I
didn't really appreciate gelato until our visit to Italy earlier this
year, where the majesty of true gelato came as a surprising
revelation to us. It's so much more than just ice cream! Now I'm
proud to be a gelato convert.
After
returning to China, I've been on a quest for good gelato, and have
found a couple of fairly good brands here that draw upon Italian
know-how.
Some gelato at a shop in downtown Rome, February 2014.
Gelato
was on my agenda following one of the best intellectual property
conferences I've attended, the IP Business Congress Asia 2014, held
Sept. 8-9 here in Shanghai, courtesy of Intellectual Asset
Magazine.
My
wife and I took an IP lawyer from the States and his wife to dinner
at one of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai (the beautiful and
delicious TMSK in Xintiandi).
After
dinner, the lawyer and I wanted to try a little gelato, so I walked
our group a little west to a small street in an older part of town to
visit a gelato shop. This was an outlet for Le Creme Milano, a gelato
chain in Shanghai where I've had some excellent gelato several times
in the past. I was looking for another sublime experience.
When
we entered the store, something seemed a little different. The gelato
bins, normally full and carefully groomed, looked sloppy and the
trays were mostly empty. What remained looked rather like old relics.
We
did the best we could by finding a couple of flavors to order from
the few surviving bins, but the flavor and texture was unimpressive.
What had happened? Were sales so poor in our cooler weather that the
store had just given up and failed to keep up appearances? I was let
down and resolved to abandon my faith in that brand and not come
back.
The
next day, I had lunch with another friend and mentioned the bad
gelato experience. What happened was unusual and yet so typical for
this land of strange coincidences. Though he had little interest in
gelato, he had become friends with one of the leaders or owners in
the business. He said he would give them my feedback to help them
improve.
He
called me later that day to tell me surprising news from the owner:
the gelato store we had visited was a fake, or, in LDS lingo, an
apostate operation. How ironic that a couple of IP guys following a
big IP conference would end up having our dessert in a fake shop,
served by an alleged IP infringer.
According
to the report my friend gave me, that store began as a legal,
properly authorized franchise using Le Creme Milano's branding and
product, made at a central shop on South Shaanxi Road. But recently
the shop near Xintiandi went rogue, he said, allegedly refusing to
buy the product from the source.
Instead,
I guess, they are finding some other source and operating on their
own, not according to directions and policies from the central
authority.
That
explains why things looked and tasted so poor. This was a rogue store
apparently selling their own brand of apostate gelato. Having severed
the connection with the source of authority, the continuously
refreshed supply of real gelato was gone. Perhaps some of the gelato
in the bins was original from the true source, but even if that was
the case, there was definitely a need for fresh refilling.
Individuals
or organizations can go rogue and lose connection with the source of
authority, even when the outward appearances suggest otherwise. The
rogue shop had the right outward signs and had plausible gelato
inside, but something was wrong and the experience was far less
inspired and inspiring than it should have been.
People
and groups can go rogue in several ways, such as by deliberately
breaking agreements/contracts/covenants, rejecting some of the terms
of the contract, rejecting those who legally administer the contract,
making sincere but ill-advised unilateral changes, or just insisting
on sticking with the old and not accepting the new product that needs
to be accepted (or purchased, in this case).
It
all results in the same thing: a store that doesn't provide the
authorized product the way the franchise owner intends, and an
inferior experience for the customers.
The
inspiring gelato some of us seek needs to be kept fresh, continuously
receiving new supplies from the authorized source. Apostate gelato
can still taste good, but there's something missing.
I'll
be going back to Le Creme Milano after all, but to the authorized
main store where the real stuff is made. There I'll contemplate not
only the majesty of great gelato, but also the significance of the
Restoration, the importance of continuing revelation, and the ease
which apostasy can occur.
Apostasy,
great or small, institutional or individual, can occur we sever
connections or weaken relationships with the Source of authority and
continuing revelation. Stick with the real stuff.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.