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Lesson #2: “The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me.”
Article Overview: Much of Sarnoff’s career seems to have been a case of being at the right place at the right time. For instance, intent on being a journalist, the young Sarnoff set off in 1906 to find a job with the Herald newspaper. By accident, Sarnoff found himself lost and wandered into the offices of the Commercial Cable Company instead. There, he was immediately hired, and his career in the electronic communications industry had begun.
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Lesson #2: “The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me.”
Much of Sarnoff's career seems to have been a case of being at the right place at the right time. For instance, intent on being a journalist, the young Sarnoff set off in 1906 to find a job with the Herald newspaper. By accident, Sarnoff found himself lost and wandered into the offices of the Commercial Cable Company instead. There, he was immediately hired, and his career in the electronic communications industry had begun.
Still, what set Sarnoff apart from his peers was his ability to make the most and capitalize as much as possible on that right place and right time.
When Sarnoff was a boy, he had bought a telegraph key and taught himself Morse code. Thanks to that decision, after spending a short time as an office boy for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America, Sarnoff was quickly promoted to a junior operator.
It was during that time that Sarnoff would stumble onto one of the greatest experiences of his career. On April 14, 1912, Sarnoff was busy working atop the Wanamaker Hardware building in New York, when he picked up a message that read, "S.S. Titanic ran into iceberg, sinking fast." His actions over the next 72 hours would have a defining impact on his career within Marconi, and beyond.
For the next 72 hours, Sarnoff sent and received wireless messages conveying to the rest of the world the events that were unfolding, also gathering names of survivors and passing them on to relatives who had gathered on the streets below. For three days and three nights, Sarnoff did not move from atop that building. He kept his earphone in, listening for any faint coded messages that he could relay to newspaper reporters.
"Much of the time, I sat there with nothing coming in. It seemed that the whole anxious world was attached by my earphones during the seventy-two hours I crouched tensely in the station," he recalled. "I passed the information on to a sorrowing world, and when messages ceased to come in, fell down like a log at my place and slept the clock around."
In the aftermath of the Titanic tragedy, there were many changes. One of those changes was new regulations, which saw wireless communications become mandatory on all ocean vessels.
Still, no change was as prominent as Sarnoff's rise in the public eye. Whereas once he was an unknown, coding messages atop lonely rooftops, the Titanic sinking saw Sarnoff become a public hero, both in the eyes of his superiors, and people across the country.
And Sarnoff, who admitted, "I felt my responsibility keenly, and weary though I was, could not have slept," was also not necessarily completely altruistic in his actions. Looking back at the large role he played on that fateful day, Sarnoff recalled, "The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me." Almost overnight, Sarnoff had become one of the greatest self-promoters the world had seen - a characteristic that would carry him through the rest of his career.
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Disaster Planning
- [quote="jvprosperity":3o70alwf]In my previous job the company had a manual that listed all the backup procedures so that business go go on as usual without much disruption.
e.g. if something were to happen to the call center what steps needed to be taken so that agents can go t a new location to continue taking calls.
Also, once a quarter or so the organization would practice the Call Tree notification. e.g. the VP would call their directs and advise that this is a test and those directs would then call their people and so on till it hit the front lines.[/quote:3o70alwf]
THose are the kind of things I would think should be done in businesses to prepare for the unexpected. I used to be a department supervisor at a local hospital and we did quarterly disaster drills -- every supervisor was involved and we had to report back to our departments about what was expected of others. Made very good sense that hospitals would do this and there were repercussions for problems in the drills - if there is a disaster, the hospital has to be ready. It made for a tense couple of days for everyone in the building.
Shri
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals
- Thanks Miochelle. I do have back-up copies of everything on my blog just in case of such a disaster.
Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business
- Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide
Donna R. Childs, Stefan Dietrich
2002
"Among the countless tragic lessons of 9/11, an overlooked but important discovery was the lack of preparedness among small and midsized businesses for responding to disaster. While most of the media attention was naturally devoted to...., the very existence of thousands of small businesses was determined by whether or not they had adequate insurance, sufficient technological support, and viable disaster contingency plans."
(People who live in hurricane prone areas need this as well...and who knows when a fire might not strike...)
Table of Contents
1. Preparation
2. Response
3. Recovery
4. SAmple IT Solutions
Basic safety practices
Okay, the TOC isn't [i:2fu76idt]too [/i:2fu76idt]helpful, but there's lots of valuable info in this book, as to ensure that [i:2fu76idt]your [/i:2fu76idt]losses won't be catastrophic. How people cope with suddenly seeing their homes and all their possessions gone, what kinds of insurance to get, etc. etc.
Re: Cash up front ... or Royalties?
- I will stick with Royalties. Taken cash up front is like killing the hen that is laying the golden eggs. Do you remember the story? The royalties in the long run will give me more than the cash up front.
Re: Cash up front ... or Royalties?
- There are so many amazing stories here.
Most my inventions were created on the job and are the property of my employer.
Cash up front if you are out of options is what some people must do.
These people may consider a 5 year contract.
This would allow them to renegotiate another license when they are stronger financially.
Truth is most people that are in financial trouble today are still in trouble 5 years later.
Discipline and control of your own life is priceless.
An example of cash up front versus royalties is "Star Wars"
Harrison Ford (Hans Solo) took cash up front. He needed the money.
Alec Ginness (Obiwankonbi) took royalties. I believe the force is still paying.
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