During Appian World-Transform, the annual event of Appian (a low-code development platform), which took place in San Francisco (april 2017), Ben Saunders, world record-breaking polar explorer, shared his vision for management.
According to Ben Saunders, managers and executives should follow four rules :
1. Set big goals and do what has never been done before.
2. Self belief is like a muscle: believe than tomorrow will be better than today.
3. Team work is everything.
4. Success is not a finish line.
Polar explorer and world record-breaking long-distance skier Ben Saunders is a man making history. Best known for leading one of the most ambitious polar expeditions in a century, he was the first to successfully complete the epic, 105-day, 1,800-mile trek on foot to retrace Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated, early 20th-century journey to the South Pole – equivalent to running 69 marathons back-to-back. Of his expedition he said, “We can all accomplish great feats through ambition, passion, stubbornness, and refusal to quit. If you dream something hard enough, it does indeed come to pass.”
Ben has five North Pole expeditions under his belt and has accomplished some of the world’s most impressive polar expeditions. He is the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton. He also holds the record for the longest human-powered polar journey in history and is the third in history and the youngest by 10 years to reach the North Pole alone and on foot. Since 2001, he has skied more than 3,730 miles (or 142 marathons) in the Polar Regions. He has also climbed in the Nepalese Himalayas, worked as an instructor at the John Ridgway School of Adventure, raced bikes at a national level, and run seven marathons and three ultra-marathons.