Plane Conversations

At the October conference in Atlanta, the NBAA presented Wright Brothers Master Pilot awards to Russ Meyer, Clay Lacy, Arnold Palmer, Gene Cernan, and Neil Armstrong.  Bob Hoover was also scheduled to receive his award, but was unable to attend due to health issues.  I’m so glad my son wasn’t at the ceremony with me because I can guarantee you that His eyes would have rolled and “oh, Mom!” would have come out of his mouth several times.   Oh, yeah.  I was in the second grouping of seats trying desperately to look like a professional rather than like a teen-aged girl at a Beatles concert.  I pulled it off, but it was close.

This was a group of pilots were are truly Groupie Worthy!  The NBAA has this to say about these men:

“Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has long been involved in the business aviation community. In August, he began appearing in advertisements as a spokesman for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

Astronaut Gene Cernan is likewise a long-standing business aviation advocate, whose name is synonymous with the Bombardier Safety Standdown, an annual effort to promote safety awareness and best practices that is jointly sponsored by Bombardier, Inc., NBAA, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Bob Hoover is a legendary Air Force test pilot and air show performer, who many consider the ultimate “pilot’s pilot.” Among his many contributions to aviation safety, he has promoted the “Hoover Nozzle,” to ensure that jet fuel is not inadvertently pumped into piston airplanes.

Clay Lacy, a pilot and the president of charter service Clay Lacy Aviation, is also a director and videographer, having conducted more than 2,500 air-to-air photography flights, including sequences in movies like “Top Gun” and “The Right Stuff,” which have inspired thousands of people to fly.

Russ Meyer, Chairman Emeritus of the Cessna Aircraft Company, led the company from 1975 until 2003. Under his leadership, Cessna received two Collier Trophies, in part for the safety record of Cessna’s airplanes. In addition, Meyer has won the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy and NBAA’s Meritorious Service to Aviation Award, the Association’s highest honor.

Arnold Palmer, an American icon and esteemed businessman, has spent a lifetime promoting business aviation. He currently serves as a spokesman for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, and has addressed NBAA’s Annual Meeting & Convention on several occasions, each time highlighting the benefits the industry brings to the nation’s economy and transportation system. After receiving his Master Pilot Certificate at Wednesday’s event, Palmer will be honored with NBAA’s 2010 Meritorious Service to Aviation Award.”

I have this to say about them:

Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon and a man who remains a personal hero of mine.  As a child, I spent hours in our front yard, playing with my little plastic rocket, imagining the radio transmissions between Mr. Armstrong and Houston.  One of my colleagues is a friend of  his and says that Mr. Armstrong is a dignified gentleman, brilliant, a great teacher with a wonderful sense of humor – just a fine man. 

Gene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon.  The. Last. Man. To. Walk. On. The. Moon.  I don’t have enough sangfroid to pretend that walking on the moon is not just the coolest thing ever.

Bob Hoover is right up there with General Chuck Yeager in my book and, let’s face it, since my son bears the General’s name, Mr. Hoover is in the stratosphere.  He was one of those test-pilots who knew that each flight might be his last, but he did it anyway.  Adrenaline junky or hero?  I’m going with hero.

Clay Lacy combined his loves of aviation and photography; and, combined them in such a way that he was able to truly communicate his passions to viewers.  He took his fascination and adoration of aviation and gave it to others.  In addition, he runs a top-notch charter operation based primarily at Van Nuys, California.

Russ Meyer was largely responsible for the renaissance of aircraft manufacturing in the United States.  Thousands and thousands of Americans currently working in aviation – from Cessna employees right on down to line service personnel – owe their careers in part or in whole to Mr. Meyer.

Arnold Palmer is more than a legendary golfer – he is an avid proponent of general aviation.  While working in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Mr. Palmer on a few occasions.  You know that public persona he has of being a considerate, personable man?  In my experience, that persona goes all the way to the bone – just an incredibly nice man.  On the day that the airport was renamed to be the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, the high school band played;  Mr. Palmer’s co-pilot Pete went screaming down the run way in a low pass in his Citation X; and the town celebrated a local hero who took the honor with great humility.  Working on the field, we often wondered what he said in his radio calls to the tower – “my airport, N1AP on final?”  Seriously, how do you address the tower at an airport named after you?

