Author Archives: 5-dimensionz

Which European country first ‘discovered’ Australia?

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Below is a world map prepared in Dieppe, France showing a large land mass to the south of Indonesia, 50 years before Janzoon ‘discovered’ Australia in 1606

“History is a set of lies agreed upon” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Which European nation first discovered Australia? Was it the Dutch, Spanish or Portuguese?

Several books have been written about the ‘hidden’ discovery of Australia by the Spanish and Portuguese. However, there is no conclusive evidence that these two nations discovered Australia before the Dutch in 1606. Unsurprisingly the ‘evidence’ of the Portuguese being the first Europeans to visit Australia is extremely thin. The ‘evidence’ was ‘conveniently’ lost in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and when India annexed the Portuguese colony of Goa in 1961. The Portuguese arrived in Timor in 16th Century and it is less than 250 nautical miles from the Australian continent so it is plausible that they ‘discovered’ northern Australia.  

However, the legend persists that the Portuguese were the first European visitors to Australia. One of the enduring legends is that of the Mahogany Ship, a wreck in the sand dunes in south-west Victoria, on the opposite side of the Australian continent to Timor, the nearest Portuguese colony. In the 1830s or 1840s a wreck was apparently sighted by some residents of the area. Even the position of the wreck was recorded. Mysteriously extensive searches using sophisticated technology and the offer of a $250,000 reward by the Victorian state government have failed to locate the wreck.

So, does the Mahogany Ship exist?

Highly unlikely!

Apparently, the original ‘discoverer’ of the wreck was not in Victoria at the time of ‘the discovery’, and he was a criminal with a history of dishonesty. In 1876 a Captain Mason wrote a letter claiming that he’d seen the wreck and that it could have been mahogany or cedar, and the mahogany story stuck. The suggestion of a mahogany ship fuelled the theory it could be Spanish or Portuguese, as it was a timber used by their shipbuilders for centuries.

Furthermore, a large majority of “eyewitness” accounts of the Mahogany Ship conveniently emerged after the wreck had been supposedly swallowed up by the sand dunes around 1880. A 1977 a book called “The Secret Discovery of Australia” further added fuel to the legend. Sealers inhabited the southwest area of Victoria during the period in which the wreck was ‘discovered’. The original ‘discoverer’ was a sealer whose boat capsized and as he walked back through the dunes with his companion they came upon the wreck. There probably was a wreck. If there was it was more than likely a sealers’ boat or possibly a boat stolen by escaped convicts in Tasmania. Timber allegedly from the wreck has been tested and identified as eucalyptus, not mahogany.

So, like many legends, the Mahogony Ship story has been built on half-truths, mistakes, exaggerations and lies and takes on the form of an ‘urban myth’. This has not stopped the local council in Warrnambool from erecting a Portuguese Explorer’s Memorial in a local park linking it to the legend of the Mahogony Ship! Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

For more than 28 years the Portuguese speaking communities of Victoria have been coming to the city of Warrnambool to celebrate what they believe to be the discovery of Australia by Portuguese navigators. The Warrnambool Portuguese Cultural Festival is held every two years and celebrates the historical ties between Portugal and Australia, based on the legend of the mysterious Mahogany Ship.

“We are very happy to have the Portuguese community here every two years; we want the festival to get bigger and better. We also want to keep the Mahogany Ship buried in the dunes, we don’t want to dig it out and spoil the mystery, this is great for our city,” said Cr Robert Anderson, Mayor of Warrnambool.

Are there lessons here for managers in the legend of the Mahogany Ship?

  1. Don’t believe everything you are told by customers, staff or owners
  2. Go back to first principles to determine what are the facts – are they actually facts?
  3. There is nothing like telling a story to sell an idea even if it is not correct. The romantic idea of Australia’s first European visitors being Portuguese not British has certainly helped fuel the legend. The local council has profited through the story – it brought visitors to the area.

Note: the first recorded European visit was Dutchman Willem Janzoon in 1606 who landed on Cape York and chartered 300 km of coastline.

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Are you using your talents?

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“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them”.

Matthew 25

The Parable of the Talents

What is a parable?

The definition of a parable is a short but simple fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle.

In Greece and Rome, parables were employed by rhetoricians, politicians and philosophers. In ancient Israel, parables were uttered by prophets and wise women and men. Many appear in the oldest books of the Old Testament. Parables were often used by Jewish rabbis of whom many were contemporaries of Jesus.

