Alrol: Discipline and Endurance

Appalachian Trail, start gate at the Amicalola Falls State Park, GA photo by andreas

Competing is exciting and
winning is exhilarating,
but the true prize will always be
the self-knowledge and understanding
that you have gained along the way.

Sebastian Coe, four-time Olympic medalist and chairman of the LOCOG

You may not know my friend Claus. No, he hasn't been on any of the shows on TV nor is he a celebrity. But, Claus has recently started a remarkable endeavour. On April 8, I brought him to the start of the Appalachian Trail (AT) and now, the moment You are reading this, he is somewhere in North Carolina on his way to Maine. Our prayers are with him.

In case You didn't pay close attention to the details of the above photo.

Here is a cut-out of AT's 'welcome sign'.

Personal discipline

Regardless if I think Claus is a bit 'crazy' to get on the AT, I very much admire his fanatic discipline to live out in the woods (more or less) for a couple of months. I admire his endurance to get up every morning persistently following his plan and to hike that day's distance.

Day by day.
Rain or shine.
Over 2,100 miles to hike toward his goal in Maine.

Business discipline

Don't we all have a kind of ATs in our business? Strategic goals we need/want/would like to achieve?

At Alrol we do.

Two examples:

We want to implement our shared values within our Team that we all live in them.

This will have a long-term effect on our performance to the benefit of our customers.

We will improve our plant installations to increase the efficiency of our processes.

A consistently short lead-time will fit with our customers' needs.

Alrol's 20 Mile Marches

In the planning and implementing of these goals, we follow Jim Collins' method of the

'20 Mile Marches' (Great by Choice, Jim Collins).

We cut the ambitious goal to hike 2,100 miles of the AT into pieces of 20 miles.

But, still we need to get up every morning, rain or shine, and do our daily distance.

20 miles.

That's where we win or fail our goal; with the endurance to hike the distance.
There is nothing creative in these 20 Mile Marches; but Claus' fanatic discipline.

In April 2003 we produced the first roller ever in our facilities in Dalton, GA.
That was kind of our start gate to a long hike and we have been proving well our discipline and endurance in our first 10 years.

At Alrol, we go 1 mile for each order and we go 20 miles to solve problems.
Our customers' problems.