Wheeler L. Baker

"We consider ourselves the leading military school in the country, and we want to stay there. We adapt to change very well; we recognize different learning styles and we adapt to that. We maintain our standards and use the military model as a way to provide structure in education."

"To those thirteen-hour-a-day managers who lead people and make decisions."

"I was honored to be selected as Hargrave’s ninth president and retire with mixed emotions. Hargrave Military Academy is a special place and clearly under God’s guiding hand."

"Control your risks. Identify important decision points. Forecast potential crises. The solution starts as soon as planning begins!"

"For almost all of us, recognizing a crisis can be difficult unless we have significant warning, or are prepared before-hand to deal with change. It is also important in an emergency, as it was in Dans situation, to identify and focus on the actual crisis, not the cause. It is time to "put out the fire" not waste precious time figuring out how the fire started."

"When an individuals or groups basic survival is threatened, stress becomes tremendous, and productivity drops. Under these conditions a managers ability to reason and maintain a proper focus on developing plans or solutions to a crisis is extremely difficult."

"Pressure can also make managers act out of character. Degrees of panic will cause a normally good manager to lose self-confidence and focus. Under stress, even a good plan can be abandoned."

"Leaders and managers do not have to risk lives, profit, or mission failure because they failed to plan for a crisis. Do not allow yourself to be put on the defense by changing circumstances. No one enjoys wasting time, but dont be reluctant to call a meeting just to discuss something that might happen. Remember the oil filter theory. Rather than disobey your instincts and proceed with the status quo or embark on a risky course, invest some planning time in your business. Control your risks. Identify important decision points. Forecast potential crisis. Apply the six hour model. A little time spent discussing your business is never wasted."

"Not too many years ago a television ad depicted a service station attended selling oil filters. His pitch was, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later." The difference was an eight dollar oil filter or a new engine."

"Whether you are big or small, or face a high or low potential for crisis, a day devoted to discussing company business is never wasted."

"There is absolutely no reason the command group can not pick the five most probable contingencies or missions that your unit could be called on to execute today. Identify those missions and then schedule a crisis planning session for each mission. The training and preparation value of doing this is tremendous."

"Two a.m. in a dark alley or on a mountainside is not the time to discover your unit is missing a key piece of equipment, or that you are not sure of the radio frequencies of an adjacent unit. The procedural check lists created in training will prevent those critical and unacceptable mistakes. This is the time to benefit from those "lessons learned". But leaders must schedule the time to train, do it right, critique, and move on. It is an investment that will bring the most return."