Details

I’m going to tell a story in this message about one of the traits that make a company Great – attention to detail.

About 300 miles north of El Monte and just east of US Highway 395 (one of the most beautiful highways in the U.S.) there is a ghost town named Bodie. It used to be a gold mining boom town and then it slowly died and today is a California State Park. Just after the Civil War gold was discovered at the place where Bodie would be built. The discovery caused a minor gold rush, and pretty soon there was a town full of people intent on making a fortune. Because of the rush to find gold and the “temporary” nature of the citizens, the town was built entirely of wood and, as we all know, wood burns. Bodie is in a particularly desolate location and it was important for the miners’ survival, as well as the commerce of the town, that the buildings not burn down. So, very early in the history of the town the civic leaders commissioned a canal to be built to bring water to the town and a pond to hold the water. These would be kept in case of fire.

In our factories we have fire extinguishers, evacuation plans, first aid kits and numerous preventative measures in place just in case there is a disaster. Any sensible person would do the same thing as Bodie.

Well, the inevitable happened and there was a fire. The fire brigade went to the pond and tried to open the gate to allow the water to flow into town. It had been several years since the pond had been built and nobody had adequately maintained the equipment. Not hard to believe; most people have things to do and “there’s not likely to be a fire today… so I’ll do it tomorrow.” A significant part of the town burned to the ground.