Many films have been made on the tragic story of Titanic. Arrogance and ignorance were certainly present during its first voyage, which was Titanic's final voyage. Several warnings were given, but unfortunately, the warnings were not taken seriously. On April 14, 1912, Titanic received six warnings that icebergs were present in its periphery. On the night of April 14, Titanic collided with an iceberg and eventually sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. As for the other entities, what happened to Titanic should not happen to them. Many people have learned from the mistakes made by Titanic. There are many examples that parallel what happened with Titanic and how a unit can learn from Titanic's mistakes.
Point 1.
Titanic had only 16 lifeboats, which was not enough to save everyone on the ship. Only about 60% of the full lifeboat's capacity was used! Does your company have a disaster plan? Is your computer, especially your server, backed up regularly? Multiple servers are now being backed up on a daily basis and sometimes on an hourly basis. When I was working at a helpdesk, one of our afternoon girls was nicknamed the "backup queen" because she took every major server backup so seriously. The company was very lucky to have a "Backup Queen" because there were many instances where our most important server crashed and information was lost. Fortunately, information restoration was quick and painless, as the machine was backed up on a regular basis. We were lucky enough to have the initiative to handle server backups. Is your company so lucky? Yes, backing up can seem overwhelming. However, losing valuable data can be very exciting, but in a negative way.
Point 2.
Binoculars were not issued to the crew members in the lookout tower, or "crow's nest", for better exploration of the iceberg. The employees were not given proper equipment to use for doing their jobs. Is your company using the right software for the job? Are you saving money on upgrading your operating system and software, but losing customers? If you're losing customers, you're not really saving any money. The right equipment can range from the very basic, such as issuing headphones that are compatible with the phone system, to customer service representatives, to making sure a backup generator can run adequately due to a power outage.
Point 3.
Titanic had a total of 16 watertight compartments. Initially, it seemed fine, but unfortunately, each compartment did not have water on its own. Each compartment resembled an ice cube tray. When one box was filled with water, the other compartment was filled with water. Each compartment did not completely shut off the water on its own. Does your company have a good disaster recovery plan? If the premises flood or catch fire, will you be able to resume business operations in a matter of days, or will it take months? Is the information on your site being sent off-site so that you have some other place to access your valuable information?
Point 4.
Titanic was going at full speed in the water filled with icebergs in the night. Are your machines in your business running at 100% capacity on an ongoing basis? How much does the downtime cost when those machines need to be fixed? Are you really saving money by not buying more machinery? Does the cost of more machinery exceed the cost of downtime for your current machines?
Point 5.
Titanic ignored several warnings from the iceberg. Titanic received six iceberg warnings on the day it sank! Is your sales force, customer service department and/or helpdesk really listening to your customers? Walmart founder Sam Walton said that the most important person to an organization can be the one who greets customers. Too many companies don't even realize how much each person represents their company! There is too much competition in the market to ignore warnings. Industries such as the telecommunications, automobile, office supplies, soft drink and restaurant industries were better off taking the warnings seriously. Few companies may not get the luxury of the six warnings Titanic received. Sometimes, just a warning can break a company. This is why for companies that encourage, and take seriously, customer feedback is invaluable and can be a goldmine.
Point 6.
Titanic had only white colored guns to signal for help. Red is the standard color for flare guns, used to signal for help. While the Titanic was sinking, white guns were fired from the ship. One or two ships several miles away called white flares, but did not interpret the white flares as a warning message. Does your organization use appropriate means of communication? Has it been ensured that all parties involved fully understand what the other parties are saying? Many groups within an organization speak completely different languages. Sales, technology and management translations can be similar to translations for three different foreign languages.
Point 7.
White Star President Bruce Is may be pressurized Captain Smith for unrealistic and dangerous goals. Is may want Titanic to reach New York on April 16. To accomplish this goal, the ship would have to travel at full speed most of the time. The coercion on the part of Is may prove dangerous due to the death of the ship. The level of Is may was the same as that of the CEO. Are your company's CEO and the rest of the management staff setting realistic goals? Is your manager providing bilateral communication? Feedback is vital to the survival of any company, 6as many managers are not involved in the day-to-day activities.
Point 8.
The priorities of the two wireless operators were not focused on the priorities of the ship.
Many of the first class elite paid bonuses to both operators for sending messages to New York. One of Titanic's operators told the other ship to "shut up" after another iceberg warning was given. It was a powerful rebuke that could have cost thousands of lives.
Is your customer service department doing everything possible to retain and acquire customers? A courteous and knowledgeable customer service representative can save a company thousands of dollars and probably more! I have had the privilege of dealing with many great customer service representatives. I have told several delegate supervisors that I really appreciate their help as well, and they are fortunate to have such great representatives on their team.
Point 9.
Titanic's steel construction was never tested in cold temperatures. The steel that made ocean liners in the early 20th century was brittle to begin with. Unfortunately, the steel was never stress-tested to determine what stress levels the structure could tolerate.
Are your company's products being tested adequately? Are your prototypes up to the challenges of customer demands? Is an automobile company's crash test being fully utilized?
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