The awesome Karen Lebsanft from Kurrajong Kitchen holding up my favourite ‘Bread Crackers’ ever!
Be it sunshine, hail, cold or intense heat; nothing beats coming home and sitting down to a fabulous platter of ‘crackers’, cheese, olives and various dips.
In my new life, this has become one of my best unwinding past times especially when I am sitting in front of my PC for extended time writing away and requiring the carbs to keep me awake, alert and creative.
I just learned however that there has been somewhat of a conspiracy against the so called ‘cracker’ that I have inadvertently been caught up in. When I think I have been eating ‘crackers’ it turns out I have actually been eating ‘bread’.
However, I can tell you that the ‘bread’ does looks like ‘crackers’ but it is so much better and it has been a staple in my home for some time know. My wonderful Lavosh ‘crackers’ are technically a ‘bread’ based on their ingredients and the way they are prepared.
No way and there you go! A bit of trivia I learned from the wonderful Karen Lebsanft (who is the CEO & Founding Director of Kurrajong Kitchen who produce the very popular Lavosh products). This was at a fantastic event hosted by Hayley Mackintosh and our friends at Servcorp North Sydney.
Where this story took another interesting turn was how Karen and her company took down a big competitor some years back. They fought hard, got their product into the supermarket shelf with their opposition launching a ‘similar’ product with the intent to take them down and conquer the supermarket shelf space for their own obvious commercial benefit.
As it was a bigger company that our friends at Kurrajong Kitchen; it turned into a ‘David vs Goliath’ situation in that they were up against a bigger company, with larger budgets, more people that were able to withstand much more financial damage that they would.
This was sometime back and it boiled down to there being one winner and one loser based on who got the most sales. In this case however, if our friends with Lavosh lost – that would be the end of them. I am framing this as the ‘cracker company’ versus our ‘bread friends’.
During this time they did their best with what they had and came up with a clever strategy by putting in a personal note in all the boxes of their Lavosh being sold telling the story about how they faced an existential threat and unless they could beat the opposition it may be the last box of Lavosh you shall ever purchase.
This combined with a wonderful product resulted in a smashing victory with them remaining proudly on the supermarket shelf to this day (as I bought some only weeks back at Costco Warehouse).
It was one cool story and I tell you what; I could have only imagined the stress Karen and her team were under in those days. It was a fight for survival for them, with only a product line at risk for some massive corporate with deep pockets.
My advice and thinking? Sometimes this happens in our business and life where something faces us and there is only going to be one of two outcomes. I have had about 3 of these moments in my own business and I don’t doubt more shall arise.
It’s these situations which truly test our resolve and force us to think at a deeper level and deliver more.
As for my new friends Karen and co; I am glad they are prospering to this day and I love their work. Totally inspirational. Next time you are in the fry pan, think about them when you are fighting for your survival and coming out on top.
Love your work, thank you for the read, stay awesome and visit the Kurrajong Kitchen Website here!
No responses yet