All of these gentlemen have dedicated their lives to following their passions and we have all benefited from it.  Thanks to the NBAA for honoring these gentlemen this year.  What a thrill it was for this aviation groupie to be in the room with five living legends.

Left to right: FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilots Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, Clay Lacy, Russ Meyer and Arnold Palmer.

Click on pen to

It has been a couple weeks since I last posted on Plane Conversations.

I usually don’t go this long without checking in but the past few weeks of travel to China, and then being part of a conference back in TN, have kept me running with little time to slow down and write.

This week I was part of a conference hosted by Middle Tennessee State University and sponsored by our company and FedEx.

The purpose of the conference was to get people together from China and the US who work in the government and private sectors of aviation to dialogue and exchange knowledge on the developments and trends in General Aviation in China.

From China we had a delegation that consisted of officials from CAAC (China’s FAA), legal scholars from the Beihang University of Aerospace and Aeronautics, industry executives from Flying Dragon Aviation China, the largest general aviation company in China, as well as China’s official news agency Xinhua. Erick Wang, CFM’s VP of our newly formed CFM China Company, was also in attendance. Erick is from Harbin, in Heilongjiang Province, Northern China.

From the US side, attendees included senior level FAA/ATC, AOPA’s International Affairs Director, representatives from FedEx’s international legal affairs and international feeder operations, MTSU aerospace professors, Chuck Howell, CEO of Great Lakes Airlines, executives from BAE Systems and Cirrus Design.

Mike Vaughn who is President of CFM China and Director of Government Sales for CFM here in the US was the conference moderator.  

This is my first experience with co-hosting and sponsoring a conference of this magnitude and I now have a new found respect for those who organize these type events. Hundreds of hours and months of planning and preparation go into an event like this, especially when trying to coordinate schedules, logistics and visas for delegates coming from the other side of the world.

Many thanks to the Aerospace Department at MTSU for hosting this conference at their facilities at the Murfreesboro Airport, and thanks to FedEx for being the major sponsor.  

My post conference impressions about what was learned and gained center around relationship building.

Nothing replaces face to face dialogue and some of the more important interactions happened, not at the speaker’s podium, but at the dinners and social times when conversations between the Chinese and US delegates was relaxed and informal in nature.

Our new aviation friends from China are no different than aviators here in the US. They are passionate and knowledgeable about their profession and have a sincere desire to learn. Aviators around the world share a common bond that trumps any cultural or political differences.  

The Chinese are very intent on growing their industry in China. They have been restrained by restrictions on use of airspace by the PLA, but nonetheless they know what they are doing.

The Chinese recognize that they need to open up their airspace for commercial activity including GA. Their government now recognizes that a healthy general aviation industry is good for economic development and prosperity in China. The country and the government are massive and opening the skies will not happen overnight, but it will happen. Before laws are enacted, policies and procedures will be put into place to allow more GA operations in the skies.  

The Chinese also recognize that the US has one of the most developed and successful aviation systems in the world and there is much to be gained by learning from both the successes and mistakes of our long history in aviation. They have a unique opportunity to leapfrog many of the inefficient systems we have and go straight to the best practices and advanced technology of today and the future.

GA in China today is small relative to the country’s economy, geography and population, so it will not take much to steer the industry quickly into a world class player.

China has done it in many other areas of their economy, first in manufacturing, now in technology and communications, and in the past two decades in the airline industry. Once the ball gets rolling in general aviation it will be fascinating to see how it develops. In my lifetime I may get to see China surpass the US in GA activity.  

The US, Brazil and Europe, with advanced GA aircraft design and manufacturing capability, expertise in operating and maintaining GA aircraft, and capabilities in training pilots, mechanics, and operations management, stand to gain in a big way as China’s GA takes off.

I believe those in the US who are willing to look at the long term, and develop relationships now, will see the payoff in 5-10 years when the door opens wider.

One of the senior delegates from China conveyed to me words of wisdom that relationships, trust and friendships must be developed first and business will naturally follow. That sounds very much like the way the US used to do business before we got in a hurry to make a quick dollar. I personally enjoy this way of doing business because it is more than just today’s profit that counts. The personal relationships come first.  

I have new found friends from China that I believe will be friends for life.   

We will write more about this conference in future blogs and an official press release.    

Click on pen to

Part 1:

This past week I spent a quick seven days in China, mostly in Beijing, but also a couple days in the south in Shenzhen and Zhuhai.

Zhuhai is the host airport for China’s International Air Show that promises to grow in importance over the coming years. The format of the Air Show was a combination of performance by jet teams, with exhibition halls and static display of aircraft on the tarmac – both military and civilian.

China’s national aviation industry company – AVIC – dominated the exhibit halls with mockups of military, UAV, airline and even small general aviation designs of the future.

Besides the day at the Airshow we also got to visit an FBO / Charter base in Beijing of Deerjet, which presently is China’s largest corporate jet charter company. Deerjet is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hainan Airlines and operates under the authority of the airline’s authority to fly both domestic and international flights. Over a short few years Deerjet has grown its fleet of mid and heavy corporate jets to 35.

In conversations with various people in country about how GA is developing, the prevailing opinion about the use of corporate jets so far is that it is primarily for pleasure flights for the newly created wealthy. I did not see many smaller GA aircraft – light jet, turboprop or piston singles. The few aircraft I did see on the ramps at three large airports were Gulfstream, Challenger and Hawker 800 series.

For the elite, the prestige of showing up in a Gulfstream matters more than price or efficiency.

The “Fixed Base Operation” as a support for GA is almost non-existent at this point. Which comes first – the aircraft or the FBO? I guess it will be the aircraft and then the FBO may eventually show up at airports to meet the demands of private jet flights.

In a country of fast growth, huge geographical scope, and 1.4 billion of the world’s population there has to be a tremendous opportunity for GA in the next 20 years.

Our company, along with Middle Tennessee State University’s Aerospace Department, will host a delegation from China in December that will have focused discussions on general aviation trends in China. The delegation will include legal scholars looking at airspace laws, members of the CAAC and senior managers of a China GA company.

This trip to China was an opportunity to meet people, build relationships and get a first hand view of what is happening in the GA sector of the aviation industry. The buzz in media and government in the country indicates that the government recognizes the value of a developing GA industry and the benefits in job creation and economic efficiency.

They have not figured out just yet how GA works as it does in the US and Europe, but they will figure it out. How long will it take and how fast will it grow are the bigger questions.

Click on pen to

News of the past two weeks indicates some signs of recovery in travel overall and maybe even the beginning of a recovery in the business aviation sector of travel.

But, is it a real recovery across the entire industry?

USA Today reports that business travel is up, and surveys of travel executives indicates that their company’s people will travel more in 2011. Even though travel will be up there is a new mindset that is more frugal about how travel dollar are spent.

Excerpts from the USA Today article:

The economic downturn has left its mark. The ACTE survey finds that 54.1% of corporate travel executives in the U.S. are “encouraging or mandating” alternatives to travel, such as videoconferencing. And a survey by Egencia finds that 56% of North American travel managers say they increased advanced-ticket bookings in the last year to keep expenses in check.

“In general, travel managers and purchasers have decided this new frugality is working well, and it’s allowing them to do a lot with a limited travel budget, and they’re sticking with it,” says Noah Tratt, vice president, supplier relations for Egencia Americas.

That can mean squeezing two or three clients into a trip. Corporate fliers are more likely to be sitting in coach when criss-crossing the U.S., though they might be able to book business class for flights overseas. And business travelers may be asked to use the frequent-flier points they’ve accrued on business trips if they want to upgrade to a premium section.

A NY Times article reports that Gulfstream orders in the 3^rd quarter were the best since 2008 and deliveries are up over last year. The catch here is that the majority of Gulfstream aircraft now are being sold outside the US.

The good news is that people still need to travel to grow business. Video conferencing has not yet totally replaced the face to face meeting.

The bad news is that Cessna laid off another 700 employees in September and slowed production so the recovery is not across the board here in the US. Used aircraft prices are still depressed indicating a lack of demand. The manufacturers think, or hope, this will change in 2012.

It seems to me that the US Business Aviation market is going to be stuck in a no growth mode for 2011 with maybe some recovery in 2012, barring a major economic game changing event.

Where the growth seems to be is in Asia, India and Latin America. There is great opportunity in China where there are only about 1000 GA aircraft in the country of 1.4 billion people compared to 200,000 GA aircraft here in the US.

Has the US Business Aviation market reached maturity in its life cycle?

If so, then we must find ways to reinvent the business if we want growth.  Or move to China.

Click on pen to

 USA Today travel section reports in an October 19 article  by Alan Levin says that travel delays in the airline system cost US society 32.9 billion a year in lost productivity.

The research behind this assessment was funded by the FAA in order to promote the NextGen air traffic system, which they say in the article can be fully deployed by 2025. In the mean time we will just have to keep losing 32 billion in productivity; or maybe it gets worse.

A few interesting quotes from the article:

All told, people on airline flights were delayed by more than 28,000 years during 2007, the year the researchers studied.

The cost to individuals in lost time and inefficiency was $16.7 billion, the study says. Only a small fraction of travelers — ones who miss connections or whose flights are canceled — suffer about half of that cost.

 ”We call those guys disrupted passengers,” says Cynthia Barnhart, interim dean of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the study

The FAA and the ATA (Airline Lobbyists) believe that the NextGen system and more runways at the busier airports can solve this problem.

I would contend that NextGen and more runways will help, but they are oversimplifying the solutions to a major systemic problem in our air transportation system. The airline system of hub and spoke drives inefficiencies in travel by forcing people to travel indirect routes and then end up at destinations that are not closest to their true destination. More runways at the largest airports will help the airlines but it will not increase true travel efficiency.

The one solution the ATA doesn’t want anyone to think about is the use of Business Aviation and General Aviation aircraft to bring more efficiency to travel.

With an additional 5000 airports at our disposal, many in locations more convenient to our ultimate destination, business and general aviation should be seriously considered as a major part of the solution.

Mainstream media the ATA, and the FAA to some degree continually dismiss our subset of aviation as a viable part of the solution to the inefficiency that exists in air travel.

I see a 33 Billion dollar opportunity for those of us in business aviation but the airlines and the government are not going to hand it to us on a silver platter.

We have to create and communicate a better value proposition. We also need to insert ourselves into the conversations about the future of air travel in this country and gain a voice on the national stage.

Click on pen to

An article in CAIXIN Online  states that China is opening up a low altitude segment (less than 1000 meters) of its airspace for General Aviation. This may seem like small news since you can’t do much with business aircraft below 3000 feet, but it is really the beginning of a change that will have a major impact on the growth of General Aviation in China.

A friend of ours in China followed on with an email yesterday that said “Beijing  Lanzhou and another 3 cities have opened the low altitude airspace for policy trial yesterday”.

Wichita is sitting around waiting on the rebound in the US and World Business Aviation market and the opportunity is about to be unleashed in the largest country in the world. Maybe a little more attention should be focused on the largest market opportunity for Business and General aviation for the next 20 years?

Here are some interesting excerpts from this article about the potential in China:

According to a research report from the State Council, China’s general aviation sector is at an “initial stage of quick growth.” The report expects China’s general aviation aircrafts to increase to up to 100,000 units. Currently, only 1,000 general aviation aircrafts are operated in China, compared with more than 200,000 in the United States

In case anyone missed that: “units” mean “aircraft” and the numbers were growing from 1,000 to 100,000.

According to the report, as the world’s largest aviation market, the U.S. has seen its general aviation industry create more than US$ 102 billion in value every year, accounting for more than one percent of the country’s GDP. Liu Ping, chief editor of the industry journal China Civil Aviation said that the effective access to low altitude airspace will create 100 million yuan in growth within the general aviation industry as well as large number of job opportunities.

China’s government seems to understand the impact that aviation would have on economic growth by viewing the impact of General Aviation in the US. I think maybe they get it more than the politicians in Washington DC. A growing General Aviation market means new and well paying  jobs.

One of the limiting factors for China opening up airspace will be overcome if they can implement a satellite based air traffic control system. By doing so they would leap ahead of the US who is using 1960’s technology to control air traffic flow through ground based radar. Presently China is working with limited air traffic control capacity and using systems that are also outdated and restrict traffic flow in major hub airports.  

The question is: How long will it take for China to address the issues that really open up airspace for practical use of business aircraft? Can they open up the airways for real air traffic flow as they have done on the ground with the massive road building projects?  

When they do address these issues the sky will be the limit.

Click on pen to

This past week Southwest Airlines announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AirTran Holdings, Inc., a parent company of AirTran Airways (AirTran).

United and Continental’s merger became official this week, as well.

This is the latest in a series of consolidation moves in the US airline market including the Delta – Northwest merger.

The regional airlines have also been in a consolidation mode with Skywest’s recent acquisition of ExpressJet,  announced back in early August. Skywest, a Utah based super regional airline, had already acquired Atlantic Southeast Airline which was originally a Delta-owned regional carrier based in Atlanta.

Republic Airways acquired Midwest Airlines in 2009 and then acquired Frontier Airlines in 2010.

There will most likely be a few more mergers or acquisitions to follow.

As I was driving into work and listening to CNBC, former Continental CEO Gordon Bethune commented that he saw no reason why the country could not run with four major airlines. Just add a few regionals to that mix operating smaller aircraft to reach the mid-size and smaller markets. 

The airline industry is starting to look more like the air mass transit system that models the rail mass transit system. Domestic airline travel will become more of a system focused on markets that guarantee traffic, and yields that ensure profits. This is good news for airline shareholders and other stakeholders. Quite possibly, the airlines could start making a consistent profit, something they have yet to do in their history.

Will the domestic airline seat end up as a mass transit commodity?  

How does all of this activity in the airline segment of air travel affect business aviation?

I believe that it will create opportunities for business aviation including on-demand charter operations to fill the voids in the travel market for point-to-point efficient service.

Consolidation will not increase service to small markets – neither will parking the turboprop and 50-seat regional jets. Many medium-sized and small cities with airline service are already seeing reduced or discontinued service.

I don’t believe we will see airlines moving into new markets anytime soon because their cost structure with larger regional jets will not allow them to take the chance in developing these new markets.

Can business aviation fill the gaps? Not today and not at a price the traveler is used to paying, but certainly the gaps can be filled with better service and time savings in travel. The traveler who places a high value on their time and is willing to pay for that time savings will find business aviation as a solution.

I say this often, if business aviation can innovate in ways to reduce the costs of the seat on a business aircraft, the traveler will fill the seat. The next 10 years will be interesting times for the airline industry and business aviation.

Business aviation is sitting on tremendous opportunity for growth. We just have to figure out how to do it.

Click on pen to

A September 27 press release  by the National Business Aviation Association applauds the President for signing a piece of legislation for small business that includes a provision for bonus (accelerated) depreciation for strategic business purchases. The provision includes new aircraft and major aircraft components such as new avionics, interiors and engines.

 This law is good news for small businesses in the aviation services sector as well as manufacturers of business aircraft. For companies considering the purchase of a business aircraft, or doing upgrades on their existing aircraft, there has never been a better time to make the purchase decision. Manufacturers and service providers are hungry for business.  The combination of aggressive pricing, and the tax advantage of this new legislation, will hopefully stimulate spending for those who are close to the decision already.

I don’t want to sound negative at this point, but this legislation is more of a band aid to a problem than a cure. The business aviation industry in the US has a chronic and severe cold and bonus depreciation will relieve the symptoms for the next year which will make us all feel a little bit better. It will not cure the problem.

For the manufacturers in Wichita it will keep people employed, and for those of us in the maintenance business it will hopefully generate sales of aircraft equipment upgrades.

What we really need is a cure for the root problem which is lack of demand.

Until more business and leisure travelers can afford to fly in private aircraft the industry will continue to languish or at best have a slow growth that mirrors the economy we are in.

A few percentage points of growth as a best case, or stagnation as a worst case, does not put people back to work in long term jobs.

Travelers who use business aviation are passionate about the experience, benefits, and value of flying by private aircraft. The limiting issue seems to be price. Everyone I talk to wants to fly in the private jet but not everyone can afford the price.

Over the long haul, if we are to cure the problem of demand, we must solve the price problem in our industry. A lot of manufacturing and service jobs in aviation are at stake, so it is worth thinking about a solution.

The technology sector of our economy has solved this problem of price and now everyone can afford mobile computing devises with computing capacity that could only been dreamed of a few years ago.

Surely our industry of business aviation can solve this problem as well.

Click on pen to

Over the last year, I have frequently been asked how it is going in our business. To be honest, it has been a rough ride for most of us in aviation.  These sincere questions that I get about our business and the industry we work in come from vendors, customers, friends and family.

My answer is usually something like “it feels like treading water with concrete filled boots …. but we are still above water.” Most of our peers in business aviation and many in other industries say the same things. Never have we worked so hard just to stay even or dig out of the hole.  

Two years into the toughest economic conditions I have seen in business aviation, the media reports that we are no longer in a recession.  That may be true, but progress seems to be measured in inches rather than in nautical miles.

Flight activity reports from Avinode and industry trade associations are optimistic, showing slight increases. Fortunately, businesses and individuals have not stopped flying in business and private aircraft; so, our part of the world seems to be picking up nicely in the third quarter of this year.

But when I speak with friends who are out there selling new aircraft, peers in the charter and aircraft management business, and vendors who supply our industry with fuel, aircraft, parts and support services I get different feelings about recovery. While we may be seeing an uptick in charter, ask the aircraft manufacturers in Wichita if the recession is over.  If not for government related aviation spending and international demand for new aircraft, the aircraft manufacturers would be hurting even worse than they are.

It seems that not too many businesses are buying new aircraft in the US, and the reversal of this trend could be years in the making. There is a huge inventory of used aircraft right now and the prices are lower than at any other time in the last 30 years, at least in relation to the price of new aircraft. Manufacturers are discounting new aircraft off of list price, something that was practically unheard of in this industry even as recently as three years ago.

So what is the solution, short of accepting that we will just be here in the trenches for the next few years and will have to slug our way out of the aviation recession?

I don’t know the answer, but the question is certainly worth considering by those of us who don’t want to accept that the current situation is what must be.

It seems that in the history of the United States, game changing innovation has spurred major growth. The railroads connected the country, opening up new markets.  Mass production and the automobile opened and connected the country even further, creating millions of good jobs.  And in the last few decades, technology innovation created a whole new economy.

The barrier to growth in business and private air travel seems to be price. To surmount that barrier, either more people need to attain the financial ability to take advantage of private aviation or the price has to come down. Either solution works just as well for growth in business aviation..

We can’t do much to affect the affluence of the overall population; but, we can innovatively lower the price of private aircraft travel to bring in a bigger audience.  Three decades ago, Southwest did this in the airline industry and changed the demographics of airline travelers. I don’t know that private aviation can do exactly what what Southwest did; however,  there must be a combination of solutions that, in aggregate, will change the pricing of business aviation to bring in a larger customer base. 

One thing I feel certain of is that the growth and restart of this economy, in general, and of the business aviation economy, in particular, will not come from any government program.

So, let’s not wait on the politicians for the answer. Let’s create our own recovery!

Click on pen to

Photograph by: Chris Ware, Getty

Bloomberg and Associated Press report that June 2010 airline traffic rose 2.3% over June last year with US airlines carrying 65 million passengers. Annualized that comes to 780 million passengers. DOT projections say we will hit the 1 billion annual passenger level in the US in about 10 years.   

In spite of low customer satisfaction with airline service, people keep coming back for more. If you listen to all the grumbling you would think that, surely, travelers have had enough.  

The need or desire to travel must outweigh the pain of going to the airport and flying by airline.

People don’t like to fly the airlines but they keep doing it and the numbers are growing.

People love to fly in their own aircraft, ride in the back of a business jet or even a prop aircraft on their own schedule, and without the hassle of airline system,  but our industry languishes in this economy.

What is wrong with this picture?

It seems that price outweighs most considerations for the masses when it comes to travel.

Wouldn’t we all rather ride in a private jet if we could do so for the price of a Southwest Airline ticket?

How do we move a very small percentage of the market of travelers over to our side of the game?

It would only take a very small percentage of those 780 million annual passengers to radically change the fortunes of business and private aviation from manufacturers to service providers to the operators of the aircraft.

Move a few percent of the market share of travel to business and general aviation and, suddenly, the world looks a lot brighter for those of us in this industry.

I see a lot of effort being put forth; but, mostly, the efforts are in their own silos. I don’t see a lot of effort as an industry working together to solve the problem. There seems to be a general acceptance that it is what it is and that the situation on a macro level is not going to change quickly anytime soon.

It is worth thinking about to see if we can come up with solutions, isn’t it?

Click on pen to