There's savings and then there's Savings

Here are the statistics, per the US (OPTN) Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, as of Sunday at 7:45 AM:

• 100,571 people in the US are waiting for life extending organ transplants.
• 2,700 need a heart transplant
• 15,941 need a liver transplant
• 1,585 need a pancreas transplant
• 78,082 need a kidney transplant
• 2,015 need a lung transplant
• 248 need some combination of the above
• From January to August 2008, 18,659 doctors had performed 18,659 transplants
• From January to August 2008, the OPTN recovered 9,490 organs for transplant

The issue is close to me because my father, when his heart was failing, was “too sick” to receive a transplant and because my neighbor donated a kidney to his sister just over a year ago.

In my neighbor’s sister’s case, she hit the organ donor lottery; a family member nearby, ready willing and able to help. Many are not so fortunate, and rely on OPTN to live another day, week, year or however long a transplant will extend their lives.

Still feeling puffed up about that 7% you peeled off last year’s corrugated expense? What if your performance was measure in kidneys, or hearts and lungs? Put things in perspective, doesn’t it?

We’re not saying that good work for your company doesn’t matter. Peeling 7% or any % off an annual spend does matter, it matters a lot, and even more so in challenging economic times.
But this is the time of year that our society has chosen for thanks giving, gift giving and personal reflection.

That’s why the OPTN team deserves special mention for “savings” that we can’t measure in dollars.

Now that’s procurement of which we can all be proud.