In a recent (guest) post over on @ Risk, I quoted Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire from his Storm Front album which was released as a single twenty years ago. I did so because each reference in two of the later verses represent significant potential risks to your supply chain that haven’t changed much in the last twenty years; since what your supply manager would be signing about today would more-or-less have the same underlying risks.
In honour of Billy Joel’s masterpiece, which chronicled headline events during the first forty years of his life (from 1949 to 1989), I have compiled a sequel that chronicles major events from the last twenty years (the nineties and the naughts). How many do you remember? And, equally interesting, can you identify the risks to your supply chain and your business that each represents(ed)?
We Didn’t Start the Fire – Part II
Buster Douglas, Gorbachev, Mandela, Berners Lee
Margaret Thatcher, Leonard Bernstein, Mary Robinson
Time Warner, Hubble Scope, Jim Henson, Germany
Windows, Strangeways Riot, Iraq’s Kuwait Invasion
IRA, Pan Am, KGB, Dead Sea Scrolls
Sonic, Exxon Valdez, Operation Desert Storm
Jeffrey Dahmer, Clarence Thomas, Magic Johnson, Michael Landon
Boris Yeltsin, Six in Birmingham, Pinatubo transforms
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Roberta Bond, Noriega, Amy Fisher, Buttafuoco
Toronto Blue Jays win the Series, Jay Leno makes the grade
Jurassic Park, Bombay Bombings, Jean Chretian, Stephen Hawking
Janet Reno, Killari Quake, Waco Texas Raid
Bombay Riots, World Trade Center, David Koresh, id Software
Bill Clinton, Kim Campbell, North American Free Trade
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Kremlin Accords, Northridge Earthquake, Channel Tunnel, OJ Simpson
George Forman, Richard Nixon, Jackie Kennedy
Kevin Mitnick, Asahara, Toy Story, Selena
Oklahoma, Hanshin Earthquake, Barrings Bank is history
Christopher Reeve, Saro-Wiwa, WTO, Windows 95
The Dow Jones hits a high, its Calvin and Hobbes’ demise
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Steffi Graf, Deep Blue, Alanis, Whitewater
2Pac, Lijiang earthquake, Cyclone in Andhra Pradesh
LA Earthquake, MCI, Kyoto, Heaven’s Gate
Harry Potter, Tamil Tigers, Princess Di’s death
Morgan Stanley, Dolly’s Clone, Market Crash, Kyoto
The Confederation Bridge is raised and Hong Kong is returned
George Michael, AOL, Enter Google, Viagra
Disney, Auckland Blackouts, Lewinsky Scandal burns
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
The Euro’s here, Melissa spreads, Hugo Chavez, Woodstock’s rebirth
Bertand Piccard, Brian Jones, and 6 Billion roam the earth
Millenium, ILOVEYOU, Survivor, CSI
Mozambique Floods, Charles Schulz, John Paul apologized
Bastille Day Flare, ISS, AOL, Time Warner
Harold Shipmen, Dark Chernobyl, Keizo Obuchi dies
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
W. Bush, Robert Tools, End of Mir, Noah cloned
9-11, Anthrax, Afghanistan partakes
Nepal Massacre, Baltimore, Patriot Act, Enron folds
El Salvador, Peru, and Gujarat earthquakes
Giuliani, Shttleworth, Venus Williams, Serena
US Airways, Worldcom, No Child Left Behind
Martha Stewart, Northeast Blackout, Schwarzenegger, Sadam Hussein
Columbia, Hurricane Juan, Iraq Occupied
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair, Lance Armstrong, Schumacher
Darfur Conflict, Nagaoka, Taiepi 101
Northern Bank, Nor’easter, Boxing Day Tsunami
SpaceShipOne, Beslan School, Euro Constitution
Camilla Bowles, Denis Radar, Andrew Stimpson, Stephen Colbert
Pope Benedict, Ahmadinejad, Chicago White Sox
Sumantran quake, CAFTA, Cronulla Riots flare
North Korea, YouTube, NHL season boxed
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Warren Buffett, Stephen Harper, Tom Delay, Steve Irwin
Playstation III, Nintendo Wii, Hamas Elected
Estonia, Somalia, Harry Potter, Vladimir Putin
Virginia Tech, Chavez again, Zheng Xiaoyu Injected
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Fidel Castro, Subprime Crisis, Lehman Brothers, Cyclone Nargis
Space X Falcon, One Hundred Oil, Large Hadron Collider
Michael Jackson, Obama, Walter Cronkite, Polanski
Tamil Tigers, Iran Protests, Australian Brushfires
Unemployment hits a high, H1N1 on the rise,
Pakistan erupts in war, I can’t take it anymore!
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it