En solo tres palabras, el CEO de United Airlines compartió una idea inspiradora que hará felices a muchas personas

Esta es una historia sobre United Airlines, y quizás las tres palabras más bienvenidas para cualquier negocio en 2021. Esto es exactamente lo que estoy describiendo en mi libro electrónico gratuito. Volar en clase ejecutiva, lo que puedas Descarga aquí.

Durante la pandemia, se ha demostrado que el director ejecutivo de United Airlines, Scott Kirby, se diferencia de algunos de sus competidores al mostrar un tono de “realismo” sobre el futuro en lugar de “optimismo”.

Como dijo en una convocatoria de enero para los ganadores, por ejemplo:

“Desde el comienzo de la crisis, nuestro enfoque ha sido mantener un ojo claro sobre los desafíos y el curso probable de la recuperación. Eso a menudo nos ha hecho parecer más pesimistas y puede que todavía lo sea hoy. Pero para ser realistas, en lugar de ya sea optimista o pesimista “. nos dio una clara ventaja. “

Pero mantén ese pensamiento. Kirby hizo una entrevista en video en vivo la semana pasada con David Ignatius, columnista de El Washington Post. Y creo que Kirby puede haberse vuelto optimista.

Su perspectiva se puede resumir en tres breves (¿puedo decirlo con amabilidad?) Palabras que todos los gerentes de empresas desearían escuchar: “Gran demanda reprimida”.

“”[A]Después de todo lo que hemos pasado como sociedad en los últimos 14 meses, puedes verlo claramente. enorme demanda reprimida y el deseo de que la gente vuelva a salir y experimente el mundo … “

Ahora voy a compartir dos razones para ser escéptico de esta actitud, luego una tercera razón que restaura la esperanza y, finalmente, por qué es importante sin importar en qué negocio se encuentre.

Primero, las razones del escepticismo. Soy un abogado relajado que se ha convertido en escritor, por lo que debe disculpar mis inclinaciones:

  1. Hasta ahora, es en gran parte un pronóstico anecdótico que está sujeto a cambios. Sí, la gente quiere viajar, pero la pandemia aún no ha terminado y todavía hay países enteros que los estadounidenses no deberían visitar.
  2. Hasta este punto de su conversación con el correoKirby habló principalmente sobre la recreación de viajes turísticos y otros viajes no comerciales. Es bueno tenerlo. Pero una aerolínea como United Airlines gana dinero real en viajes de negocios.

Odio verter tanta agua fría. Así que vayamos rápidamente a la razón que restaurará la esperanza.

Porque cuando se le preguntó a Kirby específicamente sobre viajes de negocios, contó una anécdota en tres partes. Así es como va:

  • Abril de 2020: el director ejecutivo de una empresa cuyos empleados viajan mucho con United le dijo a Kirby que creía que su empresa solo reduciría los viajes en un 50 por ciento en el futuro.
  • Otoño de 2020: el mismo CEO, dijo Kirby, ahora le dijo que predijo que los viajes de negocios bajarían menos, tal vez un 25 por ciento a partir de 2019.
  • Enero de 2021: mismo CEO, nueva conversación. Kirby recordó: “Nos damos cuenta … es realmente difícil mantener nuestra cultura unida cuando no estamos juntos. [A]Durante al menos el primer año o dos, tenemos que viajar tan pronto como se nos permita viajar. Más que hicimos en 2019.

Un gran cliente pasó de un recorte del 50 por ciento a un aumento en el transcurso de un año, dijo Kirby. Algo así despertó su optimismo.

“Nuestra apuesta es que los viajes de negocios volverán”, dijo, “y eso se debe a que los viajes de negocios tienen que ver con las relaciones humanas y las interacciones humanas. Y por dura que sea esta pandemia, tiene un deseo humano de estar juntos, no de cambiar”. . “

Como sabrán los lectores habituales, los ejecutivos de cualquier industria deberían observar y aprender de las aerolíneas.

No es que estén haciendo todo bien. Pero están en una industria de materias primas, tratando de diferenciarse unos de otros y haciendo todo bajo el más alto control público.

Es como obtener un estudio de caso de una nueva escuela de negocios del que aprender casi todas las semanas. Esta es una excelente manera de dar un paso atrás, extrapolar y ver cómo funcionarían los pasos que están tomando en su empresa. Aquí me vienen a la mente al menos dos cosas.

La primera tiene que ver con esta hermosa frase: “gran demanda reprimida”.

