could specify what associations help them and how you might be able to help them. This would be a way to humanize the people in difficulty in your area and allow you to reach out to them.
Project details (in french) here.
Published on May 8, 2010Via Rail ticket purchase user interface
I just purchased a one-way ticket to Toronto on the Via Rail website. The experience was decent enough, though one thing did baffle me. Take a look at the screen-shot below of the last screen before the purchase. It states that the ticket is “Non-exchangeable and non-refundable” and below it says it is “Fully refundable prior to paper ticket issuance…”. If this is not contradictory, I do not know what is – very confusing.
