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Cake day: January 10th, 2024

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  • British advertising executive Rory Sutherland coined the term “doorman fallacy” in his 2019 book Alchemy. Sutherland uses the concept of the humble hotel doorman to illustrate how businesses can misjudge the value a person brings to the role.

    To a business consultant, a doorman appears to simply stand by the entrance. They engage in small talk with those coming and going, and occasionally operate the door.

    If that’s the entirety of the job, a technological solution can easily replace the doorman, reducing costs. However, this strips away the true complexity of what a doorman provides.

    The role is multifaceted, with intangible functions that extend beyond just handling the door. Doormen help guests feel welcome, hail taxis, enhance security, discourage unwelcome behaviour, and offer personalised attention to regulars. Even the mere presence of a doorman elevates the prestige of a hotel or residence, boosting guests’ perception of quality.

    When you ignore all these intangible benefits, it’s easy to argue the role can be automated. This is the doorman fallacy – removing a human role because technology can imitate its simplest function, while ignoring the layers of nuance, service and human presence that give the role its true value.







  • I did that once when I was working at a small TV station as the local broadcast engineer. Phones were not my responsibility but there was no IT person at our location and they didn’t send anyone when they did a system upgrade, so I spent a couple late nights at the station dialed into a conference call on my BlackBerry since the Cisco phones weren’t going to work. I don’t know how many times I called 911 and got the Miami dispatch (I was 800 miles/1300 kilometers away from Miami).