Greetings from Bayeux, France! We’re wrapping up a fantastic 12-day motorcycle tour across France with the Edelweiss Bike Travel motorcycle touring company.
Starting with two bikes, Werner Wachter and his wife, Coral, founded Edelweiss in 1980 in Mieming, Austria. Today, they have a fleet of nearly 200 bikes, 55 tour guides, 23 office team members, and run tours on every continent. It’s a great small company that has been global since day one. We are on our second tour and will definitely go again.
On this tour, dubbed “Paris to Omaha,” we had excellent guides: Malcolm Brunelli, originally from Italy, now hanging in Austria, and Anthony “Tony” Fairweather, an Austria native.
One night over dinner, Tony said something profound.
“We used to hire great riders and tried to teach them to be great tour guides. That never really worked very well. So now, we hire great people who fit Edelweiss’ culture and then we teach them how we want them to ride. Our new CEO had never even ridden a motorcycle when we hired him.”
What blew me away was how matter-of-factly Tony made this comment, as if it made all the sense in the world. It does, but far too few companies follow this philosophy.
Edelweiss’ core values
If you go to the Edelweiss website, you won’t find a section called “Our Core Values.” Excellent. Core values are observed behavior, not marketing slogans. But from watching Tony and Malcolm during our 12-day trip, it’s pretty easy to figure out the Edelweiss core values. My best guesses are:
- Safety first. No drinking and riding for the driver or passenger. Non-negotiable. You drink, you go home. No passing each other in the group. Keep a safe distance apart. Stagger bikes whenever possible. Turn signals for every lane change.
- Teamwork. It was easy to see teamwork was both natural and ingrained for Tony and Malcolm. They helped each other, smoothly counterbalancing each other’s strengths to work together and assist their rider guests. They consistently went the extra mile, both for us and each other.
- Embrace local culture. The tour guides educate riders on the uniqueness of the local culture. Riding across France and Italy, we learned there are huge intra-country cultural and language differences, just within a few hundred miles. (Don’t call Brittany’s Bretons French, and definitely don’t call the Sicilians Italian!) As Americans, I think we have a tendency to compare another’s culture against an American standard. The folks from Edelweiss taught me to work harder to understand and embrace the qualities of the culture and people we encountered.
- Pay attention to detail and be prepared. Whether it’s knowing the best bathroom in every little village or remembering the needs of specific guests (gluten-free, non-dairy, non-GMO), it was amazing to watch how Edelweiss consistently got the little things right on our tours.
Tony and Malcolm described what new hires not-so-affectionately refer to as “Hell Week.” New hires are put through a series of hands-on situations meant to replicate potential tour scenarios to prepare them to handle just about any situation a tour or tour group might present.
For example, the new hire shows up at a hotel and finds no reservations exist for her group of 15 very tired, hot and hungry bikers. As you would imagine, not every new hire makes it through Hell Week. - Don’t fear the customer or the customer’s power. Our whole group made a big faux pas at a toll stop, which could have had disastrous consequences. Each one of us crossed over into the next toll stop traffic lane without signaling. Our guide got off his bike, faced the group, and respectfully but forcefully told us our error in a way we all remembered…and it didn’t occur again.
Small companies are special. They are living examples of the culture and values of the owners or founders. Werner and Coral can be truly proud of what they have built. The values I’ve ascribed to Edelweiss, via my immersion in their culture, serve as great values for any company, big or small.
When great values are taught throughout a company, and demonstrated every day through its employees, everyone can truly enjoy the ride!