Estoy seguro de que ya lo está anticipando o esperando. Pero, ¿hasta qué punto puede planificar una recuperación que no solo lo lleve de regreso a donde estaba, asumiendo que ha perdido algo, sino que también recupere el tiempo que perdió?

El segundo tiene que ver con escuchar profundamente lo que sus clientes le están diciendo, quizás incluso más profundamente de lo que están escuchando.

Porque Kirby dice que confía en que el director ejecutivo que está citando no recordaría haber predicho que su tráfico aéreo disminuiría en un 50 por ciento, luego en un 25 por ciento y luego en un 20 por ciento más o menos.

Esto significa que Kirby tiene más información sobre al menos un aspecto del negocio de su cliente que el propio cliente.

¿Alguna vez has estado en esta situación? Seré la respuesta es sí. Y si es así, ¿puede considerar a los clientes al pie de la letra, pero también evaluar las tendencias que están articulando, incluso si no ven el valor de la información que están compartiendo?

Es un truco bastante útil si puedes lograrlo. Y eso lo hace muy optimista.

Las opiniones expresadas aquí por los columnistas de Heaven32 son las suyas propias, no las de Heaven32.

n But, hold that thought. Kirby did a live video interview last week with David Ignatius, columnist at The Washington Post. And, I think Kirby might just have become an optimist.  n His outlook can be summarized by three short (may I say beautiful?) words that any business leader would like to hear: "huge, pent-up demand." n The context: n
"[A]Heaven32er all we've been through as a society in the last 14 months, you can clearly see huge pent-up demand and desire for people to get back out and experience the world ..."
n Now, I'm going to share two reasons to be skeptical about this take, then a third reason that will restore hope, and finally the reason why it matters no matter what business you're in. n First, the reasons for skepticism. I'm a recovering lawyer turned writer, so you'll have to excuse my proclivities: n
    t
  1. So far, it's largely an anecdotal prognosis, and it's subject to change. Yes, people want to travel, but the pandemic isn't over, and there are still entire countries Americans aren't supposed to visit.
  2. t
  3. To this point in his conversation with the Post, Kirby was talking primarily about the rebound of tourist and other non-business travel. That's nice to have. But an airline like United Airlines makes its real money in business travel.
n I hate to pour so much cold water. So let's quickly go to the reason that will restore hope.  n Because when Kirby was asked specifically about business travel, he related a three part anecdote. It went like this:  n
    t
  • April 2020: The CEO of a company whose employees do a lot of travel on United told Kirby that he thought his company was simply going to reduce travel by 50 percent going forward.
  • t
  • Fall 2020: The same CEO, Kirby said, told him now that he predicted business travel would decline less -- maybe 25 percent from 2019 levels.
  • t
  • January 2021: Same CEO, new conversation. As Kirby recalled: "We realize ... it's really hard to keep our culture together if we're not together. [A]t least for the first year or two, once we're allowed to travel, we're going to have to travel more than we did in 2019.
n One big customer, over the course of a year had gone from predicting a 50 percent reduction to an increase, Kirby said. That's the kind of thing that's sparked his optimism. n "Our bet is that business travel is going to come back," he said, "and that is because business travel is about human relationships and human interactions. And as tough as this pandemic has been, it has not changed human desire to be together." n As regular readers might know, I think business leaders in every industry should watch and learn from the airlines. n It's not that they do everything right. But, they're in a commodity industry, trying to differentiate themselves from one another, and doing everything under the highest levels of public scrutiny.  n It's like getting a new business school case study to learn from, almost every week, so you can step back, extrapolate, and figure out how the steps they take would work for in your business. Here, at least two things spring to mind. n The first has to do with that beautiful phrase: "huge, pent-up demand." n I'm sure you're already anticipating or hoping for this. But to what degree can you plan for a recovery that doesn't just get you back to where you were, assuming you've lost something, but also makes up for lost time? n The second has to do with listening deeply to what your customers tell you -- maybe even more deeply than they listen to themselves. n Because Kirby says he's confident that CEO he quoted wouldn't actually remember having predicted his air travel would go down 50 percent, then down 25 percent, and then actually up 20 percent or so. n That means that Kirby would have more insight about at least one aspect of his customer's business than the customer has himself.  n Have you ever been in that situation? I'm going to be the answer is yes. And if so, can you take customers at face value -- but also assess the trends they articulate, even when they don't realize the value of the information they're sharing? n It's a pretty useful trick if you can pull it off. And that makes it something to be very optimistic about. n (Don't forget the free ebook, Flying Business Class: 12 Rules for Leaders From the U.S. Airlines.) 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