Douglas M. Hughes
Corporate Communications, from A to Z

Americas Sales Meeting speech written for Ron Heinz, 1995

Good afternoon, Novell! Welcome to the Americas Sales Meeting. And thank you all for coming. We're going to enjoy a great three days together as we discuss this year's theme: GOING TO EXTREMES! The entire management team of the company is here to answer your questions, respond to your concerns, and give you good reasons to be excited about the future. We'll be celebrating our successes, learning from our mistakes, and laying out our game plan for the coming year.

The past year's "selling season" is behind us, and I won't kid you. It's been tough. When we look back and check the "final stats," we might feel disappointed at the numbers. but we should still be proud of our performance. We started out great--pretty much right on target through the third quarter. That's when our business applications income "hit a wall" due to the Windows 95 phenomenon.

This year, however, it's a "whole new ball game," and Novell is a whole new company. As you know, we reorganized the sales department. We've developed a new corporate strategy that will enable all of our product divisions to be "working from the same playbook!" And we've gone back to the game we know best--network computing. So this year, we have the home court advantage, playing by our own rules!

But best of all, we have you...Novell's Extreme Team. Each one of you is an individual with talent. We're here to combine those talents and to focus on working together as a unified, unbeatable team. In 1996, we're going to play our hearts out--right down to the final buzzer of each and every quarter. But this time, we're going to extremes...we're thinking outside the lines...and we're writing our own rules. Not only are we going to slam dunk the competition, but we're going to give a whole new meaning to the phrase "Nothing But Net!"

Christmas Party Speech for Tom Marsh, EVP
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
Dec. 3, 2005

(Comments made after dinner and initial entertainment by guitarist Don Watson, before further entertainment and dancing)

Good evening, everyone, and welcome once again to our annual holiday celebration for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. My wife Diane and I are very happy to be with you tonight and we want to start by thanking the staff here at the Broadmoor and our own Lynn Hansen for their hard work in orchestrating tonight’s festivities. Haven’t they done a fabulous job? (Let’s hear it for them.) (Applause)

It’s great to see so many familiar faces, and it’s equally gratifying to see the new ones. As our employee population gets older, we are thrilled to welcome new blood into the family, so that old timers like me can step aside and retire someday. (But that’s not an announcement!) To all of you, and to everyone else here who made the trip to be with us here this evening—in many cases traveling long distances—thank you for joining us. Please enjoy yourselves.

You have already heard a sample of tonight’s entertainment. We’ll be getting back to the music in just a minute. But I would be remiss if I didn’t first take this opportunity to recognize the incredible work you have all done during 2005. You have given the company and me the best possible Christmas present this year: a perfect record of 100% mission success! For that, you have my sincerest thanks, my deepest respect, and my heartiest congratulations. Please give yourselves a round of applause. Outstanding! (Lead another round of applause)
You know, it’s hard to believe that only 102 years ago, powered flight was still an unfulfilled dream. Yet here we are today, having sent machines to virtually all corners of the solar system—with a mission to Pluto slated for early next year.

It was on December 17, 1903 that the Wright brothers made that first historic flight at Kitty Hawk. Later the same day, Orville Wright sent a telegram to his father that described their incredible achievement. What’s even more incredible is the fact that the message he sent was only 29 words long. The Wright Brothers had just invented the first airplane, and their announcement was shorter than the Pledge of Allegiance! I guess that proves one of two things, either kids have never talked much to their parents, or Western Union didn’t offer “unlimited anytime minutes” back in 1903.

So what were those 29 words? Orville’s telegram read as follows:

“Success! Four flights Thursday morning, all against twenty-one mile wind. Started from Level, with engine power alone. Speed through air: thirty-one miles. Longest: 57 seconds. Inform Press. Home Christmas.”

You’ll notice the first word in that telegram: SUCCESS. Even with that very first flight, Mission Success was the number one priority. Looking back at what we’ve done at Space Systems this year, I was thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if we could send a telegram BACK to Orville Wright to let him know how far we’ve carried his legacy? If we could write such a telegram, we would have to start the same way he did:

• “Success! Final Titan rocket lifts off from Vandenburg. Perfect string of 368 launches over 50 years. Bring champagne.” Or…
  
• “Success! Atlas puts MRO on path to Mars. Your flight lasted 57 seconds. Ours will continue for years. Neener neener neener.” Or…
  
• “Success! Huygens probe takes gorgeous photos while descending to Saturn’s largest moon. Would have brought it home but gas prices too high.”

Ordinarily, I would run down a long list of accomplishments by virtually every group in the company and keep you here for 15 to 20 minutes, but I’ve going to try to follow Orville’s example and keep my comments brief. You’ll hear a lot more detail at my “State of the Business” address next month, but for now I’m betting you’d rather get back to the festivities.

Rest assured that I’m well aware and very appreciative of all of you in the various Lines of Business. The teams from Atlas, Titan, and Proton… from MDS and Strategic Missiles… and from Civil, Military, and Commercial Space: congratulations on another productive year. Likewise, I’d like to thank all of our functional groups, like Communications, Human Resources, Legal, Product Assurance, and Operations.

But the one group I’d like to single out for special thanks tonight is the one group that never really gets public credit for what they do: and that’s the people in our “Special Programs” Line of Business. Whenever I get in front of an audience to brag about all the great things we’ve accomplished at Space Systems, and I work my way down the list to the “Special Programs” area, I’m forced to say something cryptic like, “Oh… THOSE guys. They’re doing a heck of a job, but I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.” Well, I may get in trouble for this, but tonight I’d like to brag about these special people, and actually tell you what they’re working on! We’ve developed a new acronym to describe it. It stands for “Nationally Oriented Classified Operations Maximizing Mysteriously Exciting New Technology” or (spell out) N-O C-O-M-M-E-N-T. So when someone asks you what we do in Special Programs, you can just use this new acronym:

NO COMMENT!

Seriously, though, the one thing I want to communicate tonight is that you should be proud of Lockheed Martin and the important work you are doing. 100% mission success for two years in a row—especially in a demanding business such as ours—is an absolutely stellar accomplishment. And don’t think our customers haven’t noticed. Success breeds more success, and I could name a dozen examples of major new business that we’ve won this year because you are so good at what you do.

So thank you very much. Thank you to each and every employee here for your hard work, dedication, and brilliance. And thanks to your spouses and significant others for supporting you as you worked long hours to bring us these successes we cherish so deeply.

In closing let me return to that first telegram from Orville Wright to his father. I pointed out earlier that I thought it was significant that the first word in his telegram was “Success.” I think it’s also significant that the last word in his telegram was “Christmas.” He told his father to inform the press about the flight, and that he would be home for Christmas. I wish the same for you: that, having taken Wilbur and Orville’s initial success a century ago to unimagined new heights this year, you will each enjoy being home for the Christmas holidays, and return to us in 2006: rested, refreshed, renewed and recharged, to continue pushing the boundaries of exploration and imagination.

One last bit of housekeeping before the music resumes and you get the chance to strut your stuff on the dance floor: We want to give away the beautiful centerpieces at each of your tables. The Wright Brothers’ first historic flight at Kitty Hawk happened December 17, 1903. The person at each table whose birthday is nearest to December 17 gets to claim the centerpiece, along with our best wishes for a happy birthday.

Thanks again, and have a wonderful holiday season.

Doug has prepared speeches, video scripts, and PowerPoint presentations for executives at Novell, VLSI, Philips, and Lockheed Martin.

At left you'll see the opening paragraphs of a speech written for Senior VP Ron Heinz, on the occasion of Novell's 1995 Sales Meeting. The meeting's theme, "Going to Extremes," was a tie-in with ESPN's Extreme Games and was punctuated with video imagery of the management team (via special effects) sky surfing and participating in a variety of extreme sports.

Below that, you'll find a 7-minute speech delivered to top-level exceutives at a Christmas party in Colorado by Lockheed Martin EVP Tom Marsh.