{"id":25,"date":"2009-01-11T00:07:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-11T00:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/?p=21"},"modified":"2020-05-06T16:37:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T23:37:55","slug":"21-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/21-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Initiative, persistence and progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I left Eugene for a two week vacation on the coast of Maine awhile back I brought along a Bike Friday<\/a>. I saw it as a way to enjoy a bit of solitude while visiting my new in-laws. While visiting the coast of Maine I used my bike for brief trips to visit my in-laws across the harbor … a nice break from all the commotion of family.<\/p>\n

What surprised me most of all when riding was that my thoughts turned quickly to the people behind the bike. I could not help but reflect on my own experience at the home of Bike Friday.<\/p>\n

I thought some more, and three words came to mind: love, initiative and perseverance. Love of a common vision – to see everyone riding more and driving less. Taking the initiative in spite of the FUD factor – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. And lastly, persevering and turning things around even after a setback. This is not a typical story of the graceful, often mythical high powered organizations lauded in management text books. Rather, it’s a simple story of how a local company can transform a dream into a sustainable reality.<\/p>\n

\"Bike
Bike Friday Tour group in France<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first experience with Bike Friday was in the early 1990\u2019s. At that time I was working with a manufacturing company that supplied parts for Bike Friday. It was then that I first experienced the soul of Bike Friday. I will never forget a hot summer day when we were working in 90+ degree heat and, to our surprise, someone showed up with several cartons of ice cream for our workers. The ice cream was from Bike Friday. How often does a customer send the vendor a gift? I knew then, this was a unique company.<\/p>\n

It was much later in 2001 that I found myself working with Bike Friday over a six month period. I was able to experience first hand the challenges of keeping a small business with a global customer base moving forward. A business led by a couple of visionary guys who admitted they had more experience with engineering than human relations. A highly intense and creative environment. I found the company a challenge to work with, like many cutting-edge companies. Yet, I also found big hearts.<\/p>\n

Who do I remember? I remember the owners Hanz and Alan Scholz. I think of Lynette Chiang\u2019s<\/a> travels and sharing it through her writing. I think of the young Hanna Scholz growing with the family business and the good work ethic she learned in the process.<\/p>\n

Since leaving Bike Friday I\u2019ve stopped by many times to check-up on their progress. I am always amazed by their work ethic and the continuing evolution of the company.<\/p>\n

Bike Friday is not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing environment either; factories often aren\u2019t. Yet, there is a beauty of a unified vision that hums within those tin walls.<\/p>\n

For the many who have worked for Bike Friday, we know that it isn\u2019t necessarily the easiest place to work … most labor of love isn\u2019t. Doing anything out of the box takes commitment, effort and mutual understanding. Even though it\u2019s been a few years since working with Bike Friday, I continue to reflect on valuable lessons learned there.<\/p>\n

If you would like to know more about Bike Friday you can visit their web site at www.bikefriday.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I left Eugene for a two week vacation on the coast of Maine awhile back I brought along a Bike Friday. I saw it as a way to enjoy a bit of solitude while visiting my new in-laws. While visiting the coast of Maine I used my bike for brief trips to visit my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckcraytor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}