0:02 Who are you and where are you going? What do you want? [Music] Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and I'm here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and pra leadership practices, all by way of distilling lessons that we can then apply to our businesses and
0:39 professional practices. So today I'm going to be talking about the uh Berlin airlift. So, um, oh, and I keep forgetting to close my email. I don't want it dinging all the time in the background. So, so coming out of World War II, the Allies of course won and Germany was divided into four occupation zones. So there was an American, British, French and Soviet
1:16 portion of Germany and each country was tasked with administrating their peace. Now the America, Britain and France decided to administrate their three portions together forming what became known as West Germany. and the Soviet Union administrated its portion by itself becoming known as East Germany. Now
1:51 as well the capital city of Germany Berlin was split into four zones again American, British, French and Soviet. uh and and again the three the three u America, Britain and France administrated their three portions of Berlin together and the Soviet Union administrated their portion of Berlin by itself. The issue was Berlin was in the Soviet zone and so there was there were
2:29 transportation corridors essentially through the Soviet zone. So that the at this point they it was only three allies. The so after World War II the Soviet Union quickly went its own way. So the American, British, and French had a corridor through uh through the the Soviet uh zone of Germany in order to get to their portion of Berlin. And um as you might imagine, this was
3:04 somewhat problematic just from the get-go. So in 1948, tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies, the the US, UK, and France had really escalated. Um there there there um um you know because of the deep distrust uh that that Stalin had had all through the war for you know for the intentions of the American and the British. Um it
3:40 it really it really escalated after the war uh as well and and and the Germany needed a lot of money to rebuild uh and and there was you know there were controversial um uh plans like even though the official program was denazification um former Nazi officials in many cases were kept on in official positions to make sure that the country could could just run basic services, water,
4:16 electricity, that sort of thing. So all of this was sort of swirling around. Um and in the meantime, uh the rise of black market activity in Germany uh after the war was was pretty profound. And although the military authorities did their best to control it, because there were such significant shortages of everything from from food, clothing, um, and and and even things, you know, tobacco, which maybe it would we wouldn't consider a
4:52 necessity today, but it was very much a part of life, you know, back in the late 1940s. So uh there was a a lot of problems with the black market. Violence came out of it. Um and as well um there were Germans who were just not on board with the occupation. And so there was sort of third column activity going on in in in both the western ally zone and and the Soviet zone. Uh there was also a great deal of spying going on between zones.
5:29 uh because the western allies wanted to know what the Soviets were up to. And of course the Soviets wanted to know what the Western Allies were up to and and so uh Berlin especially became a a a good a good place if you will a a fruitful place to be trying to gain intelligence on the other side. Now it the German economy took a long time to recover. One of the steps that the western allies took was to introduce a new currency in their zones called the
6:07 Deutsch mark. And this in particular angered the Soviets because they saw it as an attempt to sort of strengthen the western part of Germany at the expense of their zone. Uh and and again created a great deal of animosity between the western allies and and Russia really Soviet Union. So in response um on June 24th, 1948,
6:43 the the Soviets blockaded all the roads, rails, and canal routes into West Berlin, cutting off all food, fuel, and other essential supplies for over 2 million civilians living in the western zone of Berlin, i.e. west Berlin. the the Soviets goal was to get the Western Allies to abandon West Berlin. And that way the Soviets would have control of the entire city. They would
7:18 no longer need to tolerate the Western Allies traveling through the eastern part of Germany to get to West Berlin. And it would be not only uh a a major strategic victory uh but it would also uh be a big step in controlling the western allies ability to spy on the Soviet Union and the eastern part of Germany. So the western allies were really faced with a tremendous crisis. Now of the three western allies, France
