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October 5, 2016

Allen Lund Company Newsletter

Emergent Issues in Distribution and Transportation

In This Issue
Walt Disneys's Outlook on Life and Work

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Jenn Cole, Editor  
Allen Lund Company
Grand Rapids Office
(800) 641-5863 
Walt Disney's Outlook on Life and Work

I was recently blessed with being able to take a two week vacation which I spent, along with my beautiful wife and kids, at Walt Disney World. I went down there hoping to find a respite from the hustle and bustle of my business and social life at home, but more importantly I was also hoping that my family would find some time to just be themselves and enjoy the fantasy that Walt Disney created not only in his lifetime but by his legacy after the fact. A few things have hit me in the past two weeks. Walt Disney seemed to be guided by only a few principles in his work life. 1) He saw the toll his work schedule took on his family and wanted to create a place where parents could enjoy a time away from work with family. 2) He wanted to do something he enjoyed day in and day out. And, 3) He wanted to create something great with a team.

Walt Disney spent many hours pursuing his dream and he saw the toll his schedule took on his family. Walt was busy traveling back and forth across the country chasing his dream from Marceline, MO to Hollywood, CA, over to New York and finally down to Florida. So what he decided to do was create Disneyland in California and the Walt Disney World in Florida. The guiding principles from day one seem to be to me that he would spare no expense in creating something great that families could, and would flock to, and be able to relax, play and enjoy themselves. If you have visited a Disney park you will know that his vision for family fun has been realized in such things as the resorts, restaurants, the rides for both kids and parents.

When you walk around Disney you can sense his vision in the way the park is laid out, the way "cast members" interact with the guests, and in how the whole operation, expensive as it is, is designed to fulfill Walt Disney's dreams. Walt Disney's quotes are posted around the park to showcase what he envisioned and one that struck me was  "most of my life I have done what I wanted to do. I have had fun on the job." I was heartened by this as I have told my kids in the past that I feel blessed to have been able to never have had the Sunday evening dread that I had to go to work tomorrow. I have always enjoyed my work, well maybe not always but most weeks I at least don't dread Mondays. I feel some satisfaction in Monday mornings and believe that is how our lives should be. Do I like Fridays? Yes I do, but I also enjoy most days of the week so I feel as a kindred spirit in this with Walt.

The third point I have taken away from all of this is that we are better as a team. We can accomplish more when we work together. Walt Disney stated that "whatever we accomplish belongs to our entire group, a tribute to our combined effort." It's not a singular effort, it's not a singular goal. Our goal should be the betterment of our customers, our company, our offices and our people. He drew the first Mickey Mouse sketch on a train back from New York but if it was only him working on that would it have grown to the cultural icon it is today?

To sum it all up when I was in Florida I was able to look around and see the personification of Walt Disney's ideas. He has created a place where at any age you can go and find something to do and enjoy, from all reports he thoroughly enjoyed the creative process he was involved in day to day. Walt worked collaboratively with his team and always seemed to be saying "we", or "all of us" created this, never taking all of the credit for himself for the wild success his ideas and energy created. What would our operations look like if we took these ideas to heart, found energy in creating a solution to a customer or employee problem, and strove to work collaboratively on projects? Sometimes it doesn't matter who gets the credit for an idea but it does matter that the idea and creative process gets pushed forward.





Joe Creedon
Manager, Kansas City
joe.creedon@allenlund.com

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Joe Creedon joined the Allen Lund Company in 2009 as manager of the Kansas City office. With 20 years of experience, Creedon brings an extensive knowledge base in all aspects of freight transportation including import and export, intermodal, and warehousing. 



About Allen Lund Company: Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices and over 400 employees, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to arrange dry, refrigerated (specializing in produce), and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has an international division, which is licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC #019872NF, and a logistics and software division, ALC Logistics.  

 

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