Jesus told parables to his disciples. Probably his most famous one was the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where a traveller is robbed and left by the side of the road. A Jewish priest and another Jew wander past and avoid the injured man. However, a Samaritan (who were despised by Jews) comes upon the traveller and assists him. Jesus’ parables usually teach us lessons. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the lesson in very broad terms is “show mercy to your fellow man”. This includes your enemies.

A parable told by Jesus that could be used for us as managers is the Parable of the Talents.

A wealthy man embarks on a trip and leaves three servants in charge of his money. Each is given a certain number of talents proportionate to their abilities. A talent in this case was a unit of money worth about 20 year’s wages. Two of the servants used the money wisely (and their business talents!) and returned a profit for their master and were rewarded. The third servant dug a hole in the ground and buried it, not earning any money and was penalised. One of the underlying messages here is that we are not all created with equal skills, abilities and opportunities.

What are the messages here for us as managers?

Here are three messages that come to mind.

  1. Value the opportunity. Each servant was given money to invest. Two of the servants took advantage of the opportunity and invested wisely, whereas one servant did not. He wasted the opportunity. Success only occurs when you take action. When you are offered an opportunity use your talents and take advantage of them, whether as a business owner, manager or employee.
  2. Reward those who do good work. The servants were rewarded on the basis of what they had achieved with what they had been given. Everybody has abilities (“talents” in the literal sense) and we should use what we have been given. There is no one that has no talents. As managers we need to recognise those who use their talents and reward them appropriately.
  3. Know who to trust. We live in a diverse world and we are different in many ways. The master realised this and gave talents (money) to each man “according to his own ability”. As managers we need to recognise different levels of skills and abilities of our employees and more importantly treat people humanly and with dignity. Clearly not everyone is created equal and we should recognise this a managers act appropriately.

Can you think of any other lessons in the Parable of the Talents?

Note: This blog is not meant to be a theological interpretation of the Biblical parables.

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Lions roaming Australia…

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“Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than a thousand arguments”.

Nathanial Emmons – influential American theologian

Before the opening of open range zoos in Australia, there was an African Lion Park located on the edge of suburban Sydney. It was owned and managed by the famous Bullen circus family. Families could drive through the park and get close to lions. As a kid I can remember visiting and reading the signs warning you that if you got out of your car you could be eaten!

How exciting a visit was for young children! As a visitor you had the chance to see lions rubbing up against your car and even licking the windows!

Interestingly, the park also provided a disposal service for the local community for their unwanted livestock. Classified advertisements ran in the local newspapers for the removal of sick or injured sheep, cows and horses. The park closed in 1991 but the lions remained!!!

Now, Australia is renowned for its dangerous creatures from the sharks, spiders, jelly fish, snakes to crocodiles. In 1995, the inhabitants in the townships of Warragamba and Silverdale close to the lion park were reportedly ‘terrorised’ by lions. In Australia, surely this was an urban myth!

Well, facts can be stranger than fiction.

So, what happened and was it true or just an urban myth?

Yes, three lions escaped. The local police received a call from a startled motorist who saw a lion cross the road and they had to attend to a “lion wandering the streets”. Two of the lions were recaptured and returned to the park. However, one lion continued to wander the streets and after killing a dog was shot and killed by the park’s owner in a suburban street.

How did the lions escape?

Even though the park was closed, lions could still be heard roaring and been seen being fed from the boundary fence. Living next to a defunct lion park were two 12-year-old boys. Now boys will be boys. One day on the park’s boundary fence, they kicked in a rusted grate on a stormwater culvert and wandered in. They did some exploring, fished for yabbies and then headed back home back through the culvert and broken grate. The thought of lions escaping was apparently furthest from their minds, and alas that occurred.  

So, this was not an urban myth!

Is there a lesson about urban myths here for us as managers?

Years ago, a colleague related the story of a business owner who re-employed a person to run the business who had sacked the week before for non-performance. Sometimes facts can be stranger than fiction even if they sound like an urban myth or an episode of Utopia the ABC TV series that parodies how bureaucracies work. A great example is the Harold Holt Memorial Pool in Melbourne. The local Council named the pool after Prime Minister Harold Holt, who drowned while swimming in the surf near Melbourne and whose body has never been found!

