Main Street, Wyoming; 805; NOLS: Lessons in Leadership

OK folks we talk and talk in Wyoming about diversifying the economy shift from coal in oil and cattle into something new. But what. Can we sell scenery in a box sagebrush soap jackalope ranching. Let's dream up a business that really belongs in this remote place of high plains and nothings. A business that employs a lot of people. A business that doesn't damage the environment. A business on Main Street they can put Wyoming on the map globally. The industries that built Wyoming where railroads ranching and mining. Even today when

people think of what makes the economy go here they think of herding cattle and digging coal. So when a business puts up a big new building in a Wyoming town you figure it's probably the energy industry. When I first moved to Wyoming the best paying biggest number of jobs in Lander were the taconite mine south of town in the mountains. Now the biggest private employer in town is housed in this yellow brick Palace behind me. The name of the company is Knowles. Hi do you know what you know stands for National door leadership. School or scholarship or something the. IT department store in England. OK do you know what Noah stands for. Yeah I know it stands for the National after leadership school. Welcome to one of Wyoming's biggest business success stories. The National Outdoor Leadership School. No oil rigs no cattle no heavy equipment in a

way represents what some folks think is Wyoming's most promising hope for diversifying the economy. The recreation industry. And oh do they do recreational gnomes take an old course and you'll spend days hiking with a 70 pound backpack in the wilderness. You'll hang from a rope over a raging river. You'll jam your fingers in cracks on granite rock faces. You'll paddle white water rapids. Norcross group passes on NH and glacier high in the mountains. It sounds like a lot of fun but there are still a lot of skeptics out there who think it's not really a serious business. They say the recreation industry is small change seasonal low wage jobs and they don't actually make any. Well the old folks will tell you they do make some readers. Young people who can make decisions without the survival skills and the kind of confidence that can make a difference in

whatever career they pursue. And. Students who are accepted. By their plane tickets and if they take a course in old Rocky Mountain I'll show up and either salt lake or river can. Drive here. And say at the historic Knowles noble hotel. And they'll meet their instructor team in the rest of their course the night before their 4 starts so we'll have an orientation in the evening. Usually last about an hour they'll find out the basics of what they're getting into. The next morning they wake up at 6 which is often one of the bigger challenges of the course getting up at 6 coming down eating breakfast. And then they'll walk over to. Rocky Mountain. And generally start at seven. By. Bagging their food for the upcoming month. Which is a pretty overwhelming experience for most people they're bagging all the food that while eventually they'll learn to

love it and cook it really well. At first they're looking at it thinking oh my god what are we getting ourselves into here. All bagged up. Up to. I'm guessing I bet a thousand pounds for most horses of. Which they don't carry with them on all at once that's broken up into real rations but they're bagging all those free rations to start with. When they're done bagging their food. They'll come over to the issue room here. They'll sit down with one of their instructors and their instructors will help. Decide what gear that they have they should bring into the field what gear isn't going to meet their name field. And. What they need to rent or purchase from the brand. Do a lot. Of.

Money. This is a business. Well with over 80 full time employees here hundreds of part time instructors worldwide rights and a price tag like about 3000 for a month long course. You bet it is. Number one we're in the education business. And in that education business we teach leadership we teach wilderness skills and we teach conservation. I would make a blanket statement that Knowles is probably the only nonprofit in the country that breaks even on a cash flow basis. It's extremely well-run has extremely good control systems you might think that being out here in Lander that it might be a little slow to adopt in a

little behind some of the times. But in fact by bringing on all these successful high powered individuals on the board those people have transferred their knowledge base to the knolls management team. And the beauty is that they just love to learn. You know it started out as sort of an adventure experience. That had an overlay of sort of wilderness teaching. It was just a great place for people to get together. And. Really to learn not only about the outdoors but to learn about themselves and get a real real genuine type of education that is hard to get to schools. It started out in 1965 with Paul pencilled one of those oversized men in both body and spirit who seems to belong in a wide open place like Wyoming. As a teenager he was one of the first to climb the Grand Teton. He trained military ski units in Europe in World War Two and after getting outward bound off

the ground in Colorado he came to Lander Wyoming to start his own kind of school. Paul used to say that he had the greatest job in the world because he got credit for things that took place just naturally from being in the outdoors in a small group. And I can tell you that out of all the years I've known Paul there was no more fun than to sit down and listen to his stories about the back country and his vision for the back country. I've always been sort of a do gooder and. And I've always finances to you. And I've been interested in the outdoors. But it was a perfect place to educate people. Especially young people because we could get them away from their environments. Get them away from their parents. Lots of times who would let them make their own decisions and execute their own decisions and develop judgment by the way.

