"Lessons from the Rise and Fall of Delta Airlines"

One lesson I've heard in a number of contexts: "If you get the people parts right, it's easy to get the rest."

Comments

[JorgXMcKie]

I saw similar things happen to two companies. Both in the 70s. In each case the guy who had made the business one of the tops in its field died/left and was replaced by a "go-getter" who was "bottom-line oriented" and truth-phobic.

Since they were smaller, it took less time to ruin them both. One was bankrupt and sold in pieces in less than five years. The other saw its market share go from around 28% to less than 5% in under two years.

The second was where I had my first run-in with Management By Objective. Trust me, that doesn't work well when you have commission salesmen selling a product that has emotional freight and needs personal contact.