The other day while rummaging through some boxes, I found a Telex I received while I was in Iran. The date of the Telex was July 21st, 1978, 41 years ago. (Does anyone remember Telex’s?)
I was in Iran conducting a security driving and surveillance detection program for two Fortune 100 companies. At that time (1978), the US community in Iran was on edge. The cause of the anxiety was a series of assassinations. In August of 1976, three engineers from Rockwell International were assassinated in Tehran while traveling in their vehicle. Before the Rockwell assassination, two Air Force Colonels were also assassinated while traveling in their vehicle. (Newspaper article listed below)
Fast forward to 2019, forty-one years later, Joe Autera and the Vehicle Dynamics Institute (VDI) team conducted a similar training program (Security Driving and Surveillance Detection) in a high-risk environment for one of the companies we (Scotti School) trained in Iran in 1978. Also, that same company regularly sends its people to the VDI Pocono facility.
For 41 years, these two companies and about 300 more Fortune 500 companies have been sending those that protect their executives (I think there is a name for that function) to the old Scotti School and for the past 16 years to VDI for training that mitigates their risk. Common sense (Which I find is not too common) says that they would not be sending their people to us for 41 years if we did not mitigate their risk.
Although this more than 40-year loyalty to our brand and methodology may seem unusual to some, it is actually a common occurrence at the old Scotti School and now VDI.
Articles about the Iranian Assassinations