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The Cutting Onions Podcast

The Cutting Onions Podcast

By: Bobby Shaw
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 On the Cutting Onions Podcast, restaurant executives Bobby Shaw and Myles Gift celebrate leaders and organizations that build strong people cultures that develop other leaders.

Bobby and Myles interview leaders who have built amazing cultures in their organizations through developing great leaders who produce amazing results, the right way.Copyright Bobby Shaw Economics
Episodes
  • 107. Bullets Before Cannonballs & The 20-Mile March

    107. Bullets Before Cannonballs & The 20-Mile March
    Mar 16 2026
    Today on The Cutting Onions Podcast, Myles and I discuss two principles from Jim Collins’ excellent book, Great By Choice, published in 2012. Jim has a new book coming out on April 7th titled What To Make of A Life, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it!In today’s conversation, we discussed firing bullets before cannonballs and the 20-mile march.
    Bullets Before Cannonballs:
    Imagine two ships trying to hit an enemy target.One captain loads the cannon immediately and fires a massive cannonball.Huge risk. Huge cost. Huge commitment.But the other captain takes a different approach.He fires a bullet first.A small test shot.Then another.And another. And when those bullets start hitting the target… Then he loads the cannon and fires the cannonball.Jim Collins defines a bullet like this:‘A bullet is a low-cost, low-risk, low-distraction experiment.’
    In the context of the restaurant/hospitality industry, it looks like running pilots (not systemwide rollouts without testing), and then gathering data and feedback. Those are bullets.
    Then they scaled it and fired the cannonball.The 20-mile march story Jim Collins touches on is fascinating. He tells the story of two explorers racing to the South Pole: ⁠Roald Amundsen⁠ and ⁠Robert Falcon Scott⁠.Amundsen approached the expedition with incredible discipline.
    • He committed to marching 20 miles every single day.
    • If the weather was beautiful, they marched 20 miles.
    • If the weather was brutal, they marched 20 miles.
    • No heroics. No overextending.

    Just disciplined progress.
    Scott’s team took the opposite approach.
    • When conditions were good, they pushed themselves to exhaustion.
    • When conditions were bad, they stopped.
    • And that lack of consistency ultimately cost them the race—and tragically, their lives.

    So what does this have to do with leadership?Great leaders combine two things:
    1. They fire bullets before cannonballs.
    2. And they march 20 miles every day.

    They test ideas before committing huge resources.And they build disciplined, consistent progress over time.That combination—experimentation and discipline—is what allows organizations to win over the long haul. Are you firing cannonballs before you know where the target is?Or are you firing bullets… learning… adjusting… and then committing your resources?And once you find the target…Are you marching 20 miles every single day?
    Because great leadership isn’t about heroic bursts of activity.
    It’s about disciplined progress and smart experimentation.
    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • Ep. 107 Bullets Before Cannonballs & The 20-Mile March

    Ep. 107 Bullets Before Cannonballs & The 20-Mile March
    Mar 16 2026
    Today on The Cutting Onions Podcast, Myles and I discuss two principles from Jim Collins’ excellent book, Great By Choice, published in 2012. Jim has a new book coming out on April 7th titled What To Make of A Life, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it! In today’s conversation, we discussed firing bullets before cannonballs and the 20-mile march.

    Bullets Before Cannonballs:
    Imagine two ships trying to hit an enemy target. One captain loads the cannon immediately and fires a massive cannonball. Huge risk. Huge cost. Huge commitment. But the other captain takes a different approach. He fires a bullet first. A small test shot. Then another. And another. And when those bullets start hitting the target… Then he loads the cannon and fires the cannonball. Jim Collins defines a bullet like this: ‘A bullet is a low-cost, low-risk, low-distraction experiment.’

    In the context of the restaurant/hospitality industry, it looks like running pilots (not systemwide rollouts without testing), and then gathering data and feedback. Those are bullets.

    Then they scaled it and fired the cannonball. The 20-mile march story Jim Collins touches on is fascinating.

    He tells the story of two explorers racing to the South Pole: ⁠Roald Amundsen⁠ and ⁠Robert Falcon Scott⁠. Amundsen approached the expedition with incredible discipline.
    • He committed to marching 20 miles every single day.
    • If the weather was beautiful, they marched 20 miles.
    • If the weather was brutal, they marched 20 miles.
    • No heroics. No overextending.
    Just disciplined progress.
    Scott’s team took the opposite approach.
    • When conditions were good, they pushed themselves to exhaustion.
    • When conditions were bad, they stopped.
    • And that lack of consistency ultimately cost them the race—and tragically, their lives.
    So what does this have to do with leadership? Great leaders combine two things:
    1. They fire bullets before cannonballs.
    2. And they march 20 miles every day.
    They test ideas before committing huge resources. And they build disciplined, consistent progress over time.

    That combination—experimentation and discipline—is what allows organizations to win over the long haul.

    Are you firing cannonballs before you know where the target is?

    Or are you firing bullets… learning… adjusting… and then committing your resources? And once you find the target…

    Are you marching 20 miles every single day?

    Because great leadership isn’t about heroic bursts of activity.

    It’s about disciplined progress and smart experimentation.
    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • Ep. 106 The Power of Storytelling in Hospitality and in Life

    Ep. 106 The Power of Storytelling in Hospitality and in Life
    Mar 8 2026
    Welcome to The Cutting Onions Podcast. This is episode 106, and in today’s conversation, we're talking about the power of storytelling in hospitality and in life. Alongside my co-host, as always, Myles Gift, we’re really excited about this conversation. We believe storytelling has become a really important part of the work we do in the restaurant and hospitality industry, but you see its importance everywhere in every industry across every platform.

    This week, there has been a lot of energy around storytelling coming from some of the major burger brands out there and their new sandwiches, so that's part of this, but certainly not the full weight of it. This conversation is really on the power of storytelling and why it matters in hospitality.

    We talk about the three stories that every hospitality brand is telling:
    1. They're telling the story of the guest
    2. They're telling the story of their team.
    3. They're telling the story of their leadership.

    We’re very excited about this conversation. We hope you enjoy it as you immerse yourself in it and really think through the way that you're telling your story and the way that your brand is telling their story and using storytelling as a leadership tool.

    And finally, this last week, one of our childhood heroes, Harrison Ford, gave an acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards that was a master class in why storytelling matters. We’ve posted about that a few times this week. If you haven’t seen it, we encourage you to watch it.

    This quote from Harrison Ford sums up the power of storytelling beautifully: "The stories we tell have a unique capacity to create moments of emotional connection."

    And isn’t that what we’re all here to do?

    We would love to hear from you on how you use storytelling in your brand to elevate your organization, your teams, and how you are impacting your communities.

    Thanks again today for joining us. We're really happy to have you here, and we'll see you on the other side.
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
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