And by the end of a 30 day course. We're watching students have more confidence interacting with each other. But I think that places where students see the biggest changes when they go home. And you suddenly realize after a month that you're a little different and nobody quite understands that because it's only been a month or so they expect you to be just like you were when you left. And you're not. You look at the world a little differently. It can be an adjustment. So it's a big deal for me. I went back I was living in the east at that point. And all of a sudden nothing back there meant anything to me. Knowles of course was probably the biggest thing that I'd ever done. The hardest thing. But to many of the locals these long haired kids were. A bit foreign. They were not welcomed with open arms. I came back to start working. We felt we were hippies. I didn't feel what we were. We were a part of the community. I walked around town always a little

bit on pins and needles. It's really cool because you're looking at people from New York Wisconsin. So yeah it'll be you know just kind of see. And just from all over the country they came to Lander Wyoming to go to this school. And suddenly there was a lot of people going to course not only you know but real hippies from California history that have had people grow up there with or do just carry these kids and there lay the word nosiness I guess I heard and didn't really know what that meant. Lots of times it was just a comment that that's who they were other times you wondered if it meant you know the people who wore sandals in the dead of winter. But it was a it was a little bit different you might say they were a

different sort of people. It was kind of during the hippie movement at that time a lot of people had long hair and that and the tell me a bit uncomfortable. But the students work. They love this. The question though was whether the school could handle its success in Paul's idiosyncratic style. Now I remember when we decided to go to Mexico you know tap tap we want to go to Baja. So we open up a branch school. We almost closed it three times and it was because we had no students but you know tap was down there living cheap and today because one of our more successful programs. It was just one great big happy family. Everything was. Pretty haphazard. I remember driving over South Pass one time and the drive train fell out of the truck. And I'm just glad it fell out. Rear end first because I would have been just dead at that time.

We're basically inventing business. We didn't really have any models to follow and the inventors of this new industry faced the make or break decision in business whether to stay small or grow. Paul and Rob wanted to stay small. And my challenge to them was that if we stay small then I think we're going to go away. Pestle was one of the original true mountain men of this country big hulk of a man and did a lot of very special things but as many founders are in their businesses they can't take it to the next level. So here we are at the next level. And it wasn't easy to get here. Knowles had four directors since Paul Petzl. And its borders changed to include high powered executives from the world of business and finance. It has branch schools all over the country in the world Alaska South America India. Corporate teams sign up for courses public land managers learn

wilderness techniques astronauts climb mountains with Mills instructors. Flying in space is a an expedition and so is a doll's expedition. And I think they that the training at all is complements the training we get at the Johnson Space Center and and other places we train very well. The astronaut crew which died in the 2003 shuttle accident had trained with Knowles and developed close ties to the instructors to each other and to the mountains. We know that this Noles experience for the one of seven crew was one of the the most important events of their training flow it really brought them together as a team and. Likewise it's done the same for our crew. We took to the summit. A small little pin of the it's just one of seven insignia and said said a few words in memory of them. The most obvious symbol of the growth and strength of NOLs has been the move from the old noble

hotel to this building which opened in 2002. It also stands for nosers commitment to Wyoming in Lander. There have been a heated debate in the Knowles family about whether to move the school to a larger city. Well you know we've had endless discussions about whether we should stay in land or even to the point where we built a new building. The question why should we bite the bullet move to Seattle or some other place Landers not the easiest place in the world to get to. It seems like you're expanding into a lot of room here. We are this this building 50000 square feet and we're projecting for the year 2012 our growth and then we're moving 80 people in. We project 174 by 2012. And they've been a vast improvement in. Their report with the citizens. I don't know whether you folks know it or not but the city of lander sponsored their industrial revenue bonds I think between

7 and 8 million dollars to build that building that they're presently am. They wanted us downtown. They didn't even want us to move to the edge of town. They recognize that we have a big economic impact on the community. They chose to me build a building in town as opposed to just out of town. You know to me which was great. I'm looking around at this particular area you've got some architectural elements here that are a little unusual a little different. Dark attacks wanted to add a little bit of architectural fouth to the whole building. What is that thing on top of. I believe that's an ultra low frequency electro magnetic resonator for your full antiques. I do see a shelter or a tarp. Or something that I find myself sleeping on this. Wiretap. Yeah I've heard everything from a maple leaf to a whale flute to a bat taking off to a stealth bomber.

It's like a stealth bomber or something I don't know. Well I guess it's something to do with the lightning or stuff like that. Some people said that they heard strains of and I got a Divina. Coming from it. It's a mistake. You know I was wondering that myself. But I must say it's become our totem a little bit. You're. Working it's a leap. But I don't. Start it with a maple leaf and then it got a little birch in it and a little older. The Aspen didn't flow and shade so it's up to me and me. So Knowles has grown up maybe not with a mature ascetic sense when it comes to sculpture but certainly in its business savvy though it's a nonprofit it plays with the big boys. I've been on seminars and programs at the Stanford Business School the Harvard Business School other things oftentimes with other nonprofit CEOs and executive

directors that allow me to exchange ideas learn from them learn from other professors that have a lot of experience in the nonprofit sector. I think over time what I've come to see is that the best the profit sector has taken and looked at the best in the nonprofit sector for some ideas in the way they run things and vice versa. And I think the fact that we are sort of hugely educational tends to protect us from degrees of economic downturns and a whole series of things like that. And if you look at school in the first 10 years 20 years the school had basically a champion model of expansion. Someone went off to an area they said hey this is great. Send students that really shifted about a decade and a half ago where we've moved to more of a strategic model. We look in advance where there are wilderness classrooms. Since we need wilderness for most of our education we also look at what countries have great political stability and what countries we feel will have a solid future in front of them economically.

