How One Airline Is Using AR to Improve Operations
Harvard Business
APRIL 5, 2022
Lessons in enterprise AR’s potential from China Southern Airlines.
Airlines Operations Productivity 
The Price is Right: Decoding the Art of Product Pricing
Tom Spencer
MARCH 8, 2024
One of the most common problems business leaders face is how to price a product. From entrepreneurs putting a new product on the market to executives at a public company revamping a product line, effective pricing is a key pillar of any successful sales and marketing strategy.
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Crazy Airline Gobbledegook Nonsense
The Crazy Lives of Consultants
OCTOBER 21, 2013
The airline business is like nothing on earth, and airline people are some of the most common interactions we consultants have. Aircraft - This is one of the most common words to escape from the lips of airline people. But no one outside the airline industry says aircraft. Airline personnel have mastered passive voice!
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Big Ideas, Bad Results: Avoiding Strategic Uselessness
Tom Spencer
APRIL 25, 2025
Execution requires alignment with operational realities, not just a vision of where the organization wants to go. The firm had no clear path to profitability, its Messianic ambitions eventually outpacing its financial resources and operational capabilities, and it filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
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Second to None: When First Movers Fall Behind
Tom Spencer
MAY 3, 2025
For every Amazon, theres a Myspace, Nokia, or Friendster companies that pioneered their respective industries but failed to maintain their leadership once competitors emerged with better products, smarter strategies, or more agile operations. The harsh truth is that being first is only part of the equation.
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5 reasons to choose strategy consulting over financial advisory consulting
Management Consulted
JULY 2, 2013
First, a 101 on strategy consulting for you newbies to the site – having an insider view into the strategy and operations of a company requires that you quickly become an expert on day-to-day activities in light of the overall company vision. 2) Strategy consulting offers the opportunity to work for a global corporation’s CEO.
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Venezuela Strengthens Currency Controls in Impossible Mission to Stop Capital Flight; Airlines Collapse; End of the Line
MishTalk
JANUARY 23, 2014
In an effort to get money out of Venezuela, airline ticket sales had been booked solid for months. One airline cancelled all flights. Venezuelan bonds plunged to the lowest in more than two years after the government announced the latest partial devaluation of the bolivar, this time for airlines and foreign direct investment.
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Consultant Ninja: Whither art thou Marakon: Management.
Consultant Ninja
FEBRUARY 25, 2009
Can anyone from Marakon weigh in and explain whats happening inside its "operating subsidiaries"? The Chapter 11 proceeding does not include the Companys operating subsidiaries, including its consulting subsidiary, and their operations will not be affected. Productivity. (6). Wednesday, February 25, 2009. at 5:23 PM.
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Where Predictive Analytics Is Having the Biggest Impact
Harvard Business
MAY 25, 2016
The first use case involves predicting demand for consumer products that are in the “long tail” of consumption. This method works well for popular products in large regions but tends to fail when data gets thin because random noise overwhelms the underlying signal. Operations in a Connected World. Predicting demand.
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Manufacturing Companies Need to Sell Outcomes, Not Products
Harvard Business
JUNE 2, 2016
Suppose you owned an airline and ordered an engine from Rolls-Royce or GE. A piece of machinery to meet a product need? This question has been top of mind lately among manufacturers aiming to drive profitable growth, triggering a fundamental shift to the way a business operates that increasingly focuses on outcomes.
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Consultant Ninja: When "hedging" is just speculation (part 2.
Consultant Ninja
MARCH 5, 2009
Unfortunately they locked them in at level that guarantees an operating loss. They locked in an operating loss, regardless of the price of fuel. Productivity. (6). I failed to adequately explain the underlying assumptions to support the statement. 1) United did hedge fuel prices, locking in their fuel prices. at 1:52 PM.
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Consultant Ninja: Finally, two counter-cyclical markets: Management.
