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Why I’d Rather Go Parachuting Than Visit the Space Needle Falling With Style
and secure your “jump wings,” the student must complete all five jumps. After the first jump, it’s fair to say you feel like you’re pretty well-trained. You know what to do, and you’ve actually done it, so that really helps a lot with the nerves on each successive jump. None of this is to say jumping out of an airplane is ever a casual experience, however. This jump week experience has been repeated probably hundreds of thousands of times throughout the years since the Army began doing it in 1942. It goes like this: After you get all suited up with your main and reverse chutes, everyone stands in line and gets marched onto the aircraft. You go up to about 1,500 feet, and when you’re over the jump zone, the jumpmasters throw open the exit doors at the rear of the airplane, with one on each side. The sound is deafening, and as you shuffle toward the door, things start happening really fast. As soon as you have one foot out the door, the wind sucks you the rest of the way out. This is disorienting, but you’re trained to exit the aircraft in a certain body position to be prepared for your parachute to open. With your hands against each side of the reserve chute on your stomach, you start counting.
With Halloween at the end of the month, October tends to focus on scary things and facing fears. There are scary movies to watch, haunted houses to visit, and other thrilling traditions. I’m not a big fan of Halloween, but if we are talking about things that scare us, I have to confess that I have what I consider an irrational fear of heights. I have absolutely no fear of flying, but if I am in a tall building with floor to ceiling windows, I get extremely uncomfortable. My heart starts to race, my palms get sweaty, and all I want is to get my feet back on solid ground again. I realize a lot of people are afraid of heights, but it’s a bit silly for me because I was a paratrooper in the Army back in the ’80s. And as you are probably aware, the main part of being a paratrooper involves being high up in the air in an airplane or a helicopter and exiting the aircraft with nothing but a parachute. Given my fear of heights, you’d think I would have been terrified, but I didn’t really find parachuting to be that big of a deal. It’s not that I suddenly overcame my fear, it’s just that we got a lot of training before we actually jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Parachute training was a full three-week course. The first week is ground week, where you learn how to land properly. Then comes tower week, where you put on a parachute harness, get pulled 250 feet into the air by a cable attached to the apex of the canopy, and are then dropped. After that comes jump week, during which you do five jumps from a real airplane. At least, this is how training usually goes. During the time I was in Airborne School, the tower wasn’t working. We ended up doing two weeks of ground school before going straight to jump week. During jump week, we had four daytime jumps and one night jump. In order to graduate
Everything gets quiet, and you can look all around at where you are and where you are trying to go. Once you have your bearings, then you have to focus on steering your chute to make sure you don’t drift into anyone else. If you run into someone, that can be catastrophic as it can cause your chute or your buddy’s chute to collapse. During my jump week, we jumped from C-130s, the kind of plane they fly out at Jacksonville AFB, and from C-141s. Eventually I would jump from almost every kind of aircraft, including several different kinds of helicopters. We made jumps at bases all over the U.S. and in many foreign countries. Many of these jumps were at night, which you’d think would have cured my fear of heights, but I’ve had no such luck. When we toured the Space Needle in Seattle a few years back, I got really nervous at the top. I’ve jumped out of airplanes at 10,000 feet, but I was extremely uncomfortable being just 520 feet in the air. It really scared me to be standing at the railing and not be secured to anything. Come to think of it, maybe I’m not afraid of heights. Is there a word for “fear of falling without the proper equipment”? Because I think that’s probably what I’m really afraid of.
One, one thousand … Two, one thousand … Three, one thousand …
If you get to “five, one thousand” and you don’t feel the main chute open, you’ve got a problem. It’s imperative that you find out and fix what went wrong or get your reserve chute open pretty quickly. Fortunately, I never had that problem. As soon as the chute opens, the sound goes from deafening to complete silence. It’s honestly really cool.
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Mike Ross on Leading INSURICA
When someone has been running the same company for decades, no one would blame them for deciding they have all the answers. But this isn’t the case with INSURICA’s president and CEO, Mike Ross. “There are still days when I’m not always sure what I’m doing, but that’s a good thing,” Mike says. “I have 20-something years of experience as president of INSURICA, and I’m still ready to learn new things. I believe that if you’re ever in a position where you think you’ve ‘arrived’ and that you have all the answers, then you’re certainly about to fall. You have to be willing to keep learning.” In November, Mike will be celebrating 34 years with INSURICA. Mike didn’t have his sights set on insurance when he finished college with a business major, but a family friend took him under her wing and encouraged Mike to interview with Travelers Insurance. He took her advice and got a job offer from Travelers in 1983. Two years later, Mike joined INSURICA as a commercial insurance producer, and he’s been climbing the ranks ever since. Mike put on the additional hat of business development work in 1995, was promoted to VP of sales in 1996, and was given the opportunity to take the reins as president and CEO in 1998. Since stepping into his position, Mike has navigated INSURICA through periods of tremendous growth. The size of the INSURICA team has increased, and the company has acquired 30–40 other agencies, including our firm here in Little Rock! All the while, Mike remembers why he fell in love with his job in the first place. “The first few years I was in the business, it was just a job,” Mike says. “I didn’t have any kind of passion for it. Over time, I grew to see the impact we are able to make. No one ever wants to use insurance, but when they do, they need somebody who can guide them through the process. I’ve had the privilege many times of helping clients — helping friends — who found themselves in some really bad claims situations. The planning and the work we were able to do together made a difference. I’m able to provide a safety net where there otherwise would not be one.” In addition to his dedication to INSURICA, Mike is also a devoted husband and father. He’s been married for 37 years, and Mike and his wife have two grown sons and five — soon to be six — grandchildren. Mike’s track record speaks for itself. We’re glad to have a man like him at the helm, a man who’s passionate about his work and still willing to learn.
