The Bakery Shop

Once there were three little ladies who baked cakes. They had a small shop , a nice oven and a good recipe. They believed that Success with any recipe depends on carefully following the instructions and using the right equipment. These ladies saw no need to advertise their cakes , assuming that their "Cake" would do the advertising. The silent advertising worked for a while , and people started noticing that yes these cakes were Delicious and healthier . The ladies were happy with the good name they were making . The work increased and then two partners were added to the bakery. These two men also fitted in nicely in the group and soon the five were a Team ,baking Sweet delicious cakes which literally sell like"hot cakes" !. The Two men also brought in their own perspective in the team and their suggestions were more than welcome in the team . Good everything was going on fine so far....
Now comes the tricky part !, The Baker's Association of the City has noticed the steady growth of this bakery and wanted to see what they did differently . They called in a meeting of the five partners. That was the first time the Team was called for such a meeting and they had no clue what to expect . Anyhow, they went for the meeting and phew... They were bombarded with questions... What is Pre Heat Temperature , What is setting Time ? What Preservatives you use? At what rpm do you run the batter mixer...Team was confused they had not used automated mixer so far ."Err... What are you talking about? " And then their was pin drop silence in the room!!"Do you mean you don't use these techniques" , "No ..." came an embarrassed reply .
The Baker's association was surprised and offered that they would help the Baking Team to learn these new methodologies . They gave them an estimate of how much would the new equipments would cost and what is learning time . They offered to teach at a nominal price . They promised that would appoint a "Baking Master" who would help them in setting up the entire process!
OK... Though the Baking Team think that these changes were not required, but they were overwhelmed by the Baking Association and gave in a reluctant nod.
Baking Master given is also new to the job . In the first meeting he asked for a schedule. Team was clueless, they always had a rough plan on which flavors to bake,and then improvised on the plan based on the previous day's sales and customer feedback . " OK !", Baking Master said" Do you have a formula for this? " .
"Formula for what " - one of the team member's asked meekily .
"Formula for deciding what quantity , what to bake , and which flavor to Bake based on cake sales, Customer Feed Back and available material and available expertise in the Team" "Where are the Customer Feedback Forms" "Where is the material List " "Where is skillset list for the team"
The Baking team was totally clueless on this.... "Ok so we have a lot to learn"...

Fast forward 2 months....

The Baking Team is clueless on what went wrong . Team is demotivated, is loosing customers ... is not sure if Customer really wants what they bake.
And by the way they just got A+ rating from Baker's association for following best processes and best of breed baking equuipents .

Lesson Learnt -> There is only one , two or maximum three combinations in which a Cake can be baked right ! but there are always 101 ways it can go wrong ! So build on your strenghths ... Methodologies are a means to achieve your Goal and not Goal in itself !!!