Jamie's company LinkedOut is going public and is having an IPO potluck party. Various breads were brought from stores, bakeries, and homemade. The CEO had a special bread baked in the shape of the LinkedOut logo. The breads began discussing how they create value, with some saying it's the price paid and others discussing less tangible values like love, family, and helping people. The special bread felt it helped teach the chef new skills, and could imagine positively impacting people. A bakery bread wanted to be in remote villages where it brings much needed food and joy as an ambassador of love.

1. Jamie's IPO Party
Jamie's company LinkedOut.com is going IPO on Friday. In the spirit of saving money and increasing
shareholder value, the company decided to have a potluck party with all employees bringing food in.
Many people brought bread in. Some brought in homemade bread. Some brought bread bought from
supermarkets, some from bakeries. The CEO brought something really special, the best chef in town
baked a special loaf of bread shaped to LinkedOut logo, it smelled wonderfully and is supposed to taste
like butter (without butter).
All loafs of bread are sitting together in a big table around the center of the room. The special bread is in
the middle of the table. People are gathering around the party place and chatting. One loaf of bread was
watching the people curiously. Then he said to his fellow loafs, “These people are all talking about the
stock prices and creating values. I wonder how we can create value.”
A loaf came from Costco jumped up: “I know, I know, I cost $10. Here it says on the sticker. So I have
created a value of $10”. Another loaf bragged: “I cost $50. I was made with much higher quality wheat! I
created more value”. One loaf with darker color, solid round shape said slowly, “I don’t think we should
value ourselves based on the sticker price people put on us. We should think about our values (what we
value, not how much we cost to people), our vision, what we want people feel about us and about the
world. I think we can create values in many different ways”. Another one followed, “I agree. People
need us to live. We are worth much more than $10 or $50. Livelihood is priceless.”
One homemade bread smiled while reflecting: “At our house, every time the Mom makes bread, the
house smells so good. The kids wake up, all excited, running to their mom, “Mommy, Mommy, I want
the bread, the sweet bread!”… It is such a wonderful picture. We help the mother show her love to her
children and her children’s love for their mother. We are integral part of family value. We help to create
family bond. We represent love. It is priceless.”
The center piece, beautifully decorated bread opened his mouth: “The CEO came to my maker, the chef.
He said that LinkedOut is going IPO and he is going to host a party that is going to be recorded and
shown on TV. He wants something special in the shape of the company that everyone is going to say
this is the best bread in the world because his company represents the highest quality products. The
chef put in so much time to carefully select the best quality ingredients. He experimented with small
pieces with different techniques and different mixture of ingredients. Every time when he gets
something right, he would jump up and down like a kid. He tried so hard to figure out how to make the
shape to the logo of the company. Finally when he succeeded, he stared me for a long long time, like a
proud father looking at a new born baby. I can definitely see that he has improved his skills so much in
this process; he is now at a different level of culinary art. I think his life will change after people see on
TV how they liked me. I kept wondering, did he create me or did I create him? Not only I created value
by “teaching” the chef to make better bread, now more people can enjoy the better bread. I can just
imagine people’s face when they eat me. It is priceless.”

2. Finally another loaf from a bakery chimed in: “I came from a bakery. The owner is a very kind man. He is
not rich himself, but always helps out the poor. Once a year, he would travel to Africa remote villages,
bring flour with him and bake bread for local people. Some of the places people don’t even have enough
to eat. When he comes, it is like a festival to the local people. His bread is the best food they ever
tasted. Honestly, I would rather be there than here… In there, we are ambassadors of human love; a loaf
of bread is truly priceless…”