The Kennedy Era and the Legacy of Flight
I am mourning the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy this morning. As a child of the 1960s (I was born in 1959) the Kennedys have always been part of my consciousness with regard to who Americans are and what they can be.
As a boy, with a cheap Sears telescope and a Polaroid camera, I took pictures of the moon, inspired by President John Kennedy’s challenge in May 1961 that Americans should fly to the moon and explore it by the end of the decade. Of course we accomplished the president’s goal early and the whole world cheered the brave pilots of Apollo 11 who in 1969, ably flew to the most distant place we could yet reach. It was a singular human accomplishment that has not been surpassed in over 40 years. No country but ours has ever flown man to the moon, to walk there.
As I look back on it now, as I near the age of 50, I realize that the event is so historic and memorable because it happened at the intersection of leadership, science, technology, education, dreams, and daring, and exemplified to the world the better nature of Americans.
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Forbes.com: Three Lessons for United
From the China side of the world, Shaun Rein (a freelancer for Forbes) has a pretty good take on the lessons to be learned from “United Breaks Guitars:”
“In today’s economy you can’t get by on decent prices or acceptable service. You have to stand out and win the hearts of your customers. To do that you have to go beyond satisfaction to true loyalty. You have to provide a compelling reason, beyond basic service and price, for consumers to choose you. And your organization must be unified in that mission. Otherwise, you may be the next to follow GM into Chapter 11.”
He has some noteworthy comments on the importance of employee morale as well.
Read the whole post here: United Airlines Shows How Not To Run Your Business.
The Outsourcing of Outsourcing
The New York Times published an interesting piece on September 25 concerning globalization and the outsourcing of jobs. Things have now come full-circle: The outflux of tech jobs to Indian companies like InfoSys, Tata, and Wipro is beginning to outstrip the firms’ ability to staff positions using Indian labor, resulting in the re-outsourcing of jobs back to local centers that can provide both lower labor costs and special proficiencies:
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