Denial by the Bucket
Jarvis puts his finger on the root of the problem the airlines have - and it's the same one the record labels have, and Microsoft - sheer inertia. They like running things "the way they've always been", and when change enters the business picture, they go straight to denial, rather than to any attempt to fix things. Digital music a threat? Try to sue it out of business. Web based applications a problem? Try to build more walls around Windows. This quote from Umair Haque sums up the problem nicely:
The dynamics of old boy's clubs are almost deterministically predictable: they fight tooth and nail against risk, against the radical, against any kind of change to the status quo. They're great at "monetization" - cutting deals - but the last thing old boy's clubs are good at, unfortunately, is sticking up, come hell or high water, for innovation. From music, to publishing, to food, to autos, the outcome of locked-down boardrooms has been innovation stifled and suffocated
When the business environment changes, you need to be able to adapt. Those who aren't, die.
Comments
Airlines are inovating
[Joerg] April 13, 2008 22:05:00.000
Some airlines are inovating. Take Ryan Air in Europe. They pioneered using all the second tier airports available accross Europe given them far lower landing fees. They pioneered zero cost fairs if the seats were available at take off time. They opted out of all agreements to transfer luggage between airlines. They opted out of having anyone resell their flights. They pioneered making you pay for everthing above getting there; luggage, priority boarding, food, drinks etc. even checking costs money if you don't do it via the web. They pioneered flight specific checkin queues open for a limited time, get in the wrong queue, start over. Miss your flight because of it tough. They ruthlessly cut all possible costs, my seat had no recline feature and no pocket in front of me. The safey card is laminated onto the headrest before you, seat pitch is as tight as possible. Their model for an airline flight is a trip on a commuter train.
Sounds horrible? Actually it is great. Pick your time and flying to Ireland from London is usually cheaper than the train trip to the airport. Want to go further afield, from Stanstead in London you can get to pretty much anywhere in Europe for less than any other way of getting there. For that I'm happy to skip the drinks.