7:55 itself was going through a significant uh rebuilding process. It had been um you know um badly depleted uh during World War II the Nazi occupation even though not all of France was occupied by Nazi Germany. a lot of it was um there had been a lot of destruction and so France was going through its own rebuilding period and so it really fell to the United States and to a lesser extent on the UK which although never occupied in World War II had really
8:32 taken a large brunt of the fighting because of the uh the the the blitz the bombing of of of England by Nazi Germany. the depletion of manpower from having fought really two world wars in you know only 20 years apart basically. Um but nonetheless uh the UK was better off certainly than France. Of course, the United States um uh ended up after World War II as, you know, really the global superpower. And in theory, the Soviet Union was um was was viewed as a
9:10 superpower, but it didn't have anything like the economic might uh that that the United States had post World War II. So in response to the closure of West or the attempt the closure of West Berlin and and the sort of attempted takeover of it, if you will, um the U the US and the UK launched the Berlin Airlift. Uh it was known as Operation Viddles, Viddles as in food uh in the United States and Operation Planefair in the
9:45 UK. And it began within days of the June 24th, 1948 uh closing of routes into West Berlin. So Allied cargo planes flew supplies into West Berlin essentially nonstop. They were I I believe they were mostly C C54 cargo planes. This was a a a Douglas uh aircraft um uh transport and cargo plane that had been developed and used in the latter part of World War II. Um
10:21 it replaced the um uh oh shoot the the the more famous one that you see in all of the World War II movies. I'm I'm going up on on the designation. Uh but the C-54 uh was was a uh a prop uh powered plane. Uh jet jet aviation was still pretty much was still pretty much in its nasonency. Uh and so um these cargo planes brought in um all kinds of supplies, food, fuel, uh all of the
10:57 essential uh supplies necessary to support the 2 million civilians who were essentially trapped in West Berlin. At its peak, a plane landed in West Berlin every 45 seconds. Okay, if you can imagine how many planes that is. Okay, in just an hour that that's um let's see 45 * 2 a minute and a half um times uh 20 no times 40. So 40. So that's 80
11:35 planes. No, no, no. I'm sorry. That's 40 planes a minute, I believe. Okay. 40 planes. No. No. Because it'd be 60 planes. 60 planes would be one every minute. Yeah. So, it's 80 planes. 80 planes. I'm sorry, not a minute. Sorry. 80 planes an hour. 80 planes an hour landing. Um and and you know they would be offloaded and and then you know the plane after after the the cargo was carrying was offloaded it would take off uh to to make another
12:10 run. Um a a tremendous logistical achievement. In total, there were over 277,000 flights delivering 2.3 million tons of supplies, coal, food, medicine, everything had to be brought in in the airlift. Uh and and and you can see that over over the term of uh of the airlift roughly o over a ton of supplies was brought in for each civilian trapped in
12:48 West Germany. Okay, a ton being 2,000 pounds. So o over over a ton. Uh in addition to the main Berlin airlift, there was something called uh Operation Little Viddles. Um and and the pilots would drop candy to the children. Um I mean the the the Air Force did it as a gesture of goodwill. I think the pilots did it because uh you know they they felt bad for these children and and they wanted
13:25 to give them a little treat. Uh you know so just something to kind of brighten up their lives. If you can imagine Berlin had been badly damaged during the war. A lot of people did not have really anything close to adequate housing. There was there was ruins and rubble throughout the city. Uh life was was pretty bleak for for children especially and and so this was a way for the pilots to you know just make a gesture of of caring about the children. So the
14:01 blockade lasted for 11 months, 11 months until May 12th, 1949 when the Soviets realizing that the airlift had had succeeded in foiling their attempt to cut off West Berlin and take it over, they they lifted uh the blockade. So the Berlin airlift stands as the first major confrontation of the Cold War. Um and and it was an an a an an incredibly powerful symbol of the
14:38 resolve, the ingenuity and the commitment of the Western Allies to protecting uh their their zones in in in Germany overall, but in particular West Berlin and pushing back on Soviet aggression uh that was seeking to gain hegemony uh in in you know, within it its zone o over uh Berlin. So, there's a wonder there was a wonderful movie made about the Berlin airlift just a year after it
15:15 ended in 1950. It's called The Big Lift. It stars one of the great actors of that time, uh Montgomery Cliff, who plays one of the pilots. Uh I I I believe there's there's a a love story in it. He falls in love, I think, with a German woman, if if if memory served. I've seen the movie a couple of times. It's a It's a black and white movie, which really gives you kind of a feel of the grittiness of of the of the damage that Berlin had sustained um you know, during World War II. And there there is a a a
