Why, why, WHY are aviation businessmen so bad?

denverpilot said:
Those two are mutually exclusive. ;)
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Actually I knew a really good best buy install tech. He took a lot of pride in his work and did a damn good job. Much better than I could do.

Comparing my remote start installs to his...sigh..

He was killed a few years ago on a motorcycle.
 
flyer said:
Bruce is right. We all are not like that. Some shops around my neck of the woods are begging for work and will bend over backwards to assist a customer.

Work is so thin around here I just drove 250 miles to do some repairs on a cherokee and didnt charge him a cent for mileage.
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Aw hell, I'll buy you a ticket on southwest to come out and do my annual in my hangar. Prob I don't have jacks or enough tools. If you drive ill buy gas nd out you up. Th wife and kids can do Disneyland for the week.
 
I've known a lot of guys who are really good at what they do, but completely suck as businessmen. Some succeed in spite of that fact, but most just muddle along. I have a friend who runs an auto repair place. Great mechanic, if he had someone with the skills to run the business he'd be working half as hard and making more money.

I've also seen businesses killed dead by "professional managers" who didn't have the slightest clue what the business was about. Some of them seem to think that any business is just like any other, and all of them can be run the same way. They're wrong.
 
Jay, there is a great guy at HYI who works for McKee avionics. His name is Erik Svendsen, he did our 530 install and will be doing more avionics work for us in the future. I highly reccomend them.
 
The fundamentals never change, the methods to achieve them differ.

DaleB said:
I've known a lot of guys who are really good at what they do, but completely suck as businessmen. Some succeed in spite of that fact, but most just muddle along. I have a friend who runs an auto repair place. Great mechanic, if he had someone with the skills to run the business he'd be working half as hard and making more money.

I've also seen businesses killed dead by "professional managers" who didn't have the slightest clue what the business was about. Some of them seem to think that any business is just like any other, and all of them can be run the same way. They're wrong.
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DavidWhite said:
Jay, there is a great guy at HYI who works for McKee avionics. His name is Erik Svendsen, he did our 530 install and will be doing more avionics work for us in the future. I highly reccomend them.
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Thanks for the tip!

Sent from my Nexus 7
 
Jay Honeck said:
Yeah, I've heard good things about this shop. Trouble is, it's a bit out of our day-trip range, which means an overnight stay. In my world, that is exceedingly rare.
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they have a hotel there :D:D:D
 
DaleB said:
[snip]
I've also seen businesses killed dead by "professional managers" who didn't have the slightest clue what the business was about. Some of them seem to think that any business is just like any other, and all of them can be run the same way. They're wrong.
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My impression is that some MBA programs (and some undergrad business programs) teach it this way.

John
 
Jay Honeck said:
I hear about this ALL THE TIME. We had a guest last weekend who owns two airplanes. His second one -- a Piper Super Cub -- had been in the shop for ELEVEN MONTHS for an engine overhaul and recovering, with no end date in sight.

When I asked what was going on, he had no idea. He was really irked about it, and called the shop regularly, but just kept getting blown off, and there was really nothing that he could do, now that the covering was off the fuselage. (What's he gonna do -- fly it home?)

He is out almost an entire year of insurance, not to mention a whole year of flying. At his age, that is significant.
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There's a local (in)famous A&P/IA like that. 12-18 month annuals have occurred with 3 people I directly know. I ask for details. "He's a nice guy, good at what he does, but just works at his own pace, is pretty disorganized, you have to keep on him..." Mind you, he's just doing Brand P & C annuals -- not specializing in anything exotic. Still, there's a waiting list. Makes me scratch my head.

One of my friends was litigation attorney. Even he, despite being quite patient for 6 months for something originally estimated to be "10 days to 2 weeks", started rattling his cage quite hard. Another several MONTHS later, he finally got the plane back.

