Hello everyone, and welcome to Risk Playbook. I'm Mike Mitchell, Vice Chairman of Graham Company, and today I'm joined by the founder and CEO of AccuWeather, Dr. Joel Myers.
When I was 11, my father showed me an article about a meteorologist in Boston, who was providing forecasts to fuel oil dealers, and since I was entrepreneurial, I already had—I got a paper route when I was 11. I was supposed to be 12—I fibbed about my age—and other little businesses on the side. I'm making a dollar here, a couple dollars there.
Well, it's a fascinating story, and it's almost hard to comprehend. So I'll say you are a pioneer, because you started the business in 1962—other businesses that were independent didn't exist. The weather forecast was free. I mean, what made you think that you could take and make that into a business and how did you get started?
Well, it's obvious by your stories and your voice, you had a passion for it, and obviously a tremendous amount of determination to stick to it. That's the story of many successful entrepreneurs who are willing to take the risk and go ahead. And of course, save companies tens of billions of dollars, and that's what they pay us for. These companies pay us significant money—only a fraction of the value, we bring to them—only a tiny fraction of the value. And it keeps their people safe. And we have so many examples of where we've saved lives and help companies make the right decision. And it's very gratifying.
Clearly of a cold wave that hit Dallas and Texas was extraordinary, but not unprecedented. Some records fell but some records did not fall. But the weather certainly is volatile and runs in patterns of volatility, and that's what our business is based on—whether keeping companies—we told our clients in Dallas eight days in advance of what was going to happen. It was almost to the point. They were prepared; people that didn't use us were not, and a lot of people suffered, unfortunately.
So the result is that better decisions are made, and we have so many examples of where there was no warning, we issued a warning, people sheltered, the facility was destroyed, nobody injured. Really that is what the gratification is for me, and many other people at AccuWeather, when we can make that kind of a difference. And people are actually alive because of what we did. You can't ask for a higher calling.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: NYMag - 🏆 111. / 63 Read more »
Source: enews - 🏆 466. / 52 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: NYMag - 🏆 111. / 63 Read more »