Decisions at the Fulcrum

In this episode, we settle in at the Hampton Inn for its familiarity.  Hampton Inn has perfected what organizational scholar Herbert Simon termed "satisficing," or the practice of being deemed "good enough" by reaching quality thresholds.

Hilton used guest surveys to make big changes to Hampton, and one change was the waffle bar becoming a signature feature.

We go through the acquisition from Hilton in the late 1990s to their makeo...

Caplinger's Seafood has turned into a local place in Indiana, famous for offering seafood that boasts the freshness you'd find in a coastal area along the Gulf in Florida or Louisiana or somewhere in Alaska, Washington (state), or Idaho.  

When the owners shifted their focus from the main dishes to the sides on the menu, they discovered exciting prospects, thanks to a clever application of linear and non-linear modeling.  

In this ...

Not the science fiction epic, that's "Dune".

In this episode, I consider the reasons Bluetooth became ubiquitous, even though it wasn’t supposed to be a global standard. It was one of many close range options. It was also clunky, battery-hungry, and forgot your name. Yet, it did something most technologies never achieve: it stayed, and became woven into expectation. It's Bluetooth, a symbolic icon from a Dutch-inspired bind-rune an...

A grape 🍇 can tell you its story!

We can learn about who grew it, when it was picked, how cold it stayed on the long trip, and why it made it to your supermarket.

In this episode, Dr. H. looks at the compelling case of Sahyadri Farms, India’s largest farmer-owned export enterprise. We trace how a regional grape collective transformed into a model for longevity and dignity in agriculture.

Through cold chain logistics, traceability,...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we enter the focus (groups) on taste. Through the lens of Coca-Cola’s Test–Learn–Scale methodology, we examine how an iconic beverage brand manages risk, generates resonance, and sometimes spectacularly misfires.

From the pixel-infused flop of Coca-Cola Byte to the calibrated triumph of Zero Sugar's reformulation, we explore how flavor is tested and calibrated.

Along the way, we dig into...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we follow the symbolic changes of soda, through its early days as a societal routine at the 1950s soda fountain to its more ambiguous current iterations as liquid sugar, nostalgia, and brand fairy tale, beginning in the 1980s and carrying into the present day.

We begin at the fountain, with chrome chairs, phosphate mixers, and the common syntax of refreshment.  We pivot to look into how ...

The story of Hertz's autonomous rental system is explained in this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum. Initially meant to simplify fleet management, the technology spiraled into a mechanism for arbitrary prosecutions.  

A NASA contractor held at gunpoint, a veteran arrested before his wedding, and a nurse apprehended at a border crossing years later are just a few of the striking case studies showing how a system named efficiency ...

Snapple went from being an unexpected select underground favorite to just sitting on a shelf, bottled up.  

With Liz Moor's notion of branding as a guide, we trace the history of Snapple as it changed over the years, paying special attention to the cultural intermediaries: From the local deli in Brooklyn to Wendy the Snapple Lady, from Howard Stern to decentralized distribution networks, these were the individuals who gave it a uni...

This week on Decisions at the Fulcrum, we delve into the unexpected journey of LaCroix, the sparkling water that found its niche not through its flavor, but through its inscrutability.

Before it became a meme or an iconic item, LaCroix was simply found in laid-back settings: office break rooms, workplace cafeterias, and your aunt’s second fridge. Then it made its way to Trader Joe's, appeared in your social media feeds, became your...

The Instant Pot was a game-changing kitchen innovation of the digital age.  Pyrex was a legendary household icon for over a century.  

When a private equity firm tied them together under a single corporate roof in 2019, it seemed like alliance, but it felt like an appliance mismatch.  

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we dive into how Instant Brands incorrectly understood online popularity as a sign of lasting endurance...

What does it mean for a company to take a detour—not as an error, but as an investment in altering its narrative?  In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we plunge courageously into the symbolic pathways forged by two of the US's iconic automakers: Ford and General Motors.  This episode takes a step back from the insights of Part One, going to the underpinning symbolic arrangement supporting their different appr...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, Dr. William Hoffman explores two startlingly different methods in the car industry—one based on memory and the other on momentum.  

This episode examines how legacy corporations navigate the conflict between nostalgia and futurity, using Ford's spectacular resuscitation of the Bronco and General Motors' vast shift toward electrification as examples.

Ford's Bronco revitalization is noted ...

Domino’s didn’t need the numbers to confirm there was a problem with their pizza. They already had plenty of indicators from surveys, which displayed the issues numerically, but lacked the nuance and complexity necessary to understand their causes.

This episode explores a critical moment in Domino’s turnaround: the shift from data sheets to direct dialogue, from numerical trends to qualitative understanding. It marked more than a t...

This week on Decisions at the Fulcrum, we pull a hot one out of the oven! It’s the Domino’s redemption story. It’s about pizza and how a brand researched their way back from decades of being a public embarrassment to become pizza scholars leading the delivery economy.

Note: This episode contains 2 archival advertisements, from 1984 and 1986 respectively. This archival audio is used for purposes of commentary and criticism under Fai...