James is an expert and a reliable source of information due to the businesses he owned and operated, research he has completed, and his own personal endeavors.
Ralph Stayer also wanted to be successful in business. He always had close friends in his personal life but never in business, until he met James. Early in Ralph's life he knew he wanted to be in business especially his parents business, a sausage factory. In 1965 he began working there and eventually he began to sell the food wholesale and that is when Johnsonville Foods began. He describes his life as a journey to learn. He realized that in order for his business to grow he had to change his way of handling the business, it was easier for him to blame others but he realized he was the problem. He realized he was the problem because he couldn't let go of being in charge. This is where being a goose is better than being a buffalo. Being a buffalo only allows the manager or owner to make all the decisions, but if you are the goose than you allow others to make decisions and find solutions to their problems. Ralph met James through one of his friends, Tom Peters, who wrote Thriving on Chaos. From then on they (Jim and Ralph) complimented each other: Jim is a great businessman, teacher, and loves to learn. Ralph has consulted with many companies and is strong in most of the areas Jim s weak in. .
The message in the book, Flight of the Buffalo, is to update the old paradigm that the boss in charge of everything. The boss does not have to plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control all that is going on. Within this working environment I am talking about the leader being the head. This analogy is described as a person in charge (head buffalo) and all the employees (herd of buffalo) following him/her as they are told. But the authors want to substitute the buffalo analogy for the flock of geese. They describe the geese as everyone flying together and when the lead goose is tired he/she falls back and lets another goose lead.