In my new series of blogs, Kogel Cares, I will flip the communication and put you: our readers, riders, and friends at the center of attention. I want to know how you feel. Give me your take on each week’s topic and submit your responses here. 1 person every week will and you can win a $100 Kogel Gift Card.
- Ard Kessels
At Kogel, every team member operates under a strict set of core values. We share these with every job posting we send out and announce that the first interview will include questions about these core values. Typically we will ask candidates to explain how they align with these five points.
Kogel Bearings has 5 Core Values
Internally, we use these five benchmarks to determine who is ready for a promotion and who needs to step up their performance.
Since Integrity and Transparency are at the top of the list. It only seems fair that we share our core values with the users of our products and see how they help you ride better products from a company you love to do business with.
Without further ado: Let’s dive in!
Integrity
A Kogel team member is a person of quality and strong moral principles. We lead by example and do what is right for our team, our business, and our community.
Transparency
Kogel team members do not hide anything. Whether things are good or bad, We openly and honestly convey information as we know it. Our ego is not involved. It doesn’t matter if it makes us look good or not; you have a desire and willingness to put the information you know out on the table.
Transparency means work partners and peers respect one another enough to confront issues and problems as they arise in order to push the work, product, and team to the next level.
Expertise
With great knowledge comes great responsibility toward our team, our business, and our community. In order to be and remain thought leaders in our field, we need to be experts and always look for ways to share and expand our knowledge.
Precision
Kogel team members approach all tasks with a high level of precision. Attention to detail allows us to deliver products and services capable of winning championships. Developing and documenting procedures lead to accuracy and predictable results.
Aspiration
Kogel team members strive to be better tomorrow than we are today. We over-deliver on our promises and know that the minimum can never be a goal.
Behind the Scenes of Kogel's Core Values
These powerful words and short sentences put the entire team in a state of mind toward better performance. The first core value is so obvious, we sometimes question whether it should be mentioned. It is tough to run a business without integrity. In order to not overlook the obvious, we made integrity our number one priority. For our customers, that means we will always pick up the phone, and return emails and text messages. It also means that we will solve your issues to the best of our abilities and tell you honestly when we feel that a warranty claim was a user error. Being honest has its perks: everyone knows what they can expect. No hidden messages!
Now that we have decided that we’re going to operate in an ethical way, the next step is to proactively communicate our point of view. Using Kogel products will not improve your performance from being a participant in a charity ride to being the winner of the Tour de France. We can help, but a sudden rise to fame is going to take more than just better bike parts.
As a Kogel user you will see transparency reflected in the best warranty in the industry but also in comparison blogs about competitor brands or when we call out another company for manipulating their tests to make their own products look good and ours look bad. There is no hiding under the transparency rule and personally, I love it! I will be the first to tell you that Kogel is not a brand for every cyclist. Hmmmm…. As I write this, expect a future blog called ‘Why Kogel is the wrong product for you'. I’m already excited about this one!
Gathering information about our products, industry, and users is what comes easily to the people at Kogel. We can only be the top brand in the industry if we consistently and systematically gather new information. The critical point here is to share as much expertise as we can with our users. Being experts is important, and being seen as the experts is equally important. Any time you have questions, refer to our library of blog posts, or pick up the phone and talk to one of our team members, they will be happy to help you find an answer to your query.
Precision should be obvious from a product perspective. We make derailleur upgrades that often cost a multiple of the original price of the derailleur. It needs to be perfect every time, from production to assembly to packaging and shipping. We’re not perfect every time, but we will strive to be because Aspiration is our core value. Strive to be champions in our field and be better tomorrow than we are today.
Your Turn
What do you think? Does your experience with Kogel products and the interactions with our team live up to our core values?
Please share the alignment of your values with us at this link to inspire our community team so we can continue to improve your best cycling experience ever and you can win a $100 Kogel gift card.
I would love to hear from you. Hit me up at ard@kogel.cc if you want to talk to me.
