Are you Amundsen or are you Scott?

While it is almost 110 years since the rivals Scott and Amundsen competed to be the first people on the South Pole their experience provides relevant lessons for leaders today - especially as, Jim Collins argues in his book ‘great by choice’, during periods of uncertainty and challenge.

Collins reflects on the admirable preparation and attention to detail from Amundsen and compares this with the contrast provided by Scott. 

• Where Amundsen prepared and tested all equipment, Scott chose to gamble on motor sledges that hadn't been fully tested in the appropriate conditions, 
• Where Amundsen stored 3 tons of supplies for five men, Scott stored only one ton for 17 men.
• Where Scott bought only one thermometer, which subsequently broke, Amundsen bought 4 - precisely to cover for accidents.
• Where Scott placed only a single flag on his primary food depot, Amundsen placed twenty such flags giving him a target of more than 10 kilometres wide to reduce the chance of error.  

Most importantly Collins argues Amundsen kept to a philosophy of covering just 20 miles per day a discipline that allowed him to conserve the strength of the team on good days and ensure progress was still made on tough days. 

Kitchen in Scott's Hut - the cooking and eating utensils, older, rusted, but largely as they were left more than a century ago.

Collins argues that these qualities of preparation, vigilance, and most importantly the discipline of the ‘20 Mile March’ are the same qualities that separate successful businesses in times of crisis from unsuccessful ones. 

Listen to #8wordsorless to find out more and understand why Samie arrived at his central message of 'go slow to go fast’