“Failure is not an option,” said keynote speaker Gene Kranz at the opening session of the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show Jan. 29, in Phoenix, Ariz. Kranz was the leader of the ‘Tiger Team’ of flight directors who brought the Apollo 13 space shuttle safely back to earth on April 17, 1970, after it experienced difficulties that threatened the lives of the three men on board.Kranz shared his experiences of the Apollo 13 flight and compared the value, teamwork, trust and leadership needed in that situation to the needs of the beef industry today. “There are many similarities in our businesses,” he said. Both industries experience “a nature of risk and an uncertainty of change.”
“We are forever accountable, and we must never stop learning,” Kranz said, “because as a team we must never fail.” As producers and other agriculturalist team together, these are important factors. Those in the beef industry must continue to concentrate on how to improve the industry and to remember they are accountable for consumer demand.
Kranz said when you know you’ve done all you can, sometimes you have to leave problems to a higher power. At one point in the mission, he acted on a gut feeling, deciding to send the Apollo 13 crew around the moon instead of turning back. The decision proved to be a life-saving one.
Kranz said his team had a common goal and cattlemen must find the same. Failure must not be an option for the beef industry, he said.
— Annie Jensen
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman was greeted with a hug from National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Eric Davis as she took the stage Jan. 29 at the Annual Cattleman’s Convention and Trade Show in Phoenix.