Consultant Ninja
NOVEMBER 11, 2008
Alvarez & Marsals Bryan Marsal, Lehmans restructuring officer, ``is actually operating the company. 2010-Present: Off the road 2009 Stats: Airline Miles: 24,902 Nights away from home: 73 (of 216: 34% of nights) AMEX Charges: $21,220 2008 Stats: Airline miles: 87,589 Nights away from home: 159 (of 365: 43.6% Productivity. (6).
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Consultant Ninja: When "hedging" is just speculation: Management.
Consultant Ninja
MARCH 4, 2009
The Company’s cash flows and results of operations have been adversely impacted by these factors as indicated by its net loss of $5.3 billion during the year ended December 31, 2008. " - United Airlines 2008 10-K, 2 March 2009. Productivity. (6). Posted by Consultant Ninja. at 8:30 PM. Labels: Analysis. Related Posts.
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The Barriers to Recruiting and Employing Digital Talent
Harvard Business
JULY 9, 2018
But it’s particularly difficult for large, traditional firms , especially those which operate in consolidated, non-growth industries (think pulp and paper, steel, airlines) and which are often located away from the metropolitan areas where data scientists live. There were no processes in place to share the learning.
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Sometimes “Small Data” Is Enough to Create Smart Products
Harvard Business
JULY 19, 2017
Another interesting example of small, high precision data being used to make big gains with AI can be found in the airline industry. In 2015, Boeing launched the Aerospace Data Analytics Lab in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to develop AI technology for airlines. How can you put these ideas to work for your company?
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71 Consultant Ninja: Future Histories: Management Consulting Blog
Consultant Ninja
MARCH 8, 2009
. - NetApp profile , Fortune Best Companies to Work for 2009 Conceptually (to me), writing a future history makes a lot more sense than writing a strategic or business plan for a company/operating unit. Productivity. (6). of nights) AMEX Charges: $83,296. Consulting. (88). Analysis. (40). Bitterness. (26). Visualization. (5).
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Blockchain Will Transform Customer Loyalty Programs
Harvard Business
MARCH 14, 2017
Large travel companies, such as airlines and hotel chains, know this from painful experience: They pay billions of dollars in commissions each year to Priceline, Expedia, and other online travel agencies (OTAs), which have transformed how consumers book flights, hotels, and rental cars.
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133 Consultant Ninja: The Strongest Navy in the World: Management.
Consultant Ninja
DECEMBER 11, 2008
To nuance what Gortney said, I think patrolling the Gulf of Aden is a police operation in an area with a lot of civilian ship traffic. 2010-Present: Off the road 2009 Stats: Airline Miles: 24,902 Nights away from home: 73 (of 216: 34% of nights) AMEX Charges: $21,220 2008 Stats: Airline miles: 87,589 Nights away from home: 159 (of 365: 43.6%
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The Right Kind of Conflict Leads to Better Products
Harvard Business
DECEMBER 23, 2016
When partners in an alliance come into conflict, it can be just what is needed to produce a technically and commercially successful product. ” Members from each partner organization rate the alliance in areas related to strategic fit, operational fit, and cultural fit. The results were fascinating.
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Consultant Ninja: Friedman Billings Ramsey and Tom Peters.
Consultant Ninja
MARCH 23, 2009
The investment bank still operates as FBR Capital Markets. 2010-Present: Off the road 2009 Stats: Airline Miles: 24,902 Nights away from home: 73 (of 216: 34% of nights) AMEX Charges: $21,220 2008 Stats: Airline miles: 87,589 Nights away from home: 159 (of 365: 43.6% Productivity. (6). , TomPeters.co.uk. at 9:50 PM.
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100 Consultant Ninja: Dipping my toe in the health care debate.
Consultant Ninja
JULY 27, 2009
Structural Driver: The organizations in the health care system operate inefficient operational structures. I fail to see the logic that the government will be more efficient at building operational structures than the private sector. Question: In the Obama plan, which one of these three cost drivers is getting reversed?
