Can NASA STILL be making the SAME mistakes?
I was disappointed to read the
article by Jena McGregor in the 02.2005 issue of Fast Company, "Gospels of Failure." Not because of the lessons the article teaches, oh no! I have for years been a student and champion of
failure analysis, prevention, and understanding. And McGregor's article is jam-packed with lots of useful knowledge.
No, what bothers me is that NASA seems to be making the same mistakes, as an institution, that it made in the Challenger days. McGregor quotes the
Columbia Accident Investigation Board:
In our view, the NASA organizational culture had as much to do with [the Columbia Space Shuttle] accident as the foam [that damaged the Shuttle].
The article goes on to say that although engineers were concerned about the risks of severe damage to Columbia's heat shield, they were more-or-less told to "prove that we can't launch." You need not doubt that this is
exactly the same attitude posed to engineers just before the destruction of the Challenger. What makes this even more mysterious is that NASA more often than not promotes from within -- their managers are engineers too! In short, the same mistakes that put egg on NASA's collective face back in 1986 (when I was an employee) have returned to serve up the eggs again (now that I am not).
I have
written about this before: when
The West Wing spoke for America and told NASA "This administration has only one priority -- that you guys stop screwing up." But I would go a step further: if NASA is serious about NOT screwing up, then its employees -- all of them -- must become serious about understanding and preventing failures. Do you want to become a new NASA employee? New NASA manager? Then read Diane Vaughan's
The Challenger Launch Decision and tell us what it taught you. If you don't do it, you can't be hired; you can't be promoted. Take your time. We can wait.
The example of Veronica Mars
The TV show
Veronica Mars features a 17-year-old entrepreneur, played by
Kristen Bell (pictured). Here's the description:
In the wealthy, seaside community of Neptune, the rich and powerful make the rules, they own the town and the high school, and desperately try to keep their dirty little secrets just that…secret. Unfortunately for them, there's Veronica Mars, a smart, fearless 17-year-old apprentice private investigator dedicated to solving the town's toughest mysteries.
At night, Veronica helps with her father's struggling, new private investigator business, sneaking through back alleys and scoping out no-tell motels with a telescopic-lens camera and her math book in an attempt to uncover the California beach town's darkest secrets.
I've followed quite a bit of this show. Here's what the young entrepreneur can pick up from Veronica Mars:
- Even when you don't have a lot of money, there are some items you have to have for your business, and you can't cut corners on them. Like Veronica's camera.
- Maybe Shakespeare can tell us "neither a lender nor a borrower be," and most of us will buy into it, but you should still accumulate people who owe you favors. Do other people favors whenever possible, so you can call in those marks later. Ted Porada calls it "making them beholden." Veronica does that all the time.
- Don't ever assume the first answer is the last answer.
- Keep a journal, and know how to find stuff in it.
- Be transparent with your partners and customers. It's not so much Veronica keeping secrets as it is everyone else! In her case, her dad (played by Enrico Colantoni) is her partner, and though the two of them initially hid information from each other, they're feeling much better now. :-)
- Don't let your feelings -- or instincts -- cause you to miss the truth when it's in front of you.
- Once you have a goal, don't derail it for love or money.
Labels: diversions
Steve's Comic Relief responds!
In an earlier post I complained about what I saw as an insult to customers by the manager of Steve's Comic Relief in nearby Lawrenceville. Steve Gursky, whose name is invoked by the Steve's Comic Relief stores, responded -- and I have to give him credit for being a stand-up guy for doing it. Here's an excerpt:
As the namesake, if not currently the owner, of Steve's Comic Relief, I can assure you that not only do I not distain comics, but am a strong advocate of them as an entertainment, education and social service medium. The union of words and pictures is a powerful medium which can tell stories in a unique and mesmerizing way... I'm pleased that our reputation is strong enough for you to give the Mercer store another chance. In addition to being "independent friendly" Steve's Comic Relief has always tried to be "customer friendly". Without our customers there is no Steve's Comic Relief.
Readers of this blog know I value good customer service. The retail comic industry has for probably a decade been in a strange situation: the best customer service often comes from the people who know the products the best, yet that knowledge seldom translates into increased sales or even good business sense. You can love comics and sequential art, but you may not be able to keep your business open with love.
Another thing that's happened in the last couple decades, possibly fueled by the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is the emergence of what Steve refers to as "independent" publishers. This basically means "not
Marvel or
DC." There's more on the shelves than in the days when you bought your comics from a turnstile in the drugstore. A LOT more. And besides the Turtles, independents have brought us titles as well-recognized as the Big Names of the Big Two:
Hellboy (pictured),
Spawn, and others. Competition has forced the Big Two to improve their product lines, resulting in a slew of recent movies for Marvel. Competition has also made the retail comics outlet a potentially more interesting and attractive place to shop. (Steve's in Lawrenceville fulfills that potential.)
Retail competition, however, has forced the store owner -- even the comics lover -- to reach out to a "mainstream" audience (as opposed to people who read the Big Two as kids, or who are currently reading comics though in their 40s, both of which describe me).
Three big changes in the industry -- and that doesn't even account for the rise of the Internet and video, handheld, and PC games competing largely for the same audience's sequential art dollars. The effort made by Steve Gursky to reach out to a single customer and lowly blogger like myself tells me that he may have what it takes to survive these changes and prosper in the long term. I wish him well. And he's invited me to visit his store in nearby Levittown, PA, so as soon as I can find Levittown I'll take my kids and do that. :-)
Labels: young entrepreneurs
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