My wife Betty and I had the good fortune to spend an enjoyable week at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico. I lived a different life last week, but I’m back to reality now and will be putting the finishing touches on the book over the next several weeks. The manuscript is being examined by the editors now, but there is still time to incorporate useful advice. So don’t hesitate to give us ideas. We’re beginning to focus our attention on our upcoming public relations campaign — I am interested in hearing your ideas for how we can best get the word out on the book. We expect it to be available for purchase in the spring.
Click on the comments link to share your thoughts.
– Bob
Here are my responses to previous weeks’ comments:
Donald Bauer (Week 22): If anything, there’s more than enough on the America’s Cup in the book. For me, the participation of SAIC in the successful America’s Cup campaign — and the contributions we ended up making — was one of the most exciting events in my life. We were able to take technology from our work with the Navy and apply it to improvements in the design of high-performance racing sailboats. This was not a profitable enterprise for SAIC, but it was one of the events that forced the company into the public eye in a positive way. This certainly changed my attitude towards the importance of PR for the company.
Gary Marple (Week 22): I enjoyed my association with the Kauffman Center and learned a great deal about entrepreneurship, which was helpful in the building of SAIC. We actually hired Ray Smilor, who you may know, to run the Beyster Institute at UCSD. The Beyster Institute focuses on lessons learned from SAIC and other employee-owned, entrepreneurial companies. I hope others will follow our example and build long-term employee ownership into their companies.