15:51 fairly high level of historicity uh to the movie. So, if if you're if you want to know more or get a better sense about what was going on and how the Berlin airlift uh relieved uh the two million people living in West Berlin, I I I recommend the movie to you. You of course there's, you know, books and all all kinds of information about the Berlin Airlift that you can study, but if you're looking for, you know, to to just get a sense of it, the movie is not quite two hours long. Um, and it's I I I I recommend it to you. It's it's a solid
16:28 portrayal of of, you know, of historical fiction. Um, that will give you a sense of just how dramatic uh the Berlin Airlift was and and what a victory it was for the Western Allies over the Soviet Union. So, uh, I I distilled from the, uh, the Berlin Airlift, uh, seven, uh, business lessons. And I think you're going to find these are a, these are little bit different. Not a little bit, they're
17:04 different than the lessons that I I typically talk about on this show. And and and I think for good reason. uh you know the Berlin airlift while it was a military operation it was neither an offensive or defensive combat situation. It was a humanitarian relief situation. Today we we think of humanitarian relief as being just part of military operations. I know when I was in the Navy uh I my ship I I was on the USS
17:40 Ronald Reagan. I was the airwing chaplain as you know if you've seen the show before. We were tasked with humanitarian relief in uh 2011 uh when uh Japan experienced the earthquake and tsunami and the Nakajima nuclear reactor meltdown. So you know and we didn't think anything of being sent to do humanitarian assistance. it it's it's it's it is part it is a firm part of military operations these days but uh in the in the late 1940s
18:16 humanitarian assistance was not a big part of the military playbook and so the Berlin airlift also stands as an example of what the military can accomplish in a non-combat way and so I think you'll find that that the lessons we can learn from a business perspective are different than those that might come out of a combat situation. For example, I think was last week I talked about lessons that could be learned from uh from the uh invasion of Grenada, you
18:52 know, and and and and those s those sorts of situations. So lesson number one is constraints drive innovation. So with roads, rails, canals shut down, the only way to get into uh to to get uh supplies to West Berlin was through air delivery. Now, it's not that supplies had never been delivered by air before. Of course, they had throughout the war.
19:29 However, air supply during World War II was really relegated to uh crucial cargos or the bringing in of personnel, paratroopers, that sort of thing. The idea of supplying a major operation purely through the air, that really didn't happen in in World War II. and and in fact it's still even today it's not a particularly practical way to supply anything. Air air supply is very limited in capacity. It's expensive and
20:05 and so uh like I said it's even today it's it's not a primary means used for supply. So even on an aircraft carrier where we have a COD a carrier onboard delivery u it's it's a detachment not a squadron they will bring supplies onto the ship and people they'll bring people onto the ship. That is not the way the ship is is supplied overall. We have what are called unreps underway replenishments and a a cargo ship basically uh you know meets us in wherever
20:42 wherever the meeting point is generally somewhere in on in the ocean. Uh generally speaking, we're not uh docked when when we're when a at least an aircraft carrier is resupply and the ships sail in parallel and they you know and they transfer goods using kind of a a line and and and pulley system almost. Uh so the idea of using aircraft to do a major and continual resupplying uh process was innovative uh in the in
21:18 the late 1940s. So but it turned out to be very effective. Now you could say well why did the Soviets allow all these cargo planes to fly over their airspace? And the bottom line was the Soviets weren't willing to get into a hot war with the Western allies, which if they had shot down any of those cargo planes would have been the case. That's number one. And number two, I think that the the Soviet leadership really thought this this can't go on. It can't go on and on and on. They can't sustain this for the
21:53 long term. And in the event as as I mentioned a few minutes ago, the airlift lasted for almost a year. Okay. So the business lesson to this is uh when traditional channels close, so new business processes, new distribution models need to be created. Number one. And number two, a lack of constraints doesn't necessarily lead to creativity and innovation. Often times,
