Aviation of Business

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on May 5

An airplane is an amazing piece of machinery.  During some portions of a flight, it is required that the pilot make large changes and major corrections to the path of the aircraft.  Takeoff and landing are obvious places where this comes to mind.  This is called “hand flying” the airplane.

At other times, however, it is unnecessary to “hand fly” the plane - during straight and level “cruise” flight for instance.  During this phase of a flight, the pilot will use what’s called “trim” to make very slight corrections to the flight path of the airplane.  If the plane is descending slightly, the pilot will use “nose up trim” to stop the descent.  If climbing slightly, “nose down trim” may be used.  Some aircraft have trim for rolling (aileron trim) and turning (rudder trim) as well.  Keep in mind here that I am not talking about any kind of “auto-pilot;” this is just a way to more carefully and precisely control the plane once it is in “cruise” flight and flying at a single altitude and in one direction for a length of time.

This can be likened to a business (as always!).  At some points in the life of a business, like during the startup and initial growth, it is necessary to “hand fly” the business - you as an entrepreneur (pilot) must “control” the business more directly and make larger changes to its direction.  In an airplane this is during takeoff and climbout and only lasts a few minutes.  In business, it may last a few years. 

Additionally, if you plan on selling or in some other way “exiting” the business, you will, again, need to “hand fly” for awhile.  You may not be “hand flying” the business directly, but you will be directly and significantly involved in the process of finding a buyer and negotiating a fair price for both of you.  This roughly coincides with the approach and landing of an airplane - again a time when the pilot must be significantly involved in the aircraft’s control. 

Most other times during a business’s “flight,” small corrections and tweaks are all that is necessary to keep the company moving in the direction you want it to go.  This is, of course, assuming you have a good business plan (flight plan) and a good team (crew).  You also must be in a well-designed company (stable aircraft).  See my post on Tradeoffs for more on business design and aircraft design.

There ARE times during cruise flight when a business (or an airplane) DOES need to be hand flown - any time a change of direction is necessary.  In aviation, it is all about navigation or avoidance of other aircraft (which are subjects for other posts), and in business it is during times of change, when a new direction is needed to grow to the next level or to outmaneuver competition.

Times to hand fly an airplane / business:

• Takeoff / Startup
• Climbout / Initial growth phase (combination of trim and hand flying)
• Change in direction / New business opportunity
• Traffic avoidance / Response to competition (can be proactive or reactive)
• Initial descent / Considering exiting (combination of trim and hand flying)
• Approach to landing / Decision to exit made (combination of trim and hand flying)
• Landing / Exit of business (sale or other exit strategy)

The reason it is important to understand this is that is is possible to “hand fly” an aircraft (and a business) when it should be “trimmed.”  It is very easy to “overcorrect” when you hand fly an aircraft during cruise flight… this will cause large changes in altitude and direction because the pilot feels the need to directly control everything the aircraft does with relatively large control movements.  But in a stable aircraft, small adjustments with trim allow the plane to “fly itself” - and that is exactly what aircraft (and businesses) should be designed to do.

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Mar 11

Let’s start the aviation/business metaphor at the beginning - design.

I was recently in Memphis to facilitate some software training, and my flights back home were VERY delayed due to weather.  I was supposed to depart Memphis at 3:50 in the afternoon, but didn’t actually depart until about 7:30 in the evening.  That’s nothing compared to the JetBlue delays several weeks ago (and I was, fortunately, in the terminal and not on the plane for those few hours!), but it is still draining to sit around in uncomfortable airport seats while waiting for your aircraft to arrive. 

Luckily for me, my crew (two pilots and a flight attendant) were ALSO waiting for the plane to arrive, so I used the time to speak with them about flight schools (I’m considering going back to school and flying professionally while I build my businesses) and aviation in general.  See my Intro to Networking post for my take on meeting new people and networking in general.  I was also quite fortunate that my crew from Memphis to Chicago was ALSO the crew flying me from Chicago home - as long as I didn’t let them out of my sight, there was no way for me to miss my connection!  Mada, my flight attendant, also moved me from my cramped little seat to a leg-roomy exit row seat (another example of why you should network every chance you get)!

Once on the ground in Chicago, there were more than 60 people waiting to get on a 40-seat airplane (an Embraer Regional Jet, if you’re interested).  The weather was still ugly, but we boarded the airplane and pushed back with several empty seats.  A few of the other passengers grumbled in anger about leaving people behind when there was obviously room on the airplane - so I tried to explain to those in earshot about how aircraft are not designed to carry both full passengers AND full fuel… every kind of aircraft has weight limitations - and passengers add weight.  Fuel adds weight, too.  And if the plane is too heavy, it won’t fly.  So when you’re flying through (or into, or around) bad weather, it is necessary to carry more fuel (not only for safety but also to meet certain regulatory requirements) in case Air Traffic Control makes you hold or if you have to go to an alternate airport because of the conditions at the planned destination.  To carry this fuel, the airline may have to leave some seats empty. 

Now, it is possible (theoretically) to design an airplane that creates enough lift at a slow enough speed to fly with full fuel and full passengers - but it would most likely burn fuel at a faster rate and/or have to fly at a slower speed, meaning its range would be unacceptable for use as an airliner or the flight would take longer than acceptable to us as passengers.  So the designers of the plane have to trade utility for efficiency and efficacy. 

All of the above leads me to what really struck me about the similarities of tradeoffs between the design of an airplane and the design of a new business:  in both airplane design and business design, you can’t be everything to everyone… you need to find a niche.  Many, many business and entrepreneurial bloggers have already spoken about this from a business perspective, including (but obviously not limited to) Derek Gehl, of The Candid Internet Marketer; Sterling and Jay of Internet Business Mastery; and Tyler Cruz, of An Internet Entrepreneur’s Journey, who doesn’t actually say anything at all about how to find one or really even what one is, but waxes eloquently about how, exactly, one pronounces it. 

In business, because an entrepreneur wants a business to be low-cost and bring in enough money to make a profit, s/he cannot make everyone happy.  Choices have to be made about what products to sell and at what price, and where to locate.  An entrepreneur who designs a business so they can “fill all the seats and still put in full fuel” to try to please everyone will find themselves not pleasing anyone. 

So in business, you must find a niche, then create a product around it - even though there are many stories of entrepreneurs creating a product, then creating a niche for it after the fact (this is lovingly known as “an answer in search of a problem”), this is by far the exception rather than the rule.  The airplane, actually, is a good example of this; Orville and Wilbur Wright designed the first airplane - The Wright Flyer - for the sheer challenge, not because there was demand for flying machines.  They then set out to build demand for the product.

An airplane’s design allows its pilots to understand what they can make it safely do.  In a similar manner, every successful business is designed with a focus, allowing its “pilots” to sacrifice less important things (according to the business’s design) to meet the goals that it has set for itself.  A business’s mission, vision, and values state its purpose - as well as what it is willing to “trade” to achieve its goals.