Tidbits on Friday

My daughter is in Costa Rica volunteering in a jungle plantation. When she flew down there a month or so ago she had researched all the requirements with Homeland Security, the Embassy, State Department you name it. She's volunteered in Vietnam and traveled quite a bit so she knows her way around.

She gets to the airport in Salt Lake with her tickets on US Air, Visa in hand and Passport and gets to her connection in Phoenix which was then to be direct to San Jose, Costa Rica. Then, as US Scare always does, they throw a wrench in things. They tell her and four others that since their tickets dont return until after their Visa's they cannot go.

She explains of course that the State department told her no biggie just leave for three days before it expires (all they'd give her was 90 day Visa) and come back and renew. So they planned on going to Panama and coming back. Not so quick says US Scare - not on our watch. When she got to the bottom of it all they said, "Oh it is not a Homeland Security rule or the State Department, it is our rule. The only way she could get on, a plane, since by now her and her companion missed theirs along with the other folks, was to have a return ticket within 90 days.

You all know what it costs for short term tickets. US Scare made them buy return one way tickets, which Homeland Security of course doesnt want you to do, they flag those, and the cost - a mere $1000 per person. Of course they told them without the tickets they would not be able to board their plane. They bought with the assurance they could get a full refund. They didnt mention the 'land they had for sale in the Everglades' either.

So they put them on a flight from Phoenix to Charlotte for their flight from there to San Jose. They fly all night, get to Charlotte and board their plane without US Scare in Charlotte even asking about a return ticket. The world as we know it is on tilt.

That is so stupid it reminds me of another corporate charade I was witness to with a $500M tech company (no longer in business and you'll see why). I was consulting trying to help them turn things around and sat in on a production scheduling meeting when the GM was demanding they ship out their new handheld, think retail handheld terminals with little antennas you see in Wal-Mart, and the new model was heating up so hot during burn in that they were melting the plastic case.

The manufacturing head and the quality head were in the conference room explaining to the GM, who was buddies with the CEO but had no manufacturing experience, why they could not meet orders because of the burn in problem. It was two days before the end of the quarter and one of the problems was - these folks would 'make' the quarter one way or the other.

Finally the GM of operations slammed his fist down on the table and said, "By God you'll ship them or I will and you won't be here." The quality fellow who was really cool and pretty independent kind of smiled and said, "As soon as we can find some tiny air conditioner to fix on the end of the handhelds we'll ship". I laughed, no one else did and they did ship the defective units to 'make' the quarter then had to bring them all back and redo them after quarters end.

See why their not in business today ... all problems are leadership problems.