22:28 innovation is the result of constraints and needing to find a way to deal a creative way to deal with them, okay? That otherwise wouldn't be thought of because the constraints aren't there. And so the company doesn't have to worry about it. They can just continue doing what they've been doing all along or maybe just make some changes at the margins. So it is during uh crises uh and and and crises that cause
23:03 constraints to the running of our businesses. often times those are when we find the most creative solutions the most and and and innovation is really driven because the business is or the you know professional practice is is facing an almost existential situation. Okay, let's take a break. Probate and trust America
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24:16 navyleague.org. Okay. A little little miss start on on the sponsor uh sponsor spot, but uh this is uh business lessons from the military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel. I'm talking about the Berlin airlift uh which took place from uh June 1948 to May 1949. And it was an effort on the part of the western allies, the United States, the UK and France to uh supply 2 million
24:51 civilians living in West Berlin who by the action of the Soviet Union had been cut off from uh roadbased and rail-based and canal-based resupply. So, uh, because this was a humanitarian aid situation as opposed to a combat situation, the lessons are different from ones that I typically discuss on the show. The first one I mentioned is that constraints drive innovation. So, so that's that's number one. Number two,
25:26 logistics are or at least can be strategy. So the success of the Berlin Airlift rested with being able to organize air air corridors and scheduling flights down to the minute and then streamlining unloading operations. Now the the Western Allies that well was really the the US and the UK did not have an unlimited number of aircraft. Indeed, there were just so many aircraft that could be devoted to the Berlin airlift
26:03 as well. They didn't have an unlimited number of pilots and and pilots could fly, but they had to eat. They had to rest, right? Otherwise, it would be dangerous for them to fly. And so, the Berlin Airlift really was a creature of strategy in logistics. And as I mentioned uh beginning toward the beginning of the show at at its height there was a plane landing every 45 seconds. I mean when you think about that that is an amazing
26:38 uh logistical achievement. I mean on in in commercial airports today I don't think they reach anything like landings happening that close together. Right. they're they leave a much much larger margin for error probably I I don't know what exactly what it is but I I suspect it's at least a couple of minutes right so it it showed you the ability to create this this logistical system and the the pilot's ability to operate
27:14 within it was really extraordinary right and so when we look at strategizing for our businesses. Okay, operations and supply chain management can be probably are crit as critical as product development and marketing. So I I think too often businesses, especially businesses that are being developed on some, you know, great idea. So they're so focused on, you know, building this,
27:51 you know, this great new car, this great new product and then marketing it. They forget that the sustainability of the business really rests on uh supply and operations. It's great to have, you know, a million orders for a million of your products, but if you can't meet those orders, your business is going to collapse. And in fact, many businesses do collapse because their their supply and operations can't keep up. And in fact,
28:28 um I I I know someone who used to uh be a supplier. Uh he he it was a food product. Uh and he did very well supplying to supermarkets. And then one day along comes uh Walmart, the the at the time the biggest retailer in the world. Now, one would think it would be amazing to be able to have Walmart as one of your customers, but the problem is that the demands that Walmart made on his business were so huge
29:04 that his supply and logist and his supply and operations couldn't keep up with it. And in the end, they essentially destroyed his business. So logistics are strategy. They're part of your overall business strategy and they need to be treated that way. The people who are, you know, making decisions about the direction of the company, you need to include people who deeply know operations and supply to make sure that whatever the business is planning, it
29:40 can keep up. I know for myself as as a professional, right? In the end, all I really have to sell is my time, okay? And I can't work 24 hours a day. In fact, I I can't even work, you know, 16 hours a day. On occasion, I have to, but but the reality is, you know, to to to be sustainable, there's only so many hours a day I can work. So the more productive I can be during those hours, the more successful my business will be.