On the other end of the spectrum, I've heard consistent stories of crooks as well. A few years back when looking to buy my plane (Grumman Tiger) I kept coming across this one name of a fellow who somehow could run up $30-40k annuals on single engine Grumman's. One pre-buy I did had this guy's name in the logbooks and a similar story being relayed to me by the broker. I ask if I could call the owner. I do so and hear the same thing, "I brought my plane in, he starts telling me one thing after another, and before long my bill was $30,000...." Mind you this was a plane that he was selling for $65,000.

All of the above is to say, like you, I am consistently amazed several of these guys are able to stay in business based on poor word of mouth alone. Yet, each of the above "characters" I describe above have been doing it for 30+ years each.... and are still in business today.
 
jsstevens said:
My impression is that some MBA programs (and some undergrad business programs) teach it this way.

John
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There is nothing like intimate knowledge of the business, or industry specifically being managed. There is no "one size fits all" strategy, performance metrics, etc. Everything needs to be tailored specifically for that business. Yes, there are some general concepts that apply to most businesses, but that is just a starting point.
 
GE learned the lesson the hard way. At one time they thought they could teach anybody to manage their various businesses, but discovered they were wrong. The guy who runs the engine division was the first to prove the value of real experience and depth of knowledge.
 
I saw it happen on a small scale to the company I worked for. It had been a fairly successful mapping company for quite a few years. The owner was retiring so he wanted to sell. He offered it to me but I thought he was asking too much for equipment that was becoming obsolete, plus I'm not the entrepreneurial type. He ended up selling to a guy who had a background in the construction business and the florist business. Oh, and he liked airplanes. He knew nothing about the mapping business which is not really an aviation business. It just uses airplanes to get the cameras up into the sky. It's also a pretty cliquish industry which is suspicious of outsiders. Needless to say, things went downhill. He needed to upgrade his equipment but he didn't have the money since he overextended himself to buy the company to begin with. I could see that coming from the beginning.
 
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Trying to get a lawyer to set up a guardianship for my mother. Not one has yet returned a call.
 
The great ongoing mystery to many who spend a career in the IB business (raises hand) is the buyer's inability to accept advice from the seller who spent 40 years building the company into something the buyer wanted to own. The seller usually signs and advisory and non-compete agreement and then quickly finds nobody wants his advice. After a few bone-head decisions, he no longer wants to be associated with the stupidity and cleans out his desk.

Egos get in the way more times than not, but underlying philosophy of the acquirer is key to predicting the outcome. Buffett is known for buying management talent in whatever industry he enters. If he thinks he or his team will be required to step in and run it, he's much less likely to finalize the deal. From an aviation perspective, that's one of the reasons Net Jet struggled along during Santulli's time in the chair. He was very reluctant to fire good people during the downturn that lasted longer than first anticipated. At some point the parent had to step in and downsize, at which point Santulli said adios.

Everskyward said:
I saw it happen on a small scale to the company I worked for. It had been a fairly successful mapping company for quite a few years. The owner was retiring so he wanted to sell. He offered it to me but I thought he was asking too much for equipment that was becoming obsolete, plus I'm not the entrepreneurial type. He ended up selling to a guy who had a background in the construction business and the florist business. Oh, and he liked airplanes. He knew nothing about the mapping business which is not really an aviation business. It just uses airplanes to get the cameras up into the sky. It's also a pretty cliquish industry which is suspicious of outsiders. Needless to say, things went downhill. He needed to upgrade his equipment but he didn't have the money since he overextended himself to buy the company to begin with. I could see that coming from the beginning.
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wabower said:
The great ongoing mystery to many who spend a career in the IB business (raises hand) is the buyer's inability to accept advice from the seller who spent 40 years building the company into something the buyer wanted to own. The seller usually signs and advisory and non-compete agreement and then quickly finds nobody wants his advice. After a few bone-head decisions, he no longer wants to be associated with the stupidity and cleans out his desk.
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That sounds very familiar...

I will say that it provided me with part of the push to move on to something else which ended up being a lucky decision.
 
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