Author and Business Leader Shares Advice

In January, the chapter was honored to present Austin Boyd, chief executive officer of INERGI Incorporated, as the featured speaker. Boyd is an accomplished author with six novels to his credit as well as a book of poetry. He served as a naval aviator and engineer with more than 3,000 career flight hours to his credit. He has received numerous awards for both contributions. INERGI is a product development firm serving industrial, technology and federal markets across the country. Boyd gave an enlightening presentation concerning the combination of form and function for a product, essentially applying the principles of building architecture to product manufacturing. He outlined discipline as a key principle of his success. Whether referring to the boundary conditions of product development—cost, schedule, and quality—or to the more than 150 hours of outline and design required before writing the first page of one of his novels. Boyd continued with operational considerations such as the need for a 3-D printer, an in-house machine shop and staged development to be successful in the product development industry. In closing, Boyd reminded the group of the importance of discipline as a principal characteristic of initial and sustained success.

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