When it comes to your own corporate myths, I am not suggesting that you make up stories. Instead, make an effort to find and share them. These stories can be a vehicle to connect and engage with current employees and customers. Without the ongoing sharing of the story, the actual event will be lost or forgotten, and companies will start to lose their corporate memory.

For example, in 1998 there was the shopping trolley story involving Roger Corbett, the then CEO of Woolworths Australia a supermarket company. Apparently, he came across an empty Woolies trolley and then pushed it all the way from Sydney’s Circular Quay near the Opera House to the Town Hall supermarket. At the time, Corbett was creating a culture of attention to detail and cost reduction. Although he retired in 2006, the story is still shared today. It has become an urban myth in the company.

Another business urban myth is the story set in 1960s about Sir Frank Packer, millionaire media owner and father of media baron Kerry Packer. The story goes that Sir Frank, a pugnacious, autocratic and often difficult businessman found himself in an elevator of his Sydney office building with a shabbily dressed man, and was outraged. Packer tells the man he’s a disgrace to his firm, fires him, and hands him $1,000 to buy a new suit. The ‘fired’ man just grins — he was a freelance photographer who stopped by to visit a friend who worked in the building. The story apparently circulated when Sir Frank believed his employees were not meeting his dress standards.

Does your organisation have stories that could be used to enhance and build a positive and constructive culture?

It could be worth exploring.

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Sometimes being a rocket scientist doesn’t help…

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“Reach for it, you know. Go push yourself as far as you can”

Christa McAuliffe – astronaut on the doomed Challenger

38 years ago this month on 28 January 1986, on a cold morning watched by thousands of onlookers and millions live on TV, the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 11:38 AM EST. To everybody’s horror just 73 seconds into its flight the shuttle broke apart, leading to the tragic death of all seven crew members. This event is etched in our collective memory, not only for its heartbreaking impact but also for the profound lessons it imparts to managers, business owners, and leaders across various fields.

What caused this disaster?

The primary cause of the Challenger disaster was the failure of the O-ring seals in its right solid rocket booster (SRB). These O-rings were not designed to handle the unusually cold conditions on the day of the launch. The low temperatures compromised the O-rings’ elasticity, preventing a proper seal. This failure allowed pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank, leading to the structural failure of the SRB attachment and the destruction of the Challenger.

Engineers at Morton Thiokol, the contractor responsible for the solid rocket boosters, had raised concerns about the O-rings in cold weather. However, these concerns were not adequately communicated to or heeded by the key decision-makers at NASA. The organisational culture at NASA, which at the time prioritised schedule and budget over safety, played a significant role in the decision to proceed with the launch, despite these known risks.

Furthermore, this design flaw was compounded by a failure in communication and decision-making processes within NASA and between NASA and its contractors.

What lessons can we as managers learn from this disaster?

Here are three lessons:

  1. Importance of a Safety Culture: The Challenger disaster underscores the critical need for organisations to prioritise safety over other objectives, including schedule pressures or financial concerns. Creating a culture where safety is paramount can prevent catastrophic outcomes.
  2. Effective Communication and Heed Expert Opinion: Effective communication and respecting the expertise of team members is vital. The concerns of the engineers about the O-rings were a missed opportunity that highlight the importance of listening to and acting on expert advice, especially when it pertains to potential risks.
  3. Ethical Decision Making: The Challenger incident serves as a stark reminder of the ethical responsibilities of decision-makers. Ethical decision-making involves considering the wider implications of actions and prioritising the well-being of all stakeholders, including employees and the public.

In conclusion, the Challenger disaster, serves as a sombre reminder of the consequences of overlooking safety, underestimating risks, and the critical importance of ethical leadership. For managers and business owners, it is a call to reflect on their practices, to ensure that the lessons from this event are not just remembered, but integrated into how they lead and make decisions.

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Would you pass the Tombstone Test?

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“They say such nice things about people at funerals that it makes me sad I am going to miss mine by just a few days.” – Anon

Last year I posted a blog called Where is Werris Creek? Having grown up near this town in country NSW I decided to post a link to the blog on the town’s Facebook page. I introduced it by saying that my mother taught there as a Primary School teacher over 40 years ago.