As entrepreneurs scale their businesses, there is a lot to focus on: hiring the right staff, creating the most effective marketing strategies, and setting up efficient operations. With so much to do, it’s easy to lose sight of your initial vision for your company. If you’re stuck in a rut, know that you’re not alone. Plenty of the most successful entrepreneurs have endured the same struggles and, with a little ambition and a lot of creativity, came out on top. Take Henry Ford, for example. Henry Ford made the automobile accessible and appealing for the common citizen. This ignited interest in the market from consumers and manufacturers alike, which led to innovations like air conditioning and other appliances we can’t imagine living without today. There were some key factors that played into his success, and, if you apply them to your own journey, you could gain a new perspective and be inspired to create and Ford realized cars were unreliable and unaffordable to most and set out to change that. After developing the first moving assembly line, Ford lowered the price of cars and made them accessible for people outside the upper class for the first time. As long as you keep the consumer and their needs in mind, you’ll find ways to make their experience better and increase your success. Small Changes, Big Impact Unlike many companies today who sacrifice quality for quantity, Ford found ways to focus on both. He looked at how cars were actually made and found that, if he could build more cars within a certain time frame, he could pay less per car, per worker. Thus, the moving assembly line was born. When looking for ways to innovate in your industry, rethinking even the smallest, simplest details can make a huge difference for your business. You may not be able to reinvent the wheel, but who said you couldn’t reinvent the brake pads? Henry Ford may have changed the automobile industry forever, but you don’t have to go to such lengths to innovate in your own. The next time you find yourself uninspired or stagnant, look to those who made your industry what it is today. You might just find the inspiration you’ve been searching for. Reignite Your Passion Lessons in Innovation From Henry Ford innovate in your industry. Consumer-Focused
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The Surest Disaster Ever Made
RISK MANAGEMENT AND NEW COKE
“I don’t think I’d be more upset if you were to burn the flag in our front yard.” On July 11, 1985, just 79 days after the unveiling of New Coke, Coca-Cola held another press conference to announce the return of the original formula. New Coke was reviled when it was released and is still considered one of the biggest marketing disasters of all time. But the funny thing is people actually liked the taste of New Coke better than the original recipe. Coca-Cola executives didn’t make the change on a whim. They’d run over 190,000 blind taste tests on consumers in U.S. and Canada and the data showed people liked New Coke better. Unfortunately, they failed to ask how customers would feel if New Coke replaced the original. Coca-Cola is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The formula has been tweaked over the years, but Coca-Cola built a brand on being an American classic. While New Coke might have been a good business move when competing with Pepsi, it essentially sacrificed what made people choose Coca-Cola in the first place. Ditching the old recipe in exchange for something new was seen as a total betrayal to their customers, and Coca- Cola paid dearly for the mistake.
In risk management, customer perspective of your company and your brand is important. Making decisions without assessing the risk to your brand can have disastrous consequences — just ask Coca-Cola.
On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola Company chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta announced at a press conference that the century-old company was introducing a brand-new formula, a sweeter soda christened New Coke. In an even more shocking move, Coca-Cola would be discontinuing its original formula in favor of New Coke. This dramatic change was the result of Coca-Cola’s rival, Pepsi-Cola, increasing in popularity year by year. What Goizueta claimed was “the surest move ever made” quickly became a total disaster. Loyal Coca-Cola drinkers protested loudly. By June, the company was dealing with 8,000 angry phone calls a day. One disgruntled soda drinker wrote to the company to declare,
Have a Laugh!
Sudoku
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INSIDE This Issue
Who’s Afraid of Heights? page 1
How Henry Ford Innovated His Industry Meet Mike Ross, President of Insurica page 2 How Coca-Cola Betrayed Their Brand Sudoku page 3
Tips for Women Climbing the Business Ladder page 4
‘Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility’ A Woman’s Guide to Corporate Success
dare to talk about style, and clothes, and food, and wine, and entertaining, and LIFE in a business book. We don’t work in a vacuum.”
While Mireille Guiliano is best known for “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” her book on healthy eating and balanced living, authorship is actually her second career. Before she took up the pen, Guiliano was president and CEO of the French Champagne brand Veuve Clicquot. She developed Veuve
Guiliano is true to her word. Between the covers, readers will find advice on topics as far-ranging as developing the perfect handshake, choosing catering for a business dinner, dressing for success, and putting together an effective presentation. Guiliano has plenty of experience to back up her counsel and shares amusing anecdotes about the food and beverage industry, French culture, and her own journey along the way. There are no easy three-step solutions here, only long-term goals and strategies. What really makes “Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire” unique is that it caters specifically to women in pursuit of high- powered CEO or CFO jobs. Guiliano covers circumventing prejudice right alongside choosing a dress and tips on being the perfect lunch date. Still, both men and women will come away from this book with ideas about how to achieve success without sacrificing the pleasures French women hold so dear.
Clicquot’s reputation in America almost single-handedly over a 20-plus year career, and now she has chronicled that success in her 2010 bestseller “Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility” — a guide to climbing the corporate ladder geared specifically toward women. Just as “French Women Don’t Get Fat” upended the typical diet book format, “Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire” leaves the usual business book style behind almost immediately. As Guiliano writes in her introduction, “This isn’t another business book that tells you how to ‘succeed’ or ‘get the corner office.’ Yes, of course, you’ll find advice on getting ahead and getting promoted … but more than that, you’ll find advice on being happy and living a good life, even while you are making the biggest contribution you can to the workplace. That’s why I
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