Kennards Self Storage April eKourier

FEATURE

WHAT IS OUR TWENTY MILE MARCH?

As a business we have followed the philosophies and principles of Jim Collins, a researcher who has studied what makes good companies great and enduring, using data collected over 25 years. Jim has authored and co-authored a series of books detailing his learnings from this research. Books such as 'Good to Great', 'Built to Last' and 'How the Mighty Fall', to name a few. These books are available from the KSS Library and have been a mandatory read for all new employees who join KSS in a leadership role.

do more but do not do any less to get to where you want to go. What is our 20 Mile March? What is it every day we are disciplined to do without fail that will get us to what we want to achieve. The activities that happen every day without fail that lead us to success and freedom. Our daily walk around the centre, prefer- ably first thing in the morning. We do this to know what is happening in our centres from a safety and security perspective, a proactive approach to property management. This is a point of difference and a customer touch point. Explaining to our customers that we check every lock every day provides comfort and piece of mind for people storing with us. This forms part of our 20 Mile March. Pipeline management following up and checking in on our active reservations and enquiries, this in conjunction with the daily walk around are the two most important aspects of what happens each day on our march. The recently introduced Care Call has become part of our 20 Mile March. Another touch point with our customers post move in, to understand how their move in experience was, do they have any questions or concerns, and do they wish to continue with insurance for full peace of mind. More will happen in a day, but nothing can distract us from our 20 Mile March activities. Making the 20 Mile March activities a priority gives us freedom to get on to other activities knowing we have completed what needs to be done that day for success.

J im’s research has been presented under four pillars, Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought, Disciplined Action and Built to Last. Each pillar is broken down further into the principles that build each pillar. After listening to Jim recently, he spoke about the '20 Mile March' one of three powerful principles that builds on the third pillar 'Disciplined Action'. Fanatic execution, self-control, no matter what happens we do the 20 Mile March. I have always believed 'discipline' is a critical ingredient to success. Combining discipline with purpose anything can be achieved. Jim explains that no one big thing will ever make you great, it is the small things that add up to big results. I have heard other references over the years about the power of being disciplined. In particular that discipline equals freedom. Jocko Willinks a retired heavily decorated US Navy Seal describes the relationship between discipline and freedom nicely. He says the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline. If you want financial freedom, you have to have financial discipline, if you want

more free time, you have to be more disciplined with your time manage- ment systems. That means having the discipline to say “no” to things that eat up your time and do not return value. Discipline equals freedom applies to all aspects of life: he says, “if you want more freedom get more discipline” . Jim Collins analogy of the 20 Mile March is about disciplined action. Jim says to be great you need to get up and march 20 miles every day. If you do nothing more in your day make sure you march 20 miles. Some days you will Discipline equals freedom applies to all aspects of life: he says, "if you want more freedom get more discipline".

Darren Marshall Chief Operating Officer

7 Kennards Kourier April 2021