The responses were unexpected. Several former students responded saying they remembered my mother very well and that she had a very positive effect on their lives. A positive legacy after over 40 years. My mother was a very dedicated and hardworking teacher. I can remember her preparing lessons at night. Even into her late 80s she assisted at the local primary school which had a high proportion of migrant children and taught them about Australian history and culture.

This reminded me of a technique used by consultants called the Tombstone Test.

So, what is the Tombstone Test?

No, it’s not the 1881 shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona where Wyatt Earp and his brothers along with Doc Holliday gunned down three “Cowboys”. The “Cowboys” were two families of outlaw cattle rustlers, tobacco and alcohol smugglers.

The concept of the Tombstone Test probably originated from management theories of the 1990s centred around business leadership. In short, it consists of two questions:

  1. What do you want your obituary to say?
  2. Is what you are doing today consistent with the legacy you want to leave?

This can be extended to your relationships with family and friends. Do you want to be remembered for the money you made in your lifetime, or whether you were a good parent, partner, spouse or friend?

The Tombstone Test is sometimes used by management consultants to focus the mind on your legacy.

Being a good business owner or executive, if done well should be about freedom, fun, fulfillment and making money. By extension it should also be about serving and helping others, especially your customers and employees. In our former logistics business, we developed supervisors, paid for their training and when we sold the business, put aside a significant amount of money for the long-term employees and paid them bonuses.

As a manager or business owner how would you like to be remembered?

The greedy, arrogant, unapproachable and selfish individual, or like my mother, remembered in a positive light as someone who made a difference to others’ lives years after the event?

The Tombstone Test is meant to make you confront reality, have a deeper perspective on how you live your life both at work, in the community and at home and be remembered as a making a positive difference in the world.

As we approach Christmas and the end of the calendar year it is a good time to reflect on the past 12 months and think about the future. The Tombstone Test is a good starting point.

Seasons Greetings to all my blog readers and all the best for 2024

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A great business model or trashing your brand?

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(c) The Sydney Morning Herald (Sept 2023)- illustration by Matt Golding

Several years ago in my management blog, I described Elvis Business Model (EBM) as an ‘ideal business’ model. In 1977, the year Elvis Presley tragically died he had less than $US1 million in the bank, but by 2016 his estate had earned more than $US27 million.

The recent corporate history of Qantas ‘the spirit of Australia’ has now provided what may be a better business model. Let’s call it FKBM – the flying kangaroo business model.

In August 2023 Qantas announced a record pre-tax annual profit of nearly AU$2.5 billion up from a loss of almost AU$2 billion the previous year. Following the pandemic years, many travellers were prepared to tolerate, perhaps even forgive their poor customer service, long call centre delays, lost luggage and cancelled or delayed flights. But two years on, trust and esteem for the airline is running at an all-time low.

Now at the time of writing, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking the action against Qantas for engaging in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising and selling tickets for flights that it had already cancelled sometimes months ahead. This often led to customers having less time to make alternative arrangements and paying higher prices for new flights. These credits exceeded $570 million! Tickets are now averaging 60% above pre-COVID prices. Coupled with this, an international rival of Qantas, Qatar Airlines recognised for its high level of customer satisfaction was refused additional flights into Australia by the current Australian Government. Competition was reduced providing the opportunity to increase prices.

What an excellent business model!

Collecting money for already cancelled flights, thereby having access to this cash certainly helped finance the business, then make it difficult to redeem the credits (this was partially reversed) and later having the government of the day restrict international competition, thus allowing you to charge higher prices.

So, how far has Qantas fallen in Skytrax Best Airline survey?

As Qatar has a significantly better ranking than Qantas, having the government refuse to increase their landing rights is certainly ‘beneficial’.

So, is FKBM the way forward?

Well, no, not really.

Firstly, Qantas has alienated its customers. Judging by the high number of customer complaints this is certainly the case. Many have said they will never fly with them again. The brand has been trashed.

However, it goes further than this.

Qantas has had a difficult relationship with its employees, from shutting down the airline in 2011 in a dispute with staff to sacking thousands of employees during the pandemic and outsourcing maintenance which saved the airline over $100m per year. The High Court of Australia ruled last month that Qantas had unlawfully outsourced the jobs of sacked workers. Whilst not all of this is Qantas’ fault, its restrictive trade union work practices which inflated costs did not help. Businesses cannot reliably add value when the relationship between management and other employees is broken. If a company’s employees have little or no faith in their brand, how are customers be expected to?

