#360 Robert Kierlin: Founder of Fastenal

Founders

David Senra

History, Entrepreneurship, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since its founding in 1967 Fastenal has grown from a small fastener store in Winona, Minnesota, into a multibillion-dollar global organization. How did a small town “nuts and bolts” shop become one of the world's most dynamic growth companies? Whenever asked, company founder Bob Kierlin attributes Fastenal's success to the company's high-quality employees and their commitment to a common goal: Growth Through Customer Service. What I learned from reading The Power of Fastenal People by Robert Kierlin. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- Other books mentioned in this episode: Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung. The Bugatti Story by L’Ebe Bugatti. Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. How To Make A Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	Organizations succeed to the extent that all of their members pursue a common goal.
0:04.6	Everything in this book goes back to that idea. It goes back to the idea of keeping the main thing, the main thing,
0:10.3	and how this is a very simple and powerful idea that's excessively hard to practice
0:15.0	over a long time because it goes against human nature. It's in our nature to drift and
0:19.9	complicate things and the founder of Fastenol, Bob Kirlin, built his entire company building
0:25.2	thesis around that idea. Keep everybody in your organization pursuing a common goal. And then Bob
0:31.6	uses this book to defend his ideas but it's laughable
0:36.1	that his ideas even need to be defended. His numbers speak for themselves.
0:40.8	How the hell does a company selling a commodity product? He says in the book he had
0:45.6	no advantage on products. Yet that same company was able to compound all the way to a 38 billion dollar market cap and is one of the best performing stocks
0:55.4	over the last quarter century.
0:57.4	I'm friends with the co-founder and CEO of Ramp Eric and I was texting him about this book
1:01.5	and this incredible company while I was reading and
1:03.2	researching this episode because Eric is keeping everyone in his company pursuing a
1:07.5	common goal that would make history's greatest founders proud.
1:10.9	Ramp is building the world's best tool that gives you everything you need to control your spend,
1:16.5	watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations on a single platform.
1:21.6	So this is what I texted to Eric. It describes why this
1:24.9	obsession with cost control that fastenol has turned into a massive advantage that
1:29.2	fuels other things. So it says anyone who claims that expense management
1:32.2	and frugality is not a competitive advantage should
1:34.2	pull up a long-term chart of fastenol stock price and see how a company that sells nuts and
	...

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