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Top 10 Consulting Firms in the Middle East
Management Consulted
APRIL 2, 2017
Bain’s major industries of importance in the Middle East include Airlines & Transportation, Media, Mining, Oil & Gas, Retail, Private Equity, Social & Public Sector, Technology, Telecommunications, Utilities and Alternative energy (the oil will run out one day!). in revenue (wow!). Bain & Company. Roland Berger.
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160 The Problem of Bolt-On Acquisitions in a Digital World
Harvard Business
JULY 5, 2016
At MyEdu, we had developed a college student profile product, and Blackboard – one of the largest educational software companies in the world – purchased our company to supplement their existing product portfolio with this rich new capability. I was at a startup that got acquired. It might be to buy talent. Insight Center.
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You Can’t Secure 100% of Your Data 100% of the Time
Harvard Business
DECEMBER 4, 2017
And that’s not just social media accounts; it’s bank accounts, retailer gift card accounts with cash and credit cards attached, airline loyalty accounts with years of accumulated frequent flyer points, and other accounts with real value. This statistic is alarming, but in fact it significantly understates the scope of the threat.
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6 Steps to Make Your Strategic Plan Really Strategic
Harvard Business
AUGUST 7, 2018
It was a national distributor of milk and other dairy products and in it, farmers occupied two roles. Once it adopted the six-step method, these outcomes were identified as “reducing employee turnover and increasing productivity and innovation.” The same group of stakeholders can occupy more than one role. The reason?
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133 The Stage Where Most Innovation Projects Fail
Harvard Business
APRIL 11, 2017
Among those that have met that fate in recent months are initiatives at Target, Alaska Airlines, Coca-Cola, the New York Times, and Chubb. Is the business unit being measured not just on how much revenue they generate from new products, but how many times they drop the ball or under-resource something that has been developed for them?
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How Companies Can Champion Sustainable Development
Harvard Business
MARCH 14, 2017
For example, Southwest Airlines focused on responsible consumption and on climate action; Johnson & Johnson/Janssen chose good health and partnerships for the goals; and MasterCard chose good jobs and economic growth, reduced inequalities, and partnerships. Some goals may be too broad or too distant. Some were more focused than others.
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Sustainable Aviation: Emerging Trends and Opportunities
Tom Spencer
APRIL 1, 2022
While electric vehicles are already replacing conventional automobiles, no electric aircraft is ready for large scale commercial production that can usher in a sustainable revolution in aerospace. This includes not only commercial airlines, but also cargo planes and military aircraft. The Aviation Market. per year over the same period.
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The Barriers Big Companies Face When They Try to Act Like Lean Startups
Harvard Business
AUGUST 16, 2016
.” And yet the lean startup methodology, born in Silicon Valley as a way for startups to tune in to customer needs with limited resources, has been gaining major momentum inside big companies like General Electric, Alaska Airlines, Telefonica, 3M, and W.L. Show customers barely-working products with rough edges?
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70 Let Algorithms Decide – and Act – for Your Company
Harvard Business
SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
Instead, smart organizations are driving analytics to an even deeper level within business processes— to make real-time operational decisions , on a daily basis. These operational analytics are embedded, prescriptive, automated, and run at scale to directly drive business decisions.
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Consultant Ninja: 5 Things Wrong with Excel Pivot Tables.
Consultant Ninja
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
Situation summary: We have a large datacube of raw data, containing revenue figures by year for a variety of products, both historical and forecast. The data set is approximately 5,000 rows, and we want to create a summary, by product, of revenues from 1999-2007, in order to figure out whats going on. Productivity. (6).
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100 Build Your Brand as a Relationship
Harvard Business
MAY 9, 2016
Sergio Zyman, in The End of Marketing as We Know It , says: “A brand is essentially a container for a customer’s complete experience with the product or company.” The company provides the product or service, and the customer consumes it. ” In the airline industry, innovators have also redefined the brand roles.
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70 You Don’t Have to Be a Software Company to Think Like One
Harvard Business
APRIL 20, 2016
That doesn’t mean that you should stop delivering your current products or services. Disney has reinvented the customer experience by translating what it exclusively knows about park operations into software, substantively enhancing its customer value proposition. Software platforms have incredibly attractive economics.