Employee disfunction morphs into broken promises to customers, suppliers and other stakeholders further depleting goodwill. Although not all stakeholders are adversely affected – Qantas shareholders and senior management have certainly benefited from good dividends and bonuses. However, if you are a customer, a worker, or you live in a regional area or are a taxpayer you might not agree. It is not helped when the public see the CEO walk away with millions of dollars in bonuses.

Trust is a highly emotive, particularly when viewed through a brand lens. A brand is a belief and values system which acts as the bedrock for guiding management on how to re-engage with its many stakeholders whether they be an employee, shareholder or customer. Businesses cannot be successful without customers. When it comes to convincing customers to believe what you are saying, there is no one size fits all approach.  A good start would be to engage and have faith in your employees. It flows on from there.

Do you think the FKBM is a good long-term strategy?

If not, why not?

How important is employee engagement in ensuring good customer service?

Is excellent customer service vital for long term business success?

Note: On an international flight over 4 months ago, Qantas mislaid my luggage and I had to purchase clothing to continue my travels. Qantas ‘offered’ to pay compensation and I completed the requested form. Despite over 10 emails (Qantas ‘customer service’ claims not to have received my emails), and several phone calls including a promise to return my call within 5 working days which has not been returned, the compensation has not been forthcoming. I am one of many who have experienced Qantas’ poor service levels firsthand. Have you?

Necessity is the mother of invention

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“Our need will be the real creator” – Plato Greek Philosopher

Despite relatively low litter rates, in 2019 the Victorian State Government implemented a state-wide ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags. The Government explained this as a global problem, as plastics in the environment break up into smaller and smaller pieces over time.  Plastic bags can easily be blown into open spaces and waterways and pose a danger to marine life.

I was outraged. We reused shopping bags for bin liners and put ‘doggy poo’ in them when we walked our dog. We were recycling plastic bags and not allowing them into the environment. I considered that our household was doing our bit in helping the environment and recycling plastic bags.

Interestingly, the two major supermarkets who in Australia have over 50% market share displayed predictable oligopolistic behaviours. They immediately implemented the ban and then sold ‘reusable’ plastic shopping bags to customers, never missing an opportunity to make money.

In regard to the ‘doggy poo’ problem, we soon found alternatives to shopping bags. The plastic covering for bread, which previously were thrown into the rubbish bin made better ‘doggy poo’ bags than the now banned shopping bags.

The lesson here was that necessity made us find an alternative to shopping plastic bags. This happens in business. Here is an example and is another “lesson from the farm”.

I grew up on a farm in rural NSW, Australia. My father grew wheat and bred sheep and cattle. Ewes lambed in spring. One important task was to check them each morning to see if any were in difficulty, if lambs were not with their mothers or if lambs had been attacked by crows. So, each morning my father had to ‘catch a horse’ (go and round up his horse), saddle it and ride over a kilometre to the paddock where lambing was occurring, then ride around the flock to check them. This took well over two hours, a considerable part of the day. This was in the mid-1960s.

He gave it some thought and came up with the idea of using a motorbike. A bike didn’t need to be caught and saddled each morning, be fed and was far quicker than a horse. Placing an advertisement in the local newspaper he found a person wishing to sell a World War II era motorbike. Dad purchased it, and quickly learnt to ride it, especially in rough paddocks. He saved the equivalent of a day a week each week. Five years later Honda released their Honda 90 Ag Bike – necessity was the mother of invention!

Can you think of any examples in your organisation of necessity forcing innovation?

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The Valley of Tears…

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“On 6 October 1973, the Yom Kippur war broke out between a coalition of Arab states and Israel. At 6 A.M. that morning, Kissinger, asleep in the Waldorf, was taken by surprise by the Arab attack – as were the CIA and the rest of the world”.

Alistair Horne – British Historian

Fifty years ago next month, on 6th October 1973 the combined forces of Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, the Sinai in the west and the Golan Heights in the northeast. This became known as the Yom Kippur War. The surprise attack occurred on the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday when most of the Israeli military were on leave.

