Virginia "Ginger" Barnes

Exceptional Operations Management: Focusing on the Customer

Operations and project management is key, and it's not something that is just innate to most people, it's something that's developed over time. I have one operations manager that comes to mind as the pinnacle-he sets the standard for operations and project management. The gentlemen is responsible for all of the mission operations for United Space Alliance, and United Space Alliance does 80% of mission operations for NASA. We plan the missions. We train the astronauts. We fly the missions. It's 24/7. For many years we did that for the space shuttle, and then when the International Space Station came on board, we have been doing mission operations for that since it was launched in 1998.

So, United Space Alliance has been heavy into it. It's a very critical job, keeping astronauts in orbit, safe and communicating, solving problems real time, having the skill set that goes through the deliberate actions, involving the myriad of international constituents. And what this man does that sets him apart from everyone else is his passion for his team and his people, but even more so, his commitment to his customer. He is closer to his customer, understanding what their needs, desires, wants, itches, issues are than anyone I've ever seen.

I thought I was very customer savvy until I met this man. He took over an organization almost two years ago, and we were very arrogant. We didn't know that we had a problem with this customer. Through a backdoor we found out that our customer was unhappy with us, primarily with the leadership of that organization. They were very happy with the people who were doing the hands-on work, the flight directors, but we didn't know, so we replaced him and we put Scott Hartwig in this job. And within just a matter of a few months, he had turned it around; he had turned it around to where not only have we receive very high marks from our customer about the work, but our customer has rewarded this relationship and this stellar performance by giving us more work, which is really important to us as we move forward.

Scott's approach to solving this problem, especially the problem with his customer, the customer relationship that had deteriorated, his approach has been very simple. He has gotten very close to that customer. He makes routine visits to that customer. He's not satisfied with just the how's the weather conversation. He digs in. He wants to know to his counterpart and every level within the organization what things are going on. So he really has the pulse of that organization. He's very quick internally to think like the customer. When we make decisions about benefits, and we've had to make many, Scott has said, "My customer won't tolerate if you do, if we do this, and here's why." All of the flight directors-it takes about 18 months to certify to become a flight director-NASA loves them and NASA wants to keep them. So they were very concerned about going through the benefit reduction process that we went through, and Scott was their voice on our team. He also communicated back to the customer without being asked, and I have to say that Scott solved that problem, and every single problem that we've taken to him, he has solved, and it's a very deliberate process that he goes through, getting close to the stakeholders, finding out what their needs are, and not just satisfying them, but delighting those customers.

I need this to be summarized