Full Spectrum Dominance of Business Aviation!
Wikipedia describes full Spectrum Dominance in non-military matters as a comprehensive tactical effort to support a strategy.
Business Aviation struggles to achieve full spectrum dominance every day with one slight problem. Business Aviation, as it currently operates, does not work efficiently, effectively or is profitable at all, if ever. The very real problem is the way business aviation is currently structured and operates today. In that environment there is no realistic way of achieving full spectrum dominance. But there can be!
To achieve full spectrum dominance, the goal becomes understanding what the systemic problems are, and what changes are required to become efficient and profitable in the business aviation ecosystem. Those are easy changes to address assuming two things. 1.) you have a real understanding of the business aviation business. 2.) You understand that there are systemic operational problems within the current business model and are willing to learn and adapt to the necessary changes.
Remarkably, the very real changes required to achieve maximum dominance are not even expensive to make.
Here is a non-aviation example of how one simple observation changed an entire industry. This simple modification changed the entire global supply chain industry with one basic change. In the late 1950’s, Malcom McClean who as a kid started out in the delivery business with one pickup truck, he purchased for $125 in the 1930’s. By the late 50’s he had the second biggest trucking company in the US, so he knew what he was doing. Fortunately for everyone, he still liked to drive, which turned out to be a good thing for all of us today.
One day (the day before Thanksgiving) Malcom made a delivery to a New Jersey Sea port and was waiting to off load his cargo which had taken most of the day before to load. So, while he was anxiously sitting there (he wanted to be home for the holiday), he realized that everything that had been hand loaded in his trailer the day before was now being offloaded the same way, one item at a time. Each item had to be hand carried onto the ship and secured. All very time-consuming and no one was making any money sitting there.
He also knew that tanker ships only had revenue one way. When they were when fully loaded, they made money, however they made nothing when going back to the refineries to reload more fuel products (does any of this sound familiar yet). 
All these problems, the delays, the empty non-revenue trips, and the total lack of efficiencies were systemic everyday business (or going along to get along) at that time. Malcom understood the problem, he was living it. And then he saw it, the answer. It happened simply because he was driving a truck even though he owned the trucking company. It happened because he was not a going to get along guy. And bingo, he had THE answer to THE problem.
Malcom came up with this idea; He simply reasoned, why not take the wheels off the trailers, and just load the whole trailer onto the ship as is. Of course, today that is the dominant way of transporting goods and materials. Today we call them cargo containers and or container ships. That simple idea changed everything and today even tankers can make money with or without moving fuel products. That problem was solved with one simple idea.
So yes, it is possible to be the number one entrepreneur in any business, even in the business of business aviation with the right changes. But it takes more than just wanting to be number one…it requires understanding that there is a problem and how to fix or change it…the right idea at the right time, and then how to get it to work efficiently and completely. And we have the right idea at the right time to make business aviation very profitable.
Malcolm knew it was going to take more than removing the wheels from the trailers and he figured it all out. After that he sold his trucking company, he patented all his modifications, and made an entirely new industry out of the once very ineffective but necessary shipping business. We can do the same thing for the business of business aviation.
Here is an example of getting it wrong and what that looks like (not the beans, the guy on the bike): Going back to 1876 there was William Orton the president of Western Union. Western Union was the leading telegraph/communication company of the time. They had millions and Alexander Graham Bell had perfected the perfect tool and the perfect solution that would change everything. Orton is a prime example of completely missing the opportunity. Do not be the guy on the bike.
Alexander Graham Bell wanted to sell his patents and technology for the telephone to Western Union (the Net Jets of its time), and all Bell wanted at the time for his program was $100,000.
Orton thought it was silly and personally enjoyed telling Bell that he had a bad/stupid idea that would never work…a few years later Bell developed AT&T…the rest is as they say, history. Meantime Orton did not go down in history as a visionary, but as the guy that was too much of a moron to let the telephone get away.
All business aviation needs is a simple plan…Not more or bigger airplanes, not more college educated pilots that are hired by the HR department who know absolutely nothing about pilots, just a simple a workable, doable, and inexpensive plan…and we have it.
All business aviation must do to achieve full-spectrum dominance in the business aviation arena is to use the plan to make the change (not unlike putting the trailer on the ship concept). And our plan and with our changes will change the entire business aviation ecosystem. It is a change that will make zillions, and it is a change we know how to make. And again, it is not even expensive to achieve.
If you are in the business of business aviation and are tired of going along to get along, using writes offs and deprecations as profits. If you actually want to make serious money without the risks, liabilities, and the unknown variables of operating aircraft. You might just want to talk to us…think about it. You can contact me at rick.eriksen@cox.net Or contact me at LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickeriksen/
