Enhancing Flight Department Relevance

Jul 21, 2009

By Jim Cannon with William Garvey

Sales have slowed. Warehouses have filled. Profits are down. Analysts are tsk-tsking, reporters are snooping and stockholders are angry. It's crunch time, that anxious period when every asset, every department undergoes excruciating cost/benefit scrutiny. The worry increases with each business unit's distance from the company's core activity - that is, producing, selling or supporting its main products or services.

At some point, someone at a high level will note to colleagues, "We're spending a lot of money on our flight department. There are alternatives. Is it worth it?" One of two answers will follow. To help ensure it is "Yes," requires leadership, attentiveness, responsiveness, inventiveness and good execution.

The first step in assuring a correct response is understanding what you do. Many do not, as Bob Hobbi, president of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ServiceElements International, Inc., discovers regularly when coaching flight departments.