30:16 That productivity comes from understanding the operational side of my business. Right? This is why AI is such a boon for my business because it allows me to get a lot more done in the same amount of time. Right? So logistics are strategy. That's lesson number two. Lesson number three is commitment builds trust. As you might imagine, after World War II ended and and Nazi Germany was forced to surrender and surrender
30:52 unconditionally, that was what what the Allies vowed to require of of Nazi Germany. There were a lot of Germans who were, shall we say, uh, unhappy that they lost the war. Number one. Number two, very suspicious of the allies who all, you know, who shortly after the war ended were coming in as as liberators, even though just not long before that, they had been bombing cities. They had been at war with uh the military Germany's
31:30 military and and and undoubtedly many probably most Germans had either had a relative killed, wounded or captured by the Allies. Um at the minimum they they knew someone who had had someone killed by the Allies. And now all of a sudden they're here telling us they're going to take care of us and rebuild us. Not a lot of trust there. Okay. And and and that was why, you know, you don't hear about it very much, but there was definitely guerilla activity going on in in Germany
32:06 in the western part of Germany administrated by the western allies. Uh there there was uh underground activity against the occupation. Um there were attempts at assassinations of American officials, American uh military people. Uh like I said, a lot of a lot of turmoil and and a lack of trust among a lot of the Germans uh being occupied. So by uh and and and again not just in West Berlin in in western western Germany as
32:43 well. So, one of the things that the Berlin Airlift did was it showed that the Western Allies were absolutely committed to uh maintaining the the civilians in West Berlin, supporting them and seeing to it that uh they were not abandoned to the Soviets for whatever the mistrust was between Germans and the Western Allies. uh their mistrust of the Soviet Union
33:18 was much higher. And in fact um there were German units who desperately uh tried to surrender to the western allies uh militaries rather than having to surrender to the Soviet military because the Soviet military was infamous for essentially just slaughtering captured Germans um as as well as just depraved activity. against German civilians. So, German
33:53 civilians too uh attempted to get out of what became the Soviet occupation zone because they were afraid of the depradations that the Soviet Union would wreak on the Germans um after the war was over. Um and and without getting into the details um you know, you can you can conjure up in your mind what those were. So to see that the western allies were absolutely committed to maintaining their control of West Berlin created a
34:32 much more trust not only on the part of West Berliners but West Germans as well because they they saw that the that the the US and the UK did not abandon West Berlin. they went through this this incredibly difficult uh airborne logistical plan to make sure that uh that that West Berliners survived. And and again, this this is an object lesson uh for for us in business. We really need to gain the
35:10 trust of our customers and clients. Having gained that trust, we need to constantly be working to reinforce it. And um sometimes that means we're going to have to take risks to demonstrate to our customers and clients that we merit their trust. So, you know, again, I'll use my own business as as an example. Um, one of the things I do to gain and maintain the trust of my clients is to
35:45 be open when I make mistakes, right? I go into an administration of an estate or trust by telling them, I'm going to do my best to make, you know, to be as errorfree as possible, but let's just understand from the get-go. I'm going to make mistakes. When I do, I'm going to let you know that I've made a mistake and I'm going to bring to you what I'm what I'm going to do to correct that mistake. Okay? So that I I feel
36:21 that that openness and honesty mer gives them the basis to trust me. So rather than trying to hide from my clients or potential clients, you know, that that I, you know, made a mistake or might make a mistake, I tell them that upfront. Set realistic expectations, but also expectations that they that they can live with and that demonstrate that that I'm trustworthy. Okay. All right. Number four, scale through systems. So, as you can
36:59 imagine, with with over 277,000 flights into West Berlin, this was not uh a a a a program, if you will, of individual glory. This was a program about thousands of people creating a system that could be executed with precision on a ve highly collaborative basis. Okay. So there were there were ego was
37:37 not an issue and in fact uh George Marshall uh who was um uh secretary of state I believe at this time uh and and had launched the larger uh what was became known as the Marshall Plan for rebuilding Germany and Europe. Right. uh he was very modest about his part in all of the rebuilding of of Europe and and Germany in particular. What he fostered an attitude of we're doing this together
38:15 and this is not about individual glory. This is about all of us working together in order to bring about the kind of improvement in living conditions that people in Europe need in order that they can trust us and become our strong allies in the future. So from a business standpoint, okay, it behooves us to focus on building repeatable, coordinated systems, not
38:52 just relying on star performers. So if we've got five salespeople in our organization but one of them generates you know 80 or 90% of sales that's a problem because if that person choose chooses to leave our business could very well collapse. On the other hand, where also that person has a tremendous amount of leverage over the company and if that person makes demands on threat of leaving, what choice will the company have but to at least negotiate if not a
39:30 seed outright to those demands? So rather than than than the company being able to be held hostage by one or maybe two star performers, it's better for the company to create coordinated systems that encourage people to in all people within the company to be successful in their respective roles and in so doing build a strong foundation of of a systematic
40:06 building of ever greater success for the company. Right? So scale comes through building systems and and and I would say that sustainable growth for a company comes from building systems far more so than recruiting or maintaining star performers. Okay, that's number four. Number five, small gestures can have an outsized impact. So, I mentioned uh operation uh little viddles where pilots would drop candy to
40:42 the children just to give them a little treat and and to let them know that they're they're being remembered, that sort of thing. So, um, one one pilot in particular, Lieutenant Gail Halverson, uh, he was known as the candy bomber because he was flying this this, you know, C4 54 and dropping, uh, you know, candy to the children. So, it really humanized the operation. It boosted the morale and and and it showed goodwill um between the Western Allies and the West Berliners.
