“I’ll Call You in Ten … “

Many years ago, I worked with the leaders of a mountain west engineering firm on strategic planning – crafting a new vision, brand image, and business plan for the organization.  On that day, the subject matter at hand was responsiveness, and specifically the client service level performance level the gang would pursue. Their debate centered around the promise of “returning all calls within one business day.”  Some thought this performance was doable; others were convinced it wasn’t. My thought was that actually achieving that standard would be excellent – but that the message itself wasn’t much different from other competitors. Lots of professionals have trouble envisioning real-time […]

“We’ll See You on the Other Side.”

The Apollo 8 Saturn Five rocket launched from Cape Canaveral on December 21, 1968.  Baby boomers like me remember in particular the anticipation and excitement of this mission: it would be the first manned flight to travel to the moon and back. And indeed, after nearly three days in space, the Apollo crew of three approached the Moon, and prepared for lunar orbit.  Anticipating the upcoming point that they’d be briefly out of sight (and fully alone) on the far side, Mission Control relayed that the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI-1) move was ‘a go,’ and that the astronauts were “riding the best […]