RE: Ackoff on SAS

["Alan Meekings" <alan@landmarkconsulting.co.uk>]

Stein,

As a regular traveller on SAS over the years, I'd support your analysis of
the phases of customer orientation before, during and after Jan Carlzon's
tenure as CEO of SAS.

Seen from one particular customer's perspective, the key difference was how
front-line staff interacted with me . . . when booking, checking-in,
boarding, and so on.

During Jan Carlzon's time in charge, I found all front-line staff in SAS to
be consistently charming.  

Since then, their response has been no different from that of any of other
major airline.

My conclusion is that companies need to put their staff first, their
customers second, and their shareholders third.

This is how Virgin has run its airline businesses - Virgin Atlantic, Virgin
Blue, etc, from the outset - and they seem to have done pretty well, all
things considered.

Any thoughts?

Regards,

Alan

alan@landmarkconsulting.co.uk