The document discusses 8 focus areas for turning defeat into success based on lessons from the Apollo 13 mission: 1) Have a clear vision, 2) Pick the best people, 3) Support them with the best team, 4) Support them with the best technology, 5) Train and improve constantly, 6) Prepare for the unexpected, 7) Improvise, 8) Turn defeat into success. It argues that following these areas can help businesses overcome challenges, just as NASA was able to bring the Apollo 13 crew back safely despite facing difficulties.

1. “Failure is not an option”
8 Focus areas to turn defeat into
success

2. “Failure is notan
option”
“The story of Apollo 13
is one of hope,
inspiration, and
perseverance, and
one that holds many
useful parallels for
those in business.
What are those
parallels? Consider the
factors that
contributed to the
success of the Apollo
program.”

3. ”We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in
this decade and do the other
things, not because they are easy,
but because they are hard,
because that goal will serve to
organize and measure the best
of our energies and skills,
because that challenge is one
that we are willing to accept,
one we are unwilling to
postpone, and one which
we intend to win, and
the others, too. “
Have a clear Vision

4. Business
Planning
Project Prioritization
Tool

5. Business
Planning
Financial Perspective

6. Pick the best people
”Like NASA chooses astronauts,
we must also seek to partner
with the most talented persons
available... seek to hire industry
specialists with broad experience
who can overcome the
unexpected problems that occur
even in the best planned
project.”

7. People
Management
Succession Management Matrix

8. Support them with
the best team
”No matter how good the
astronauts were, they would
never have been successful
without the team that
supported them and their
mission. In business it’s not the
individual but the team that
achieves the objectives.”

9. People
Management
Management and Leadership Assessment

10. Support them with the
best technology and
innovation
Even though you may not have
NASA’s budget for your next
initiative, investments in technology
and innovation can pay huge
dividends in market share growth
and success.

11. Lead
Management
Lead Generation Prioritization Tool

12. Train and improve
constantly
“The Apollo astronauts trained
constantly. A backup crew trained
beside them”
“For business teams training is
essential, whether to understand
the technology being deployed ,
business diagnostic tools or
implementation, training is better
done beforehand rather in the
heat of implementation.”

13. Capability
Management
Core Competencies Assessment

14. Prepare for the
unexpected
“For the astronauts and mission planners,
preparing for the unexpected was a crucial
part of the program. They knew they were
exploring uncharted territory and had to
prepare contingencies for situations they
might encounter...
In business preparing for the unknown starts
with the initial planning, when allowances
should be built into the plan to account for
both known and unknown possibilities.”

15. Business
Planning
STEP Industry Analysis Tool

16. Never consider
defeat!
“When the disaster struck, the mission
controllers, mission team and crew of
Apollo 13 never allowed themselves to
consider the possibility that the crew
would not make it back.
When disaster strikes in business, as
long as you proceed from the
standpoint that you must and can
succeed and must succeed, you’ll find
the drive to see that it will succeed.”

17. Business
Planning
Business Strategy Metrics Dashboard

18. Improvise
“When Apollo 13 was crippled, the
mission team members had to use
their ingenuity to solve their
problems. Hundreds of thousands of
miles from earth, with no way to
replace the failed CO2 scrubbers,
they had to make new ones from
what they had available.
“ Likewise, your business may need
rescuing and you may need to
improvise to provide a solution that
meets your fundamental business
objectives.

19. Product
Development
Product Development Maturity Assessment

20. Turn defeat into
success
“Success can be found even in failure. For
the Apollo 13 mission, that success was the
achievement of bringing the crew back
safely against all odds. The interest this
generated revived the flagging public
support for the Apollo program.
In business, even when we fail and the
sale is lost, there is always a lesson to be
learned. Whatever the reason...it should
be looked on as an opportunity to learn
and improve so the future failures can be
prevented.”

21. Business
Planning

22. Failure is not an option
• Have a clear Vision
• Pick the best people
• Support them with the best team
• Support them with the best technology
• Train and improve constantly
• Prepare for the unexpected
• Improvise
• Turn defeat into success

24. Core Services
Focus