41:19 and and this kind of small symbolic act really changed the tone of what was going on uh between the you know the the the western allies uh pilots and other personnel who were running the Berlin airlift and the people living there. The parents too of course appreciated that their children were getting these little treats. they couldn't supply them to their children. They weren't available. And so the fact that their children could have, you know, some candy or
41:55 chewing gum or whatever it was that they got, parents parents saw that these pilots cared about them and their children as individuals. They weren't just this sort of amorphous mass that was being taken care of. So small gestures can have an outsiz impact. And we can do the same thing with our our clients and customers. So, um I my friend Bill uh who um is is a podcaster like a more successful podcaster than me. So, uh, after someone is a guest on
42:32 a show, about a week or so later, um, what shows up but, uh, a package with a couple of coffee mugs in it with the the guest's picture on the mugs and and the, um, the thumbnail, uh, for the show on which that guest appeared. And it's just a little gesture. Uh but the mugs are very nice and it's it's a nice way of saying thank you uh to a guest and and completely unnecessary because you know I I've been a guest on on Bill's show I
43:07 think a couple of times now. Uh look, I do it to in order to help educate people. I do it to promote myself and my business. I do it to help out a friend. All of those are great reasons and I don't I don't need a thank you. But the fact that that Bill does that this little gesture I think is is very nice and and it shows a level of thoughtfulness uh that that is different than most podcasters, right? So small gestures can have an outside outsiz impact. We can
43:43 build those into our practices. So I know when I communicate with my uh clients and and I I do a weekly report to the people with whom I'm working when I administrate an estate. I always make it a point to if they have children ask about their children. How are they doing or to I make it a point to wish them a restorative weekend. just a small thing like that so they so that they know that they're not just a client to me. They
44:19 are people and I recognize that uh they have lives beyond what we're with what we're dealing and and that undergirling everything is that we're we're human beings and and and we're we we you know should treat each other with decency and and caring and kindness especially because of you know I'm I'm dealing with people when somebody has passed away there's a lot of stress a lot of anxiety going on. So look for small gestures that you can exhibit
44:55 toward your customers and clients that will bind them more closely to you um and have that kind of outsized impact. Okay. Next, collaboration beats competition in a crisis. So uh this is not a knock on competition. Competition is important. It can motivate uh people and organizations to give their best trying to out compete uh the other competitors. However, in a
45:31 crisis, oftentimes collaboration is much more important. And in the case of the of the Berlin airlift, the US, the UK, and France coordinated efforts and pulled resources instead of competing for credit, instead of focusing on, you know, what was formerly their part of the Western zone and saying, "Look, I can only take care of my own, right?" All three countries worked together in the face of this Soviet Soviet aggression. And and this
46:07 was important because the level of coordination that it took to get to the point where so many aircraft could be landed and unloaded so quickly much better done by coordinating than it would have been by competing. Imagine, you know, three different groups or even two different groups of aircraft trying to fly into West Berlin on a competitive basis. not not a recipe for success. So and and indeed while uh there was
46:43 competition in the war effort to defeat Nazi Germany especially between uh General George Patton's third army and Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery's first army. Uh uh in the end um the allied effort was a highly coordinated effort um not always smoothly coordinated but coordinated nonetheless and that in the end is what won World War II right and so that was taken to even greater heights during the Berlin
47:18 airlift. So often times in business while again competition can be a a powerful force for for getting us to get the best out of our team members out of our people and and and create the incentive to beat the competition. Other times, strategic partnerships and alliances can be more effective in overcoming challenges um that a single company couldn't do on their own. I know oftentimes and and I I
47:54 have a another part of my professional work where I work with companies in particular startups and early stage companies and companies in transition. So oftentimes I'll talk to not oftentimes but sometimes I'll talk to the the owner of a company who's intent on building kind of a big multiaceted organization and I ask him like why do you want to be doing all these other things? What you your expertise is in this one area. Why don't you create strategic alliances with other companies that do these other things and knows how
