Customer Centricity at American Air [3 of 3]

Who are the likely Change Drivers?

Based on the current configuration of the principals of American Airlines, it is certainly not for want of synergy. There are connections with Dell, Comcast and Time Warner, at the least, which could aid in design and sourcing (TheyRule, 2011). The formal corporate structure as stated maintains these individuals in the following positions: Craig S. Kreeger, Senior Vice President - Customer Experience (and under him), Rob Friedman, Vice-President – Marketing and Jonathan D. Snook, Vice President – Operations Planning and Performance. Although it is conceivable that such a project could pull in about a third of the lower-upper management (with other positions like Airport Services, Safety, Security and Environmental, Revenue Management, Sales, Corporate Communications and more), it seems Kreeger, first and foremost, would spearhead such an initiative; with Friedman and Snook doing the heavy lifting (American Airlines, 2011)(LittleSis, 2011). As Kottler and Keller would point out, significant intermediaries would be engaged (in this posit anything from re-sourcing the McDonalds toy sourcing to outsourcing entertainment design to someone like Time Warner, to tracking every rubric Marketing can employ, etc.)(Kotler & Keller, 2009).

Conclusion

Pushing the child agenda may be just the Blue Ocean strategy American Airlines needs to distinguish itself from, at least, Continental (which, by the way, has a not so stellar record with children these recent years)(Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). Okay, so no one has pushed this idea far enough to create a result we can point to thus far. One cannot imagine this is a radically magnificent idea that no one has envisioned before, yet the question here becomes whether the idea was deemed cost ineffective (again, viable, in a desert of industry margins) or was it an attitude of “the heck with” the non-paying public. This writer submits the latter justified the former, for in the face of the desert just referred to management has had “real priorities” (no doubt). Here is the thing, the playing field is unyielding; at some point someone somewhere is going to take the bull by the horns and lead the pack on this consideration.

This writer humbly submits the expression of this idea is inevitable.


References

American Airlines. (2011). Corporate Structure (reference). Retrieved from American Airlines Corporate Structure: http://www.aa.com/i18n/amrcorp/corporateInformation/facts/structure.jsp

J.D. Power and Associates. (2011, 8 June 2010 ). J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Airline Rankings 2010 (reflecting 2009) (reference). Retrieved from J.D. Power and Associates, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.: http://businesscenter.jdpower.com/news/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2010092

Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Kotler , P., & Keller, K. L. (2009). A Framework for Marketing Management, Managing Marketing in a Global Economy (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall .

LittleSis. (2011). AMR Profile (reference). Retrieved from LittleSis: http://littlesis.org/org/110/AMR

TheyRule. (2011). Companies>AMR>Show Directors>Show Boards (reference). Retrieved from TheyRule: http://theyrule.net/