Plane Conversations

The Battle of a Thousand David’s against the one Goliath.

The title could be both looking back in retrospect, looking at the situaiton in the present tense, and looking at the future.  How did we beat back the powerful lobbyists when General Aviation took on the Airline Transport Association that represents the mainline airlines?  Did we really beat them or is it an ongoing battle with a brief respite?

The battle I speak of was over proposals to put in place European style aviation user fees that would eventually cripple general aviation as they have in other parts of the world.  The old style of slugging it out on “the hill” in D.C. would have left General Aviation (GA) in the dust licking it wounds.  ATA had the money and the mainstream media (via advertising dollars) on its side.  GA, with several less powerful organizations fighting the battle itself and the big media perception problem, appeared to be outgunned.  

What these organizations did have was numbers.  1.3 million aircraft owners, pilots, and aviation workers who make their living flying, maintaining and fueling general aviation aircraft every day, as well as small and medium sized businesses who use small aircraft to grow their businesses.  Big media portrayed our industry as one that serves what they called the “fat cats” who ride around in big corporate jets wallowing in corporate excess while asking for government bailouts.

For a while, we let them get away with it. Then the voices started speaking up.   

The fight looked pretty dismal two years ago when we were up on the hill going around to different congressional offices asking for support.  We had some friendly receptions but we also had some chilling ones.  You could tell who had been visited by the ATA lobby and their PACS.  It was not a partisan issue we experienced.  In fact, the most chilling reception we had from the Tennessee congressional delegation came from an East Tennessee Republican congressman who we wrongly assumed to be a supporter of small business (GA).

Most of us thought it to be a losing battle but, still, none of us would go down without a fight.  I can’t speak for the organizations that represent us, but at the time I think they probably saw the battle as an uphill fight.   The organizations that supported our interests seemed to be behind the power curve and lacked the money to work the hill the old fashioned way.  What we did not understand at that time was the power of the grass roots organizations like AOPA (www.gaservesamerica.com) that mobilized their 500,000 plus membership to inundate congress with calls and letters.  Alliance for Aviation Across America formed in 2007 to take on the cause and now has over 4,400 members, including all of the major associations that represent GA.  www.aviationacrossamerica.org  The formation of this alliance was probably the most brilliant strategy of this game.  Politicians can’t ignore the sheer numbers and the broad cross section of this alliance.  They realized they were taking on mainstream America – famers, small business, factory workers, pilots, maintenance technicians….. Not good politics in the middle of a recession!

We also did not understand the power of social media and the technology surrounding it.

All of this tells us that the power should no longer be allowed to rest in the hands of the paid for lobbyists and politicians in DC.  The power rests in the consumer, the individual voice willing to comment on the articles and blogs, the activists who send emails, write letters and make visits to the hill in DC.  Alliances whether informal or formal take on a new power that money can’t silence.  Whether you agree with the Tea Party movement or not, you have to agree that it represents a shift in power that comes from the bottom up and it is only the beginning.  More ground swell movements will follow and emulate.   

 The politicians are scared of this new shift in power. It is not business as usual.  As a good friend says, “it is business as unusual”.

 For the first time in the history of our great country, since its founding 225 years ago, the term “We the People” may have new meaning and significance.

 So looking forward, how do we keep winning the battle?

 First we have to be right.  And if we are right, then we have to win the hearts and minds of the consumers (the people), because the real power moving forward rests in the pocketbooks of the consumers who have gained a voice in the market place.

Do not expect them to relinquish that voice. In fact, expect it to grow louder and stronger as social technology allows the voice to be heard loud and clear.

I’m not a big fan of jargon, although I’m sure I speak aviation jargon all day long without realizing it.  So, I guess what I really mean is: I’m not a fan of jargon that I don’t understand.  It agitates me and leaves me anxious that I’m going to miss some crucial grain of information, simply because I misunderstood the meaning of a word – because I thought that “cloud computing” had something to do with weather predictions.

At the end of last summer, several of us sat down in the conference room to discuss social media and how our use of it might transform our industry, our company and us.  By now, most Americans know what social media is and maybe most people knew then.  Maybe I was the clueless one.  I struggled to keep up in the meeting simply because I didn’t understand the terminology.  It all sounded like Jabberwocky to me.  I recognized the words as being English, but I had no idea what to do with them.  I’m still no pro at social media jargon, largely because it changes faster than I can keep up; however, I’m better at it now than I was then.  I have learned to translate the jargon into words that are comfortable for me.  I can boil the strange, new concepts down into conceptual language that I can relate to.

When I was at an industry conference in San Antonio, a session speaker used our company as an example of one that is diving headfirst into the technology and communication culture.  I mistook the presentation date and missed it, to my great embarrassment, but I heard that it was fantastic and that we were reflected in a complimentary way.  As I chatted with people during the conference, I got a lot of, “I’ve heard I should do this, but I’m still not sure how”  or “They said I should do these things, but I don’t know why.”  After nearly eight months of blogging, tweeting, posting, disseminating, commenting, editing, photographing and god knows what else, some days I’m still not sure the How but I’m figuring out the Why.

When I first shifted from operations into outside sales, I met lots of blank stares when I told people who I was and who I worked for.  They’d never heard of us, in spite of our size and our history.  It was a disheartening struggle.  I went door-to-door, talking about who we are and what we do.  I was making progress, but in a global scheme, it could be measured in microsteps.  At the end of the day, you’re not going to see an ad for our company or most other aviation companies in the Wall Street Journal.  We don’t buy ads during Wimbledon.  And we don’t have an agreement with a mainline airline.  But, we’re good at what we do.  Social media has given all of us a way to share our questions, our beliefs and our ideas with the world.

You’re good at what you do.  You’re more than a set of wings and a block purchase program.  You have ideas of your own and beliefs on how to make your company and our industry better.  This is your way to share it.  You don’t have to rely on a canned message from somebody else.  You can say it for yourself.  All you have to do is learn the language.

General Aviation is an industry made up largely of Gear Heads.  It’s like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with wings.  Those who make up the industry’s core quickly embrace mechanical technology advancements once their value is confirmed.  For instance, when winglets were first introduced, the industry didn’t instantly fall head over heels with these protruding little add-ons; however, once the performance enhancements were demonstrated and converted into money, aircraft all over the world were retro-fitted with the devices.  The advantages created by the technology were demonstrated and the technology was embraced.  We see regularly that advances in information technology and information sharing are valuable to all industries; so, why is aviation lagging in adopting the advances?

One of my coworkers suggested that it might be the intangible nature of information that is responsible for the lag.  Many long-time aviation leaders don’t really understand the technology – they can’t see it, they can’t control it; so, they want nothing to do with it.  But, like it or not, the world is changing.  And it is changing quickly.

This week, I had the great pleasure to speak with Paula Williams of Aviation Business Consultants International, Inc. Paula develops marketing strategies for aviation companies who are unfamiliar with the power of the internet in general and social media, specifically.  She reads our blog, follows our Tweets and is our Facebook friend.  We interact on several levels, but even Paula was surprised to hear our mission for Plane Conversations.  This blog is purposely kept distinct from our commercial website because we want to encourage conversation within our industry.  We want to be outspoken supporters, proponents and educators for general aviation.  We want to stimulate innovation and disrupt non-productive practices.  In short, we want to be aviation evangelists.

We agree with our friend Jay Deragon, who said, “Leveraging social media for business purposes is centric to building trust and confidence with the markets you aim to serve. … The word confidence reflects trust in the outcomes. The outcomes of buyers interacting with your organizations, on-line and off line, reflect whether the experience builds or tears down confidence. …Since the industrial revolution people have been considered “producers” of relevant activity that feeds a business objective. The business results have been the overriding objective regardless of consideration of confidence and trust from the people that help achieve the results. …The days of managing by results are over and today unless you manage by building confidence and trust with people you will not reach optimum results.”

In the case of Private Aviation, Main Stream Media has done a fine job distorting and misrepresenting our industry.  To build confidence and trust with potential customers for us or for any other aircraft charter or aviation services company out there, we first have to correct this distorted message.  Once travelers have a truer picture of our industry and how we can help help them manage their time and monetary resources more effectively, then the customer relationship starts.  And, let’s be logical, given the global nature of the medium, that relationship may not start with a phone call to me.  But, as I say regularly, what is good for one of us, is good for all of us.

Jay Deragon also said, “Most businesses jumping into use of social fail to consider the human factors that drive people’s interest, attention and behavior. Pushing out marketing messages without meaning, value or truths do not build confidence and trust with the market you aim to serve. Such tactics are doomed to fail because marketers primary objectives are to create business results.”

As we, General Aviation, awaken to the staggering possibilities the internet and social media present to us, we have to remember to share ideas with our markets rather than push messages at them.  And for those Gear Heads among us, there are guides like Paula available and willing to help you every step of the way.

How are we doing with the strategy of  applying social media and its associated technology to communicate to the market?

Our company made a decision back in August of 2009 to engage with the market through this blog site and through other forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

That decision led to the launch of www.PlaneConversations.com on October 5th. We have to date published 136 posts and I thought it might not be a bad idea to let my fellow aviators know how we are doing in this new work.

We have tried to communicate relevant ideas and thoughts on what is going on in both the General Aviation and the Airline Industries. We have voiced our opinions and a few have listened.  Some days have been good and some days not.  

Here are a few things we have learned so far:

• Although free, for the most part, social media takes time because, ultimately, it is about communications.  As we started communicating to the market and to our peers, we had to take the time to think about what we wanted to say and we had to take the time to listen to what everyone else was saying.  So, free isn’t really free.
  
• We have met people, built relationships and had conversations that, without the use of social media, would never have happened. We can no more assign a monetary value those relationships than we can assign one to friends and family. Instead of constantly thinking about what it will do for our business, we have learned just to focus on getting to know people and whatever happens, happens.In any case, by developing these relationships we have been enriched, we have grown and we have benefited. Hopefully those we get to know will benefit as well.
• We have learned that there are voices out there speaking passionately about general aviation and about the value proposition of flying in one’s own aircraft or in a business jet. Compared to the total population of general aviation businesses, the number of voices is small, but it is growing and new voices are heard each week.
• We have learned that it is not about accumulating Twitter followers or Facebook fans. Amassing numbers of followers does not translate into sales or some type of return on investment. It is about the quality of the relationships built and not about the quantity of “followers.”
• We have seen that our counterparts at the airlines have still chosen, for the most part, to remain disengaged from the conversation. They are still using the traditional models of big media, PR machines and for-hire voices to sell their message. I don’t see any high level airline executives talking directly to the market and engaging. Will they wake up or not? Time will tell, but so far they are still hiding under the rock.

I am not sure how many hours I have personally spent writing, researching and conversing with people but it would be hundreds of hours by now.  Writing a blog while leading a business in an industry that has been in economic crisis mode for 18 months has not been easy. I gave up an extra hour or two of sleep each day to keep my writing from interfering with the day to day task of keeping our company going and succeeding. Some days it started to seem like work but most days it was more like fun and the passion to communicate has grown as I have pressed on. I believe it has made me a better communicator to those with whom I was already regularly communicating- fellow employees, customers and vendors. They may or may not agree with that.  If they don’t agree, they have ample opportunity to let me know.  That is what being social is all about, yes?

So, is the social media effort worth it? Yes, it is.  Has it made our business better?  Has it given me a better understanding of the market and those we want to reach?  Yes, it has!  Am I able to translate it into an ROI or quantify the results financially? Not yet, I can’t.  However, time will tell; so, give it a year  and we will see!

When it comes to air travel today, no one enjoys it.

Is There A Better Way?

Watch the video below and give this alternative some thought the next time you think about using a commercial airline. This alternative would have enabled me to go to New York City and back within the same day.  Total travel time would have been roughly five hours instead of 18.  And it would have cost me less!

Historically strategies were created based on assumptions made about how the markets respond and to what. The aim of a strategy was to create market differential, awareness and value that the market would respond to.

“Clients of an organization, whether they are citizens or customers, now have ready access to these tools. For all the supposed decisiveness of managed organizations, by relying on legal and PR departments to respond, most companies now react more slowly than their customers. In the new world we’ve entered, you can only stonewall things on your side of the wall, yet most media is no longer on that side of the wall.”

Strategy is Now Driven From the Other Side of the Wall

Creating a road map of how your organization will succeed is now a process driven by the conversations from the market. Previously strategy did include an assessment of the market but limited by the perspective and terms of how one defines “the market“. The definition of market has changed in that consumers and business are now engaged in defining the market more than ever before. The definition and sentiment of a market are being framed by real time conversations about anything, everything, anyone and everyone.

Market sentiment used to be contained within the walls of a corporation. Complaints were reviewed as were compliments. Compliments were added to the marketing mix while complaints were buried until results reflected the need for change.

Today both complaints and praises are in real time and out in the open for everyone to see. Anything placed on the web enters the digital library and the more content that references your business the more visible it is the Google. The higher the visibility the easier it is to be found by others.

Before making a purchase or taking a job what do people do? 95% go the web to gather references and intelligence. Said references and intelligence are no longer driven by your media rather they are driven by media created by your market.

If you understand the power of a network then you know that three satisfied customers may tell three friends and those three friend may tell twenty seven then you know the power of the coice of the customer has just been accelerated by the web. The same is true about angry customers. One angry customer can reach 3,000 people at the click of a mouse. Those three thousand can reach over 100,000 given the power of networks.

The web works based on a rate of change and a rate of interest. Which gets you the highest rate? Satisfied or angry customers? Do the math.

Strategy is critical for any business but if you are following old strategic methods then you will fail critically. Today failure is instantaneously spread at the click of a mouse. The markets of conversations spread faster than most organizations can react. Building a strategy from the outside in is vital to your future success. When markets change so must your strategy. Much has to change starting with your thinking. Get it?

This is part 3 in a series of Social Media and Business Aviation

Jay Deragon, in his post entitled Social Technology Is Changing Business, says “The impact of social technology on business as usual is and will continue to be profound. Profound in that social technology fuels never ending change caused by the markets of conversations. These markets represent intelligence that is transparent, fluid and engaging by crowds of suppliers, employees and consumers.” He goes on to say, ” The voice of the customer used to be analyzed based on old feedback mechanisms and survey’s which were poorly designed and time consuming. Today the voice of the customer is instant, transparent and designed by the content and context of open and transparent conversations. The new world of instant communications controlled and influenced by the end consumer is the outside force  fueling organizational changes and businesses must adapt if they wish to thrive or survive.”

For those of us who have faced the challenge of marketing and selling our services to the public, social media may be  the answer we have all been waiting for. That is if we know what to do with it.

I have always been jealous of the big companies who have multi-million dollar budgets for marketing, sales, and advertising when they launch a new product or service. The big guys will spend a million plus dollars for the coveted 30-second spot on Super Bowl Sunday.

What about us small business owners in General / Business Aviation who don’t have that kind of money? I can tell you that over the years I have fretted over spending $1000 to place an advertisement in a local business journal. Will it pay off? How much business will it generate - if any? How will I even know if anyone sees it? How will I know if we get any business from the ad? Do I have to advertise because my competition is advertising?   All of these questions really get down to the question of Return On Investment (ROI).

I have yet to determine true ROI on traditional advertising. There are methods to do that to some degree but small businesses have not had the means to use those methods. Our unscientific and “best guess” methods include asking people when the phone rings how they found out about us, conducting surveys (which no one wants to fill out) and getting traffic counts on our web site (web hits don’t always equate to dollars).

The Internet has provided a new medium to advertise. Google Ad Words, Pop Ads, buying ad space on web sites that show traffic for demographics that we want to attract. In reality, this new medium is the same old advertising dressed up in a new suit. Studies show that people don’t like the pop ads and they very seldom click through. Jay Deragon, who helps us understand social media and its application to business, calls advertising on the Internet anti-social media and push marketing.

So where does this new form of communication called social media fit into the picture and how does it revolutionize marketing of business aviation?

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and new social networking and communications tools are popping up by the day it seems. A friend mentioned to me this week that if Facebook was a country it would be the 6th largest in the world by population. I would venture to say that it may end up higher than 6 in the not too distant future.

The value of these new ways to communicate is several fold:

1. Its Free! Our company has (and so can yours) a Twitter Address, Facebook Page, and more than 30 people in our company are on Linked In. We have a blog (you are reading it).
2. It is out there for the whole world to see. Anyone who is connected to the Internet can see you.
3. You have the ability to tell your story. Traditional media has always  controlled how the story was told. Any of you who have ever done an interview with a TV reporter or Newspaper reporter know what I mean. You are all excited about your story and you tell it to them. What ends up in print or on TV is something entirely different than what you hoped for - not anymore!
4. Feedback from your market: You now have the ability to hear back from your market-  current and potential customers – about your ideas, your value and how well you are executing. That’s a little scary; but, better to hear it directly than to hear it after it’s been through the grapevine. This provides the opportunity to increase value by adapting to the market.

All of this value comes with a few catches. The biggest one is time. When I say “free” I mean free to use, not really free. We sell time in our business; so, we should know what time is worth. This form of communicating takes time.  To communicate effectively you have to spend time thinking: first about what it is you do and your value, then you have to be able to communicate that value,  and finally and most importantly, you have to listen to what the market is saying. That is the one thing that I must admit needing the most help with. Listening!

Six months ago if you had asked me to define the term “social network or networking” I would have probably started into a line about spending time going to Chamber of Commerce functions to network. If you had asked me to define social media I would have probably given you the “deer in the headlights”  look and said, ” social media what?”

I have been fortunate to meet some really smart people who have given me a lot of education in a short time. I still consider myself a neophyte on the subject matter and a rookie in the game. I probably need to keep that frame of mind because this new way to communicate to the market is evolving and changing faster than any one person can keep up with.

So, if I can jump in the waters and swim, so can you. There is a world of information on social media out there that is free if you just look for it.  On our blog site there is a free mini-book called Social Media Directions you can download. The guys who wrote this are willing to share their knowledge for free, no strings attached and no tricks. Now that is what social media (versus anti social media) is all about. More than anything, if you are in the business of business aviation I want to encourage you to look into Social Media and start figuring it out. If you want to be around in a few years you’d better start now!

Private aviation uses the term “legs” to indicate lanes of travel from point A to B. In order to optimize the productivity of an aircraft the destination flight needs to be booked as well as the return flight. However, most return flights from B to A go empty and the originator of the charter has to pay for unused “legs and seats”.

Seems to me that such a scenario represents sub-optimization of the aircraft. Sub-optimization is a waste of an asset and increases the cost of using the asset; thus, limiting the market of users of the asset. Make sense?

Now if we examined new methods aimed at optimizing use of private aviation the answer lies in filing both legs, or expanding legs, and seats with business travelers wanting to go from different points within a “leg” to another point.  The model is exactly how commercial aviation maximizes sales of seats within legs they have determined as “used frequently” by the general public.

Applying New Methods To Private Aviation

Private aviation has a much larger reach in terms of probable destinations for business travelers.  The private aviation industry serves a larger scope of available destinations than does commercial aviation. The problem is that each operator runs their “legs and seats” in a silo of distribution and market awareness. Most operators serve regular customers and wait for the phone to ring to initiate a flight. In other words, operators usually wait until the market comes to them rather than going to a larger market of probable travelers needing to get to and from a destination.

Each private aviation operator runs a sub-optimized system and, given today’s economic climate, they are all feeling the reduction of old utilization models and have assets sitting around waiting to be used. The collective waste of all these sub-optimized systems represents billions of dollars annually and many operators will not survive.

What If?

What if there was a new system aimed at optimization of all available equipment, planes, legs and seats? What if  each operator’s individual system was effectively and efficiently communicated to the general market of business travelers? In other words, if an open source grid of  legs and seats were made available to anyone and everyone, and said grid was effectively communicated to the general public of business travelers, what would happen? The likely results would be the the ability to lower the cost of private aviation, which would expand the market to the general public of business travelers. Subsequently, operators would have the opportunity to optimize legs, seats and related assets. The general business traveler would be given the opportunity  for a much more efficient and accommodating experience than commercial travel and while saving time and money. While the cost may be slightly higher than using fixed routes on commercial aircraft, the time saving and experiential factor would easily justify the increase cost.

Sound crazy? Not really when you consider the power and reach of social technology which could easily communicate available legs and seats to a very large audience.  The technology to create an entire private aviation social grid is readily available and the use of social technology would provide the reach to the general business traveler.

Can you tell I want to go back to using private aviation vs. commercial? I am trying to stir thinking out of the box and collaboration for the benefit of all. Leadership and innovation would be needed to capture market opportunity. Does this make any sense?

What say you?

This is part 2 in a series on Social Media and Business Aviation

Business Aviation is in a battle and the fight is over the business traveler.

The battle is against the airlines and those in politics and big media who have for economic reasons aligned themselves with the airlines. It is all about money.  That is what we are fighting over. The business traveler so coveted, yet mistreated, by the airlines spends billions a year on air travel and the airlines don’t want to cede the business traveler over to us.

We didn’t start the fight, they did.

All we did was come up with a better solution for certain travelers who need to get to their markets in a more efficient way. The other guys didn’t like it; so, they picked a fight.

The easy thing for the airlines to do would be to stop the fight and admit that they are what they are: Mass transit by air between big cities. There is nothing wrong with that. We need mass transit systems – airlines, trains, metro rail, and buses to get us where we need to go. Mass Transit works efficiently to move a lot of people to the same place at the same time. It doesn’t work everywhere in this country because it simply doesn’t exist in many parts of the country.   

I personally think there is enough room out there for the airlines and business and general aviation to peacefully coexist but the airlines don’t seem to think so. So we battle!

As I have stated in previous posts we have primarily been on the defensive in this battle defending our position and value to the market place. They attack and we defend. I have also stated that it is time we go on the offensive with our message. We have never had that ability before because it was always the small guys against the big guys and the big guys had more money and control over the message.  

So how do we go on the offensive?

Social Media!

We now have the ability to communicate our message, our value proposition, to the market like never before. The evidence is clear about this by the mere fact that you are reading this post. I am not a journalist. I am a CEO of a general aviation services company. Posting this blog gives me the opportunity to weigh in on the fight - to give my opinion and state my case for why my business should exist. And those who read what I say have the opportunity to agree, disagree, or add to the conversation by commenting on this site or writing their own post on their own blog site.  

I recognize that if I don’t communicate to the market with relevance and value and, more importantly, listen and respond to the market, I won’t be heard. I will be ignored.

As I have spent time trying to learn and understand this form of communication called the blog and social media ( and I admit to still being a rookie at this), I have discovered some interesting things that many of you may already know.

• I don’t see many CEOs for the airlines communicating directly to the market. To me, it looks as if they have outsourced their communications to Advertising and PR firms and are pushing the message out to the market without the feedback loop that social media offers.  For the most part, these guys are holed up in their offices trying to figure out how to survive.
• Southwest, Virgin America and JetBlue seem to be doing a pretty good job with using Twitter as a means to communicate fare sales, build brand loyalty and provide a feedback loop for customer service issues. The other big guys seem to be doing almost nothing in this area. Twitter is a good tool but it is not the be-all and end-all for communicating to the market.
• On our side of the battle, the associations that represent us have awakened to the power of social media and are taking it on with a zeal. I appreciate the ground breaking that these associations are doing to get our message out. It is starting to have an impact.  It is viral and it’s time we catch the virus.

However, I feel strongly that we cannot delegate our communications to the trade associations. They can lead the charge eloquently; but, if we are not in the battle with them, then it is a few voices against the powerful and well-funded voices of the opposition. It is no longer about who has the most money to buy advertising, politicians and big media. Money can’t control the message anymore unless we sit on the sidelines and let it.  

Here is how we win by taking the field in an offensive play.

If those of us whose livelihoods and jobs depend on the prosperity of business aviation will start communicating to our markets through this great new tool called social media, we will force the other team out of the battle. Let’s connect to our friends on Facebook and Linked In, and twitter our message and write blogs on our value and comment when others write for us and against us. Let’s encourage our peers in the industry to join in! Let’s listen to the market of travelers who are desperate for better solutions and give them what they want. When we do that they become our voices in a more powerful way than we can be. The market’s voice is heard when they spend their money.   

There are thousands of small businesses and large businesses in this country and around the world that exist because of  value that business and general aviation brings to the economy. Can you envision thousands communicating though social media the value of what we do and the other side, although well-funded and powerful, letting their message be advertising? They can’t buy their message anymore though advertising! No one can.

The  power is no longer concentrated in the hands of a few when it comes to communications. It is now in the hands of the market. If the numbers are true, and there a 1.2 million of us out here in the US who make our living supporting this mode of travel called business and general aviation, then we are not just the supplier to the market, we are also part of the market.   

Battles can be won with words. Edward Bulwer-Lytton said “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Or could it now be that the blog is more powerful than the dollar?

Business leaders in numerous markets are betting that their market will come back and spend. Many choose to believe that the economic crunch is temporary and things will rebound. Maybe it is time for a reality check and especially for private aviation operators. The world is changing and much of the change could be permanent. Just consider what has happened in the last twelve months to our financial markets.

The real crisis is in the DNA of the industrial economy — and it’s just as lethal as ever. Most businesses are socially useless. They’re about as useful to society (to paraphrase Gloria Steinem) as bicycles are to fish.

Sound controversial? If it does, it only underscores just how out totally of touch with real value we’ve gotten. (Here, for example, are Paul Krugman, Simon Johnson, and Lord Turner all discussing social uselessness.)

What has socially useless business cost just over the last five years? $12 trillion at a minimum. Those are the costs of the various bailout packages for socially useless banks.

Socially useless business is what has created a global economy on life support. Socially useless business is what has created a jobless “recovery” and mass unemployment amongst the young. Socially useless business is why we don’t have a better education, healthcare, finance, energy, transportation, or media industry. Socially useless business is a culture in shock, reeling from assault after assault on the fabric of community and comity. Socially useless business is the status quo — and the status quo says: “You don’t matter. Our bottom line is the only thing that matters.”

To answer it, you’ve got to stop thinking in yesterday’s terms. Forget the decades-long obsession with business models for a second. It’s time to think anti-business models. Anti-business models are models companies use to profit without doing anything socially useful.

I’ve put them in terms that a certain generation of beancounters can understand — in the hopes that, before it’s too late, and awesomeness rains down on them like thunder, they change their ways.

Does This Apply To Private Aviation Operators?

The private aviation industry has been hit by a shock wave. Reductions in charter business are down 20,30,40, 50% and more. Why? because the entire economic climate has changed and isn’t likely to return, ever.

Private aviation operators basically have two choices. Continue to believe it will come back to the good old days and you’ll likely die. The other option is to reinvent yourself and your entire industry with innovation that expands your market and plugs you into “social business models based on collaboration, communications and innovation.”

Your legs and seats are empty. Time to downsize your operations and look for ways to go lean and mean while expanding your market opportunity. Frightened? You ought to be. Think this is hype? Well, just wait and see. Your inventory just may be on the auction block and your balance sheet will won’t be worth the paper it is printed on.

What say you?