Week Ending 13/10/19
What we worked on
This week was biased towards shaping Crawford’s future, more news on that in next weeks jottings. With clients we had a reflective week, catching up with some of the larger projects from the previous year.
Strategic Facilitation — Innovation is our future
I met James Till, at Allett Mowers, to review the strategic plan we helped create last year. Allett are a hidden British Manufacturing gem, selling both in the UK and across the world; most notably they sold more that one hundred and eighty machines to the Russia World Cup stadiums; all those world class sports surfaces and stripes you saw were created with an Allett Mower.
Whilst all of the battery electric talk is centred on Tesla, Rivian and Polestar Allett are leading the charge in electrifying sports stadiums, higher education, and prestige and important lawns. Allett’s pioneering battery electric range has been rapturously received by professional groundsmen, and is just the spearhead of what will grow to be a full range of battery electric professional tools, all with interchangeable battery packs.
It was fantastic to receive an update from James, not least to learn of Allett’s Queens Award for Enterprise. Most if not all of the strategic projects, discussed have been completed or are on track, and all are yielding benefits in line with projections. There have of course been a few bumps in the road, the culture development that formed the foundations of the strategic review facilitated by Crawford, has proven resilient and is helping cope with challenges whilst accelerating innovation.
What I’m Reading
Range — How generalists triumph in a specialized world
Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
If ever a book was chosen based on a built in bias, this is it. The counter argument to the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, that’s become ‘accepted wisdom’.
The blurb that led me, a generalist, to pick the book off the shelves:
In this landmark book, David Epstein shows you that the way to succeed is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests — in other words, by developing range.
At play & this weeks adventure:
Favourite recent run. I should think more carefully before naming runs. This was a night run with good friend and Marathon des Sables tent mate, Steve ‘Commander’ Brown:
Playing in the dark with Brown. – Archi Stewart’s 8.4 mi run
A great catch-up with Steve, a trudge around the Kinder Plateau in the dark, with a failing head torch, a big spill on some rocks leading to a very hurty knee and elbow, a sprint down to the pub covered in muck and blood to make last orders and crisp packet dinner — awesome.