We also look at what countries are friendly terms of business relationship with the U.S. or with a nonprofit organization in the U.S.. In addition to expanding programs globally. Knowles has made acquisitions at home not unlike a for profit business. It has picked up a smaller company in a related field. The wilderness medicine institute. The institute trains and certifies people to provide emergency care in the outdoors. This one's gone very smoothly in the grand scale of things and it's gone smoothly because the people share some common values. They live in a rural area that's pik and Colorado is not unlike land or Wyoming except for it's a lot smaller than Lander Wyoming and we share a lot of passion for what we're doing and that's been key to success. We will continue to grow at a pretty steady pace would be my my projection. This is a global organization so we're expanding our non-U.S. branches all run from Landor the world headquarters. But in a true sense this is a world

organization now. All of this is changed in the wake of September 11th. And while we are a global organization and we will continue to operate internationally and expand internationally it's given us some POS for thought in terms of some of the areas and some of the regions we're looking at. And that's complicated matters a bit but the Wyoming branch it's going strong and the headquarters is anchored here despite some of the problems inherent in operating from a small town in Wyoming. The Rocky Mountain branch is the original branch of the school. It's still the largest branch we have I believe 47 percent of our student days through here. We operate from February till almost Christmas. We have courses from the Grand Canyon all the way up into southern Montana into Idaho and out to the east of the Black Hills. We have the largest summer program is still in the home range the Wind River Range though we have summer courses in almost all the mountain ranges in Wyoming. Semester courses in the spring and the fall. They canoe They

kayak they rock climb they travel in the canyons they have winter Skeen they cave they horse pack. Certainly transportation is an issue. With only one airline flying in to Riverton regional airport they were trying to move roughly a thousand students a year through river tems airport. And if you look at the broader picture when you click on our staff to travel to various locations around the around the globe we're responsible for probably what 15 percent of the air traffic in and out of the river to an airport. There's also the concerns of Telecommunications at this moment. We don't have the fiber optic capabilities that most communities would have. And as a result that's that's limited what we can do with our telephones and with our data transmission from Lander So that's that's a really big issue and one that we're really hoping to get solved very quickly. And there is one other thing that bugs the folks here at knoll just a little. When is the rest of the Wyoming business world going to recognize what a resource they've got here with millions.

In the state of Wyoming. I think in some ways we're less known in the state of Wyoming than we're known across the country. And I'm always a little baffled by that. Well I think overall you know it started with our core program. I think there's a lot of Wyoming youth and Wyoming adults for that matter who would get a lot out of our program. We have an increasing number of Wyoming graduates each year. But there's a lot of people who haven't heard of us yet. And so I think that's one area where Wyoming can really benefit. I think also in a consulting way over both wilderness medicine in training for search and rescue programs and also and in terms of leadership training for different groups. I think there's a lot of benefit from the knolls curriculum and it's an area where we would like to be involved a lot more. What Noel's has already done for Wyoming is to set an example. A small home grown business. The matched well with the resources here has grown into a corporation known around the world. KNOWLES grappled with the limitations of small town Wyoming and committed to

state and the locals who once worried about the hippies coming to town. Well now they point to Knowles with admiration and gratitude. They're like a breath of fresh air. They knew people would come which was always new people to me. Somebody from the outside a small town is a great place to live and raise kids but it's nice that some new news comes in so I was appreciate the newness about 15 years ago both of my children took nose courses and didn't know much about nose at the time but when they came back from their courses they were transformed. They were different kids than what I sent away. In fact they were responsible they were accountable. They took they cleaned up their rooms they made their beds they did better in school and I said wow an organization that can and do that it's got something special about it. We give out about a hundred thousand dollars a year in financial aid for courses providing opportunities for many people to attend an Olds course that otherwise can

never afford to go out with an outfitter or anything of the sort. We have the old Rocky Mountain has a scholarship budget set aside just for kids from Fremont County that might not otherwise be able to take most courses. And I think one of the great success stories that you could point to in terms of integrating people from Lander into the Noles community would be a fellow who came here during high school took a course with us had a great experience graduated from the inner Valley High School came to work for us in our issue room ultimately ended up at our Patagonia branch down and became the assistant director down there and is now the branch director of our Southwest branch. And so that's a local fellow who you know got involved at the school. Judd Rogers is the is the man's name. I just Landers a beautiful place and I came here and there are two things that attracted me as one working for Knowles and two was living in ladder. When I started to have a family it became really clear to me that this was the place I wanted to raise. We're now part of the community. I

mean I've had two children go through high school here I have two more coming down the pipe. We're involved in many different levels of the community this is a great place to live. Thanks for joining us here on Main Street Wyoming or to be exact a block off Main Street land. And we are all very young and we're all very close and we live in the spirit of grace. Where ever everybody will love vent and not talk about the good old days. Like you know what you know stands for. Any time in business. I've found management and companies that are passionate about what they do. They generally are more successful than those that aren't passionate. Even when you see staff from the past come back to the school they marvel at the size of the school the growth of it how we've evolved as a business.