48:32 to do them well rather than trying to create this behemoth organization, right? So we can grow our businesses more effectively oftentimes through strategic alliances and partnerships than we can by than we can by trying to grow organically and do everything ourselves. Okay? And and especially when we need to respond to a crisis, right? So, we can I I know in in in my fiduciary practice,
49:10 um people ask me, well, how does it work? And I say, well, typically I'm the team captain and then I bring in the other professionals that are necessary to administrate that particular estate. And and that's important because I can I can create smaller or larger teams based on the necessity of the situation. And I don't have to worry about maintaining a massive overhead by having everything inhouse. So I can work more efficiently. I can work more coste effectively by by creating strategic
49:48 alliances rather than having everything inhouse. Okay. So collaboration beats competition especially in a crisis. And then finally resilience wins over force. So, I think that the central lesson of the Berlin airlift was, as I've mentioned several times, the Soviets were aggressive in trying to essentially force the Western Allies out of Berlin. But because of the Allies persistence in
50:24 the Berlin airlift, 270,000 277,000 plus flights over 11 months, they demonstrated the the Western Allies demonstrated they would be resilient in the face of this crisis and they weren't going to be forced out. And so resilience really did triumph over force in in in Berlin in 1948 1949. So the western allies did not fold. In fact they wore down the Soviets until
50:59 the Soviets folded. Right? And and this is I think the the perhaps crucial lesson for businesses from the Berlin Airlift. As a business, we're we should be in it for the long hall. Okay. We should be looking to build enduring organizations that can survive and consistently provide uh the highest quality products and services to our clients and
51:34 customers. And and that means we need to be able to build resiliency so we can outlast a challenge. Sometimes getting through a challenge is just that. It's it's it's digging down inside of ourselves and our and having our team members do the same thing so we can outlast uh the uh the the situation until the other people finally give up. I had a situation like that last year with one of the uh assets in one of the estates I'm administrating. Uh it was a a
52:09 property management company. It it is still is a property management company. It exists to this day. The reason it exists is because uh despite several of the company's clients essentially um trying to force us to close down because they didn't like what was happening. Okay. We outlasted them. Okay. And so today the company is stabilized and it's poised for growth. I think much to the chagrin of some of the
52:45 former clients. Now, it did require us to essentially fire those clients. Sometimes that's what's necessary. Sometimes for an organization to be resilient in the face of force and to endure, we have to be willing to push away those people who are trying to force us uh to do to do something that's not in the long-term interest of the company. Okay? But if we if we train our people, if we create an ethos of resilience among our team members and
53:20 and and and our our employees, the the people who make up our organization, then we have the best shot at enduring not only uh through uh crisis but through the kind of brute force that we sometimes encounter in a business situation. So those are the seven lessons that I think we can take from the the story of the Berlin airlift. An amazing time in world history. Uh one that I think still redowns today uh in the
53:58 relationship between Germany and the United States, Germany and the UK. We saw eventually the creation of NATO, an and an an an alliance that still exists to this day. And and this should give us an example for business that if we can get through crisis, it it can set the stage for building truly endurable uh alliances and relationships with our clients and customers. So, I thank you very much for joining me today. Uh,
54:34 especially my live viewers. Always a treat to know you're there. Uh, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show, People Making Money. And then, uh, next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, I'll be back with uh, the next episode of Trust and Estates Weekly. Yesterday, of course, there was a special edition of the Way to Wow shows for Labor Day. And then a week from today, I'll be back with the next edition of Business Lessons from the Military. So, if you if you like this show uh and you know someone who you think would enjoy it, I would really
55:10 appreciate it if you would tell them about it. Maybe send them a link to the show on YouTube. Uh I'd love to have the opportunity to earn their viewership and and and per and perhaps their uh subscribership as well. So, wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my