Egypt’s prime reason for the attack was to force Israel to negotiate a peace treaty for the return of the Sinai. The Egyptians did not advance any further than a narrow strip of the Sinai that could be protected by SAM missile batteries. However, the Syrians had different aims, to retake the Golan Heights taken in 1967 Six Day War and destroy Israel. With the unexpected success of the Six Day War, Israel was arrogant, complacent, overconfident, and believed that their intelligence would anticipate any assault.

In particular, the battle of the Golan Heights has some important lessons for managers and leaders.

More than 1,400 Syrians tanks, 28,000 troops and 600 artillery pieces poured into the Golan Heights, opposed by just 180 Israeli tanks, 3,000 troops and 60 artillery pieces. Syrian intelligence had estimated that due to the Yom Kippur holiday it would take 20 hours for the Israeli reservists to reinforce the Golan Heights, however instead it took 10 hours.

By 5pm on 7th October with the Israelis under sustained pressure, the Syrians at the instruction of their President, unexpectedly halted their advance on the road to Galilee. The bridges over the Jordan River were virtually undefended and the road to Israel was open to the invading force.

Despite the overwhelming numbers, the Israeli forces manage to hold the advance in time for the reservists to arrive. In what became known as the ‘valley of tears’, the Syrian armoured forces suffered horrendous losses against a far numerically inferior foe, turning the tide of the battle for the Golan Heights.

So, what happened?

The Syrians were numerically superior, armed with up-to-date Soviet weaponry and night vision equipment which the Israelis did not have. When their lead tanks were destroyed, the Syrian tanks refused to stop, move off the roads or bypass the destroyed vehicles. This caused roadblocks and made them easy targets for the highly trained Israeli tank crews.

The Syrians refused to manoeuvre unless ordered by higher command. Syrian forces demonstrated a critical lack of adaptability and comprehensive training. This was in direct comparison to the Israeli forces, who despite being outgunned and outnumbered, changed their tactics.

The most famous of the adaptability of tactics was a young Lieutenant Zvi Gringold, known affectionately as ‘Lieutenant Zvicka,’. He became a legend and was awarded Israel’s highest decoration. His hit-and-run tactics initially destroyed 10 Syrian tanks and he was credited with single-handedly holding at bay 50 Syrian tanks. The Syrians thought they were up against a large Israeli force and withdrew. Throughout the night and following day, Gringold continued to engage the Syrians and destroyed another 30 tanks. These tactics were copied by other Israeli tank commanders.

The tide in the battle for the Golan Heights began to turn as arriving Israeli reserve forces were able to contain the Syrian advance.  The arrival of the reservists was the beginning of the end for Syria. After four days the Israelis succeeded in pushing the Syrians out of the Golan Heights and began their march towards the Syrian capital, Damascus.

What are the lessons for leaders here?

Lesson 1: Remote and authoritarian leadership often fails. The Syrian advance was unexpectedly halted by the Syrian Dictator President Assad, but the road into Israel was virtually undefended. Clearly the best decisions are often made close to the battlefield and in business close to ‘the coal face’ as the managers have a better understanding of the situation.

How often do decrees from head office seem remote and unrealistic?

Lesson 2: Decentralised leadership is far more effective and allows managers to react to the situation. In this case,case, as demonstrated by ‘Lieutenant Ziva’ the Israelis adapted their tactics to meet the situation, despite the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Syrians.

In our former logistics business, we gave our supervisors the authority to manage customers face-to-face on a daily basis, without always referring to the Warehouse Manager. This enabled them to manage the usual crises that occur in logistics in a proactive and ‘customer centric’ way, resulting in customers staying with the business over the long term.

Lesson 3: Over confidence and arrogance are dangerous. With the overwhelming success of the 1967 Six Day War, the Israelis were arrogant. They ignored the intelligence and were caught short. As Andy Gove, the founder and former CEO of Intel said; “only the paranoid survive”. Gove warned against the ‘inertia of success’.

Can you think of any businesses that were initially successful but failed because they were complacent and arrogant?

