The Aviation Industry Taught Me These 5 Simple Rules of How To Win in Business
A must read for every working professional and business owner
When a rich person says something, people listen.
When a rich person who also happens to be a billionaire says something, it becomes a quote.
One such billionaire named Richard Branson once said this about the airline industry, “If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.”
This quotation holds special value because not only is Branson a billionaire, but he also owns an airline called “Virgin Atlantic” for over 40 years now.
Thank God he didn’t lose his billions owning and operating an airline.
In today’s post, I’ll focus on 5 things about business that I’ve learned from the airline industry.
So, without further ado, let’s begin
1. It's all about operational excellence
Most aviation brands (and businesses across industries) that went down under can be attributed to one reason.
Their flawed (read: pompous) marketing plans.
Aviation industry may seem glamorous, but it’s one of the most operationally complex businesses to be in.
Cargo, people, passengers, pilots, ground staff, airplanes, airport authorities, lease of planes, insurances, food and beverages, fuel, maintenance… The number of moving parts to fly one plane from one destination to another requires at least 8-10 domain expertise to function like clockwork.
That’s where your first lesson in business comes from.
Irrespective of how glamorous your business may seem to the world; the success of your business will always be dependent on operational excellence and profitable unit economics of every transaction.
2. It's about being reliable
An airline may offer the swankiest planes, most courteous staff on board, entertainment system that gets people glued to their seats and screens, food that makes the time saved the second-best feature of the journey, and yet things can fall apart for an airline.
Why, you wonder?
Well, success of every business is never in its ancillary services, but in delivery of the core service being the best in its class.
For the aviation industry, the core product will always be reliable service.
This would mean (very) low cancellations/ time alterations of the flights and on time service.
Transport between two places is the product that the aviation industry offers, but the core service is reliable service in case of an airline.
Similarly, make sure that you focus on delivering the best-in-class product/ service to your customers, before you focus on the other ancillary add-ons and marketing of your business/ brand.
3. It's about being hospitable
Delays, bad weather, sub-par experience is inevitable in the aviation industry.
However, that’s when the human factor of the business comes to play.
I’ve had my share of bad luck where a 2-hour long flight was delayed by 7 hours, due to a technical delay (or so we were told).
Of course, the entire fleet of passengers were irate and rightfully so.
But credit where it's due, the on-ground staff was caring, supportive and they managed the situation like champions by providing free meals, access to lounge, and refreshments to all the passengers to pacify the situation as much as they could.
Bad days are inevitable in every business. Just make sure when your business is facing a bad day, take ownership of the situation and please the customers to whom you owe an apology and make up for the loss of delivery, in whatever way possible.
Loss for a day is acceptable, over loss of a customer for a lifetime.
No terms and conditions apply to that rule, ever.
4. People pay premium prices for premium service(s)
Premium economy, business class and first class.
Enough said?
Create a differentiated product/ service/ category for your customers and you’d be surprised to see how swiftly people swipe their cards for premium products/ services (subject to the offer being communicated with absolute clarity).
5. Competition is inevitable
You will always have to keep competing and winning in all aspects of business, so make sure you're really passionate about the profession/ business you select for yourself.
Passion in career/ business is overrated if that’s the only driving force. Which is precisely the reason why this is the final point in the post.
However, with the right business and impeccable execution record; passion acts as the intangible and never-ending source of energy that allows you to keep going on the difficult days, especially on the difficult days.
Your Thoughts!
These have been my takeaways from the aviation industry.
Do you resonate with these points?
Do you disagree with any of the points mentioned above?
Or would you like to add some more points as per your observation to this list?
Let me know your thoughts and also let me know if you’d want me to make more posts like these and which industries would you like me to focus on, next time.
Let’s continue this conversation (or ask your questions about the post) in the comments below.
Keep Going Keep Growing 🚀
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Prompt used to create the image for the note
P.S.: Image made on Meta AI using the prompt, “Imagine a corporate employee at the airport gate looking at the flights take off and thinking about something”