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70 Why Monitoring Your Employees’ Behavior Can Backfire
Harvard Business
APRIL 25, 2018
Right before the start of our study in 2011, new closed-circuit television cameras were installed at all airport checkpoints—covering almost all the various positions the officers rotated through, from checking travelers’ documents to operating body-scan machines.
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Job Hub: Boeing Jobs and Culture
Management Consulted
APRIL 24, 2016
Boeing is a company that is constantly growing, changing, and adapting with cutting-edge technologies to produce world-class innovative products. Boeing’s vision is to run healthy core businesses, leverage its strengths into new products and services, and open new frontiers. ———— History & Culture.
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100 What We Can Learn from One of the World’s Most-Mocked Cars
Harvard Business
APRIL 22, 2016
The car’s interior was cramped and uncomfortable, and the steering wheel–mounted gearbox required exceptional dexterity to operate. But all good things must come to an end: The fall of communism in Eastern Europe brought the production of Trabants to a screeching halt. airlines in 2015 was the highest since 2000.
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Is It Too Late for Sears to Save Itself?
Harvard Business
MARCH 30, 2017
Sears Holdings has indicated that “substantial doubt” exists about its ability to continue operations. To ensure that a strong product assortment can draw people into its stores, Sears should work on buttressing relationships with the vendors of its top brands. Sears can take a cue from Marvel.
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70 Consultant Ninja: Consultants = Big Strategy, Little Execution. Client.
Consultant Ninja
JUNE 26, 2009
I work for a boutique operations consulting firm and we (as well as our competitors) sell potential clients with the tagline of "we will actually IMPLEMENT the changes with you!" Productivity. (6). Posted by Consultant Ninja. at 9:53 AM. Labels: Consulting. Related Posts. 8 comments: Rick. of nights) AMEX Charges: $83,296.
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100 Repositioning Is Not a New Business Model
Harvard Business
APRIL 12, 2016
We see positioning in the airline industry. Australia, for instance, has three main domestic airlines: Qantas, Jetstar (Qantas’s no-frills line), and Virgin, which started out as no-frills and has since chased the business-class, high-margin segment. Store location became irrelevant — there are no stores.
Airlines 70
70 Companies That Do Right by Their Workers Start by Elevating Their Definition of Success
Harvard Business
JANUARY 19, 2018
American Airlines said it would pay $1,000 to all 127,600 of its people, and Wells Fargo raised its base wage from $13.50 Make no mistake: John Lewis and Waitrose are bold and aggressive players in their respective marketplaces, known for high-touch service and booming internet operations. to $15 per hour.
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71 Why Your Company Culture Should Match Your Brand
Harvard Business
JUNE 26, 2017
Ask people how to develop a good corporate culture, and most of them will immediately suggest offering generous employee benefits, like they do at Starbucks, or letting people dress casually, as Southwest Airlines does. When you think and operate in unique ways internally, you can produce the unique identity and image you desire externally.
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Why Isn’t Jamie Dimon Telling Clients to Raise Wages Too?
Harvard Business
JULY 20, 2016
Some of us have been documenting the business case for this type of high road or high productivity, high-wage business strategy for years. Kaiser Permanente, Costco, Southwest Airlines, and Siemens are household names that have achieved consistently good results and good jobs with this strategy.
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The Trade-Off Every AI Company Will Face
Harvard Business
MARCH 28, 2017
We don’t often think of it, but the same is true of commercial airline pilots. We take comfort that airline transport pilot certification is regulated by the U.S. Putting products in the wild earlier accelerates learning but risks harming the brand (and perhaps the customer!);
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Why consulting?
Management Consulted
OCTOBER 3, 2012
For instance, we examined predatory pricing in the airline industry and illegal product tying by Apple, Microsoft, and AT&T. What I found particularly fascinating was the number of variables that needed to be taken into account while making strategic decisions on governance, production or any other function. We love it!
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