The Student Newspaper of Westminster Christian Academy

The Wildcat Roar

The Student Newspaper of Westminster Christian Academy

The Wildcat Roar

The Student Newspaper of Westminster Christian Academy

The Wildcat Roar

The Bicycle Analogy

Ferry Porsche was in trouble. His famed sports car company was on the brink of bankruptcy and he needed an answer — and quickly. He would find that answer in the most unlikely person, Peter W. Schutz. The son of a jewish man in Nazi Germany, Schutz would flee Germany with his family, find exile in Cuba, and ultimately make his way to the U.S. where he would be prepared to become the man who would save Germany’s greatest car company.

What does this have to do with Westminster Christian Academy? Mr. Schutz’s story is a redemptive one for sure – his rise to CEO of Porsche has as much to do with the Porsche family’s desire to atone for the sins of their part in the Nazi’s plot to eradicate the world of Jews as it has to do with the desire to turnaround a great automotive company. As a Christian school, Westminster understands a redemption story.

But, there is more to this story. Mr. Schutz gave Porsche a hope and future because he understood a very simple and powerful analogy that holds equal relevance to Westminster: the power of understanding the complementary roles of the “front and back wheels” of an organization.

The metaphor went like this: every organization in the world operates like a bicycle. Porsche, for example, had a strong back wheel made up of engineers, number crunchers, factories, and suppliers that could push the company. What they didn’t have was a good front wheel: no leadership or value of the customer that could point the bicycle where it needed to go.

As a result, the company’s ‘bicycle’ could go as fast as it wanted but would never head in the direction necessary for success. Schutz, therefore, would spend his time fixing the front wheel through uniting his people and finding what his customers really wanted. He would eventually succeed in turning the company around and go down in history as the man that saved Porsche.

This analogy relates to Westminster. We have a great back wheel that is made up of a brand-new facility, excellent teachers, numerous courses, and good extra-curricular activities. The front wheel is also well-equipped and consists of great leaders like Mr. Marsh or Dr. Stoner that think in the long term and are directing Westminster towards many more decades of success.

As our new front wheel Dr. Stoner takes his place as the Head of Westminster, he be benefitted by thinking about the school’s long term goals and the identity of its customers.

I am sure that Dr. Stoner will be much more knowledgeable of our school’s customers, be they parents who send their children to school, the colleges that these students attend, the workforces that will employ them, the community that they will impact, the Lord that they will serve, or a mixture of all of these.

Dr. Stoner will also be concerned about sustaining Westminster’s mission statement while at the same time expanding the school, just as Mr. Marsh did.

The bicycle metaphor does not only relate leaders and workers of orgainizations, however. They could relate Westminster students as well. Another part of Schutz’s story is that he believed from a young age that he would be an engineer. Therefore, Schutz got a bachelor’s degree of science at the Illinois Institute of Technology and started his career as an engineer for Caterpillar.

Soon, he realized that engineering was not his calling, and he quickly quit his job for a leadership opportunity at Cummins Engine.

The point is that during one’s high school years a student probably doesn’t have a good idea of his future calling, just as Schutz didn’t. Therefore, it might be beneficial to keep all doors open and become well-rounded so that students are prepared for any route that their lives might take them.

Also, the stereotype that everyone is destined to lead is wrong. Resources and brilliant minds are equally important and necessary to leadership positions, and if one part of this equation is missing, a company will never be able to function. Both parts of the industry should be valued and pursued, and resultantly it is wise to have knowledge of each profession so that one can keep all doors open.

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The Bicycle Analogy