Flying planes is similar to running a business
Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. —Leonardo da Vinci
Business headlines are now filled with news and speculation about the fate of Asia’s first airline, the still unprofitable yet immensely prestigious Philippine Airlines.
Three big business names are being mentioned in connection with the fate of PAL — and coincidentally, all three of them are self-made men who rose from humble backgrounds to spectacular heights of success — Lucio C. Tan, through gutsy and persevering entrepreneurship, and Ramon S. Ang and Manny V. Pangilinan via the corporate route of management prowess and great deal-making.
Tycoons, Airlines & Flying
What is it about airplanes and airlines that seem to attract the biggest names in business, not just here in the Philippines but also internationally?
Entrepreneur Mitch Free wrote in Forbes magazine: “Airplanes are magnificent metaphors: the drama of flight and the human fear of sudden fall, the power of innovation to open new frontiers, the unbelievable complexity of any project designed to send us soaring into the stratosphere. The image of aircraft and the unlikely glory of flight can be invoked to serve a wide range of rhetorical purposes, and the image appears again and again in lessons about business and life.”
I think the most famous tycoon associated with aviation was the late swashbuckling Howard Hughes, whose life was depicted by actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the blockbuster film The Aviator. Like San Miguel Corp. boss Ramon Ang and the late Ayala Group/ BPI boss Enrique Zobel, Hughes personally flew planes.
Various tycoons who control airlines include Cebu Pacific Air’s visionary founder John Gokongwei Jr., the late San Miguel Corp. boss and PAL founder Andres Soriano Sr. (is RSA going to be like him, boss of these two corporate giants?), award-winning Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes, founder of of Air Asia, and British tycoon, the high-profile Virgin Atlantic Airways founder Richard Branson.
Will the enigmatic, self-made industrialist Lucio C. Tan buy out his minority partner, the plane-flying tycoon Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corp. with the latter’s 49 percent, or will it be the other way around, with Ang buying out the 80-year-old Tan for total control of PAL? There are reports that RSA’s rival for many mega deals, Manny V. Pangilinan of the First Pacific Group, might become a strategic partner of Tan. All three billionaires are business legends with their own unique strengths that can benefit PAL.
Ang and Tan air their sides of the PAL story
RSA’s side of the PAL story was recently published in Boo Chanco’s Philippine STAR column on Aug. 1. Chanco said that Lucio Tan reportedly enjoys the prestige of being the boss of PAL despite its huge losses and headaches, that his ego and pride are preventing Tan from making a purely business decision to just sell PAL. Tan’s people have reportedly been against RSA’s gaining total management control of the airline.
When I asked a highly placed source in the Lucio Tan camp about these stories from the Ramon S. Ang camp, he said, “It’s half truth. We initially planned to sell to RSA (not to San Miguel Corporation since SMC doesn’t want to consolidate PAL into their books) and RSA agreed. However, RSA was delaying payment since he had a hard time raising cash. In the end we decided to buy out SMC instead.”
When I asked whether it’s true that Manny V. Pangilinan or his group will join the Lucio Tan Group in the latter’s attempt to buy out SMC, my highly placed source replied, “No.”
Whoever buys total control of PAL, whether Tan or Ang, I believe both are now better experienced to bring the national flag carrier to greater heights. Whoever ends up becoming the ultimate boss will enