Engage!
Starship captains seem to have a thing for catch-phrases.
Really? And how do I know this, since there are no such things as starships? Well, heck, I heard one in the recent movies says “punch it” when he wanted his ship to jump to warp speed. Another one in a current TV series likes to say. “Let’s fly.” But the all-time best-known catch phrase belongs to a chateau-owning Frenchman, who points forward with two fingers and says “Engage.”
Even if you’re not a Trekkie, you probably know I’m talking about Jean-Luc Picard, embodied by that great actor Patrick Stewart. And even if there aren’t any starships or people to captain them (yet), “engage” is a powerful word. It is something that SSPI tries to help the people of our industry do every day. And believe me, we all need that help.
Heads Down, Teaming and Swiping
The tech analyst and investor Esther Dyson wrote a book in 1997 called Release 2.0 about how we would live in the digital age that was just becoming visible then. In it, she confidently predicted that businesses would become incredibly open to their customers, investors and markets because of the blossoming range of options for communication.
So far, however, not so much. We have created a heads-down, full-screen, data-driven, Teaming, Zooming and swiping business world, moving with a speed and complexity that is almost impossible to stay ahead of. And our human response, seen in businesses of all sizes and durations, has been to fill the moats, raise the drawbridges and make sure that nobody from the outside can get in. Visit the website of most up-to-date companies in our industry, and you will find no physical address, no phone numbers and nothing but an online email form to which no one receives a reply. If you are not already known inside, or have not driven your car through the front door, you are not getting in.
Ways to Engage with SSPI
And so, Captain Picard’s call to “engage” is all the more essential if we are to continue making this a great industry to work, create and innovate in. In the pages of this Orbiter, we share all the ways that SSPI can help you raise your eyes from the screen and do it: bringing your company into membership, mentoring and being mentored, joining chapters or working groups like SSPI-WISE, nominating for awards, attending events and business roundtables, and contributing to the wide range of podcast, video and online content that we produce to sell the world on the immense value of space and satellite.
They take time. They take a bit of money to support SSPI’s existence. But the return on investment? It’s galactic!