The Hudson Bay Start

“The Hudson Bay Start”nby
Peter Thomso

Now I want to share a story with you that I first heard about whilst watching a nature programme on television. The programme was a documentary hosted by Ray Mears – well known for his survival programmes. This particular episode took place on the rivers of Canada where Ray demonstrated not only his love for canoeing but his incredible expertise at surviving in the wild.

Amazing skills...

He started a fire using a bow and two pieces of wood – he made a paddle – he demonstrated how to build a support for a cooking pot – and as each episode goes by his skills continue to amaze a city boy like me – and I’m sure amaze 1000s of others too.

In the episode in question, on the Canadian Rivers, he explained about the voyageurs – the boatmen who paddled the large canoes that were used to carry goods in the pioneering days of Canada.

These voyageurs were hardy men paddling 18 hours a days and carrying the canoe and goods across the portages – the routes over land that were used to avoid rapids and dangerous stretches of water.

During his account Ray mentioned an expression that immediately grabbed my attention. He said that the voyageurs used what was called a ‘Hudson Bay Start’ – he explained it and needing more information, as always, I carried out some of my own research.

From this moment forward in my life I’ll be using this idea both socially and personally. I certainly hope that you will too.

Here’s how it works:

The Hudson Bay Company – which is still going strong today with more than 500 stores across Canada was first chartered over 300 plus years ago in 1670 by King Charles II.

The company’s early history was the supply of provisions, all the necessary provisions for the fur traders who were about to undertake expeditions out of Hudson Bay.

The process they used was called a Hudson Bay Start – they would travel just a few miles up river (or down river as the case may be) and then they stopped and made camp. Yes – after just a few miles. Now why would they do that?

Well – quite simple really and very obvious when we stop and think about it. They stopped that quickly because their journey was a voyage into the unknown – a high risk adventure – and they wanted to make entirely certain that they had brought everything with them that they would need.

Anything left behind?

And of course if they had left something behind – it was only a short journey back to their starting point to pick up the forgotten item.

So this stop – whilst it cost the voyageurs precious time in a short trading season – was absolutely necessary before starting the major part of the voyage.

Where do you it?

So how and where do you and I apply the ‘Hudson Bay Start’ in our lives?

Well – for me – now that I know the story and its intent – everywhere!

As simply as – on the personal front – perhaps stopping for breakfast after an early start - on a journey towards a holiday destination! Then if something has been forgotten we’re not too far from home to go back.

Now commercially there are a number of key ideas we can take from the Hudson Bay Start:

Let’s imagine the scenario that you’re about to undertake a project with your team. You know that they are a number of risks associated with the project – both financially and personally.

What better than to get the project planned – start to take action and then stopping quickly to assess what’s happened and how it might be changed?

For example: As the leader you might ask yourself these questions:

• Now that I’ve seen them in action - do I have the right people on board for this project?
• Have they demonstrated the right attitude?
• Have they clearly indicated that they have the right skills?
• Is their knowledge level where it should be in order to complete this task or project?
• Now that we’ve started the journey are the risks as I’d anticipated or are the risks greater or smaller?
• Do we have the right tools or resources in order to achieve what we’ve set out to accomplish?
• Or did we simply forget something – something important!

And a question we can use both personally and commercially:

Is this the right goal?

So often I’ve seen people not stopping and measuring soon enough on their personal and commercial journey and finding out that the time spent towards achieving a goal has been time that could have been spent differently – once they realised that they didn’t really want that goal.

In selling and in business one of my own expressions is:

“Time and distance travelled compounds the effect of error!”

This is the same thinking process as The Hudson bay Start. Let’s stop and measure sooner to make certain we can correct any errors in the course – or in the case of Hudson Bay thinking – go back and collect the supplies or people we need to be able to complete the task in hand.

I’m certain that once you share this story with your colleagues and with your family – that you too will find your mind drifting back to the voyageurs, to Canada, to the pioneering days – as you insert into any and every journey – The Hudson Bay Start.

Peter Thomsonn“The UK’s Leading Strategist on Business and Personal Growth”

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