Kodak dominated the photographic film industry with over 50% of the global market share. It ignored the market disruption caused by digital cameras. Ironically, a Kodak engineer in 1975 invented the digital camera, but it was ignored by management. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

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Lessons from the Great Train Robbery…

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“There’s a difference between criminals and crooks. Crooks steal. Criminals blow some guy’s brains out. I’m a crook”

Ronnie Briggs – Great Train Robber

Sixty years ago, this month on 8th August 1963 the Glasgow–London Royal Mail Train was held up by 15 men, wearing helmets, ski masks, and gloves. The train was carrying mostly used bank notes to be destroyed. This was known as the Great Train Robbery.  The ringleader, Bruce Reynolds was a known burglar and armed robber. Just over £2,600,000 (£50m today) was stolen in an audacious and apparently well-planned heist aided by inside information. It only took 15 minutes. No firearms were used, although the train’s driver was seriously injured when bashed with a metal bar.

Before the Great Train Robbery, Reynolds had organised a gang and conducted a successful £62,000 airport robbery. Flush with this success, Reynolds began searching for ‘the next big one’. Upon identifying the opportunity, Reynolds realised that he needed help from the London underworld as his original gang could not do the job alone.

The train was stopped when the robbers turned off a green track signal with batteries and turned on a red signal. Approximately 120 mail bags were taken from the train to a farm hideaway, where it was divided up. During the robbery, one of the gang told the postal staff on the train not to move for 30 minutes. This information suggested to the police that the hideout was within a 30-mile radius.

On hearing on the radio that the police were narrowing the search, the robbers hurriedly left the farm the day after the robbery. Only five days after the robbery a local farm worker had noted suspicious vehicles at a neighbouring farm and advised the police. When two police came to the farm, they found the Landrovers and truck used in the robbery, plus bedding, food, post office bags, banknote wrappers and a monopoly board. Part of the plan was to burn down the farmhouse. However, the robbers in their haste left fingerprints on a tomato sauce bottle and the monopoly board. Apparently, the robbers had played monopoly with real money from the heist!

The robbery had attracted far more police attention than anticipated by the robbers. It also captured the imagination of the public and the media. A reward of £250,000 was offered. A breakthrough came when an informant gave the police a list of names. Some of the names were matched to the fingerprints from the farm. With this and other evidence, by Christmas 12 robbers had been caught, convicted and sentenced up to 30 years jail.

Only three of the robbers remained at large. Reynolds and two others went abroad to Mexico and lived the highlife. By 1968 Reynolds had spent most of his ill-gotten gains. He planned another large robbery and returned to England where he was arrested. Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison in 1965, fled first to Paris, then after undergoing plastic surgery travelled to Australia, and finally to Brazil in 1970. He remained at large as there was no extradition treaty between Brazil and the UK. In 2001 after suffering several strokes, he returned voluntarily to the England and was rearrested.

Are there any lessons here for managers in this ‘crime of the century’ (apart from the obvious lessons of crime not paying and it’s not a good idea to play Monopoly with real money)?

The robbery was well planned and executed with military precision. But by Christmas in 1963, 12 of the robbers had been arrested. Hardly a sign of success!

Here are three lessons I think we can take away from the Great Train Robbery:

  • 1. Have a vision.  

Reynolds as the leader was the brains behind the daring heist. Following the ‘success’ of the airport robbery, Reynolds wanted a bigger challenge. In the dialogue from a movie of the robbery, Reynolds was quoted as saying:

“You’ve got to dream big.  What are we here for if we don’t make our mark? It was never just about the cash.  It’s the buzz.  Building the team, finding the job, planning the job, carrying it out. It’s the camaraderie. Trusting other men with everything you know. With your life.”

Although this is a fictional quote it is probably is an accurate depiction of what occurred. Reynolds had clear vision – in other words a vision statement! The power of vision is very powerful. An ingredient of a successful business is to have a very clear vision.

  • 2. Plan thoroughly.

With a clear vision, Reynolds meticulously prepared and planned the robbery. He realised that the scope was beyond his immediate circle’s skills and quickly expanded the size and skills of the gang.  He was faced with needing specific skills to ensure success. This included how to fake the train signals to stop the train and how to drive the train once it was held up. Sound planning allowed the initial success of the robbery – in 15 minutes.

  • 3. You cannot plan for all eventualities and you should have a plan B.

Despite the meticulous planning, the robbers did not plan for all eventualities. In reality, in business it is also not possible to plan for all eventualities. However, you should always have a Plan B. A contingency plan if ‘things go wrong’. When calm leadership was required, the gang panicked when they heard that the police were searching within a 30-mile radius of the robbery. They left the farm and didn’t adequately cover their tracks. In other words, despite the planning there was poor execution which resulted in the robbers being caught.

In concluding, there is nothing like a good story to demonstrate a point and the Great Train Robbery certainly does this!

What do you think?

Note: I am not condoning the robbery that left the train driver seriously injured. Just using a well-known story as an example for managers. The robbery was a success, but many things went wrong after that.  The amount stolen was so much more than expected that it sparked a major investigation plus “crime of the century” publicity. The police response was swift and successful. An example of sound management and leadership.

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Another lesson from the island of St Kilda

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“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
Aldous Huxley – British Author

In a previous blog I used the backdrop of the remote isolated and windswept island of St Kilda off the west coast of mainland Scotland and the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, Australia. The moral of the story was THAT as managers, we should never accept things at face value. Once again, I’m going to use the island of St Kilda as a backdrop for another lesson for managers.

Background

On St Kilda the climate was so extreme, and the wind was sometimes so strong that the islanders’ sheep and cattle could be blown over the cliffs.  During the 19th Century, the island’s population was around 100 people. With increasing contact with the outside world in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the island’s population gradually declined. In September 1852, 36 emigrants from St Kilda left for Melbourne. Sadly, only 17 survived the journey, the others succumbing to diseases they had no immunity to due to their isolated existence. The island never fully recovered from this event, both physically and psychologically.

After the World War I, most of the young men left the island. The population fell from 73 in 1920 to only 37 in 1928. In 1930, the last of the island’s inhabitants were evacuated to mainland Scotland, ending hundreds of years of isolation, poverty, and deprivation.

What caused the demise of the population of St Kilda?

Obviously, increasing contact with the outside world provided the opportunity for the islanders to see that an easier and better standard of living could be achieved if they left the island. However, one of the main reasons can be traced back to the mid-19th Century with the arrival of Rev John Mackay, a minister in the new Free Church of Scotland. Mackay was a religious zealot. He introduced a routine of three two to three-hour services on Sunday. No work was permitted or conversation, only recitation from the Bible was allowed.

Although Rev Mackay left the island in 1889 his legacy lived on. Mackay denied the islanders outside influences and being the only English speaker on the island (the islanders spoke Gaelic) he was able to keep them in a state of ignorance, combining this with religious zealotry.

Linked to societal ignorance, one of the sadder aspects of St Kilda’s life was the horrendous infant mortality rate. One out of every two babies born would not survive their first year of life, dying of infant tetanus. When a child was born on the island, fulmar (sea bird) oil, was applied to the baby after the umbilical cord had been cut. The oil was not stored in sterile conditions.

In 1891, two years after Rev Mackay left a midwife arrived from Glasgow.  She brought improved midwifery skills, hygienic nursing practices and education and the practice of dipping the umbilical cord in fulmar oil ceased. This reduced childhood tetanus, and it was virtually eliminated. Unfortunately, by this time the situation on the island was irreversible. The population was stagnant, and many wanted to leave.

What can we learn as managers from this sad story of the demise of the people of St Kilda?

Organisations and businesses have similar characteristics to small communities like St Kilda. In particular, family-owned businesses often fail to bring in new blood and ideas and this can lead to a gradual demise of the business. Often when new blood comes into an organisation, the owner and the family refuse to change and this undermines the newcomer’s position. I witnessed a former client who claimed he wanted to ‘step back’ from the day to day running of the business. Sadly, he failed to share information, didn’t communicate in a constructive and rational way, and often made decisions behind the new manager’s back. Despite claiming he wanted to ‘step back’, he couldn’t let go and didn’t know how to. He then fired the incumbent because he claimed he had “failed”. Employees on experiencing professional management and then seeing a return to the old behaviors, started to leave. People join organisations but leave due to bad managers.

In my experience, keeping people ignorant is never a wise strategy for managers. I have found that often sharing information can improve performance. When I was managing a major trucking business, despite ‘advice’ to the contrary, I shared weekly driving performance statistics with the linehaul drivers. Driving performance improved, with reduced speeding and fuel consumption and fewer accidents.

All organisations have life cycles and they need to be regenerated with ideas and people externally.

Postscript: I do want to stress that many factors contributed to the decline and death of the community of St Kilda, with health-related problems being one of the main causes. I visited the islands in mid-2023 and it was a very interesting trip – history, birds and landscape. I would recommend a visit – a real step back in time.

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