I was hoping for a less Ftalk answer and for a more hard number answer - but any will do - elitist or otherwise.
Okay....I'm enjoying the trading of thoughts we have going here....
So, lets talk biz...and for the record, I don't participate over at FT...a little too vanilla and chocolate for me...but for some reason there seems to be this need to talk down to me? I dunno...
Okay...lets examine strategies and tactics...and the very guts and innards of truly positioning a product. I'll leave the "do we park the 73's and specific tactical questions to the micro-managers out there who know a lot about a little.
STATEGIES - This is the "big picture" course of action..."the war" if you will, the big picture. "STATEGICALLY," what are the options US has? Is the product positioned correctly? Does the product fill a need? Is the product's position such that it can generate revenue? Can the product generate revenue during a "downturn" like we (allegedly) have now?
TACTICS - These are the actions specificially designed or targeted towards accomplishing the big picture...."the battles" if you will. "TATICALLY," what are actions US takes in light of it's new strategy?
THE PRODUCT - There are the "5 P's" of marketing....and at the end of the day, I realize pilots and F/A's don't care much about this stuff...but in order to be great pilots and F/As, you NEED pax....and pax need great pilots and F/As. To be clear, one doesn't exist without the other....
PRODUCT - In this case, a seat on an airplane, cargo, clubs, etc...that's the product.
POSITIONING - Who is the product targeted to?
PRICE - What's the price of the product? What does the price of the product say about the product? What happens if that AMC Gremlin is for sale at $50K? Any buyers or believers? What if that new Cadillac is $2K? Anyone wonder "what's wrong?"
PACKAGING - How is the product wrapped, sold and delievered?
PROMOTION - How do you promot your product to drive attention to it?
So, here are the bigger, more important questions...."where does this product and company fit in the big picture as a stand alone entitiy? Are the products offered set up and positioned to feed the company's need to "wage war" in the market place? What strategies offer the best chance to make the realization of the product's design come true? What tactics does the company take, both long and short term, to get to the goal and make the strategies work?
To your original point...."shrinking to profitability?" Is that a strategy or a tactic? How would shrinking fit with the positioning of the product? How does a volume/margin game fit within these confines? In a truly micro-managed world, would parking the 73's (tactically) get the company to where it wants to go long term?
For the 250th Billion time....THE PRODUCT....the very heart and main artery that puts food on the table for employees is not well thought out. Commodities are a HORRIFIC way to go. COUNTLESS books have been written about how waging war on price is a stupid way to do it...yet, this company has, at least, not been forthright in terms of pricing....at worst, outright lied. The "Business Casual" approach was a STRATEGY that has absolutely NOT worked....its the "New Coke" of the airline business. EVERY airline, even the likes of WN and B6 have gone in different directions.
Now....will shrinking help the positioning of the product? Will parking 737s make this horriffic downturn survivable? How on earth WOULD ANYONE know? To suggest it would is, at best, a wild guess without having all the information...and I would suggest, that is a "Flyer Talk/Randy Peterson" sophomoric conversation.
Instead, get to the heart of the matter...HOW does this company change to compete and to offer a product people will buy, regardless of the economy and how terrible it is...
How was that from an elitist/smug/cavalier/unrealistic/Ftalk person?
