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The travel industry and especially the airlines are probably the most competitive industries in the world. Airline profits are mediocre at best during boom times followed by long period of huge losses. Yet new airlines and new entrants emerge almost daily, because it’s an attractive industry if not to say very sexy.
So how to survive or better yet thrive in an industry like this?
Most airlines try to survive and that is exactly what they do when they are successful. But RyanAir has another agenda, supremacy.
Ryanair have beaten every competitor at their own game, namely price. How? Forget operational excellence and blue ocean strategy and other stuff you can put a fancy name to. As a matter of fact forget most of the stuff you have read about how to win in any business game.
RyanAir leads because they break rules and conventions in everything.
Our industry is filled with rules and conventions. Rules made up by IATA and airlines decades ago.
When you run a company your main concern is the survival and success for yourself and your stakeholders. Suppliers and regulators will constantly change the rules to make it harder for you to do business and to make money. Does that mean that you have to comply with everything the second someone comes up with a new scheme to restrict you in doing business? Of course not.
Conventions and rules are simply a way to protect the fat cats and it’s stakeholders – the establishment.
If you want to break out of the mould be prepared to take the consequences; you cannot be bothered about looking good. You will have to risk your reputation. You cannot hope to become member of the round table discussions of your industry. You will not be called as a keynote speaker at the annual trade conferences (not until you successfully brought your industry down on it’s knees).
The risks are that you will fail miserably and the rewards are enormous success.
I recently started to apply a method in my work which I think gradually will change the way I do business and live life. (I think I found this somewhere but cannot remember where.)
By forcing myself to ask the question WHY (do we do it this way) five times I realize by the time I get to number three that it’s all ridiculous. I am being screwed by conventions and rules that make no sense to my business and me. By asking myself WHY the HOW and WHAT becomes obvious and instead of being reactive I can go on to become proactive and do things differently.
I am me and I am unique and so is my organisation and my business. I think it is therefore my right and even duty to interpret rules and conventions according to my perception. It’s also my responsibility to do the best with what I have. And you simply cannot play safe and succeed. It’s a formula that doesn’t even exist.
lördag, juni 27, 2009
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Hi Stephan,
Your words:
“you simply cannot play safe and succeed. It’s a formula that doesn’t even exist.”
I agree to this - In our earthbound businesses.
Unfortunately O'leary thought it was a good concept for an airline too, so the consequence is that everyone is now flying on fumes - that is with less reserves than you would ever accept in your car. Yet people will say after an accident - How could it happen?
Ryanair were criticized a few years ago by ATC that they had to many fuel emergencies, i.e. requests for priority landing due to low fuel at the destination, which is the same as jumping the queue and passing the bill on to the others. The professional term is a profound lack of “airmanship” The idea to consistently fly with minimum required fuel was not the Ryanair commanders - it was of course coming from O’leary. Needless to say, I would NEVER fly with, or for Ryanair.
Its not often fuel starvation in it self creates an incident or an accident, but the fact that pilots get stressed by flying in low fuel scenarios, and they can become pressed to make bad decisions, the focus is always on fuel saving - not flight safety. They might avoid that “kosher” go around for birds, refrain from using the airbrake or anti ice system - or to circum navigate questionable weather – also on weight marginal charters some pilots overload their aircraft with fuel to avoid technical landings i.e. re-fuelling – and for (false) peace of mind. The industry is less safe than it was 10 years ago, but the public don't know.
I have recently reported the bad trends to the Swedish authorities, so there is going to be action, at least locally, but unfortunately it’s the commanders and the airlines just following the sliding branch standards that gets in trouble - not O’leary.
I will fly for another two years and after that I will not set my foot in an airliner other than an intercontinental service. Forget about charter already – that’s REALLY scary.
My key questions to a future commander is:
Are you wreckless enough?
Are you willing to gamble with a few lives? (your own included)
Do you consider rules guidelines, not to be taken seriously?
Do you feel lucky?
A no answer to any of these questions, render your professional life a very unhappy one – if your answer is yes, you will have a great career - if you manage to live through it.
I will not be a passenger.
For most OTHER businesses I think you are right, and there I do practice the ideas myself.
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