Our Blog Begins

Today I am beginning the blog about our company, OPS America. I'll write as often as I'm able about our successes, our struggles, and much in between. I'm not sure where this new communication vehicle for our company will take me, but as with all my OPSA experiences so far, I'm looking forward to the ride.

Our company started in September of 2001. Yes, it's true we started during the same month as the attacks of 9/11. Dan Cook, the President of OPSA, started the company that month as a one-man show. He had been working with Doug Peterson, founder and Principle of OPS Hong Kong, for quite a while before our official start. I still remember the day in my office at Graham Medical that Dan first mentioned to me his idea for OPSA. I can't believe the company is over six years old now. I'll get into more history in future posts.

2008 is a very big year for OPSA. It's a milestone year in several ways. It's also a year we need to do things differently. We've had great success so far, but it's time for new ideas and processes. As part of that I need to do things differently as well. I need to find ways to add more value for our customers, help grow our capacity and infrastructure so we can continue to grow at the fast pace of the last six years, and find new potential customers and projects that are good fits for our model.

With this in mind, I symbolically did something different today to kick-off 2008. I decided to do a polar bear swim. There are several places in Wisconsin where it's traditional to kick-off the new year with a dip in icy Lake Michigan. I went to Kewaunee, just west of Green Bay where I live, and joined the Kewaunee Polar Bear Club. The temperature was 19 degrees according to the bank in town and the water temperature was 33 degrees according to the club. It was really, really cold and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes for a good half-hour after getting out. My daughter Elise went along and took some pictures. She is planning to join me next year.

So, with this post and a jump into a freezing lake I kick-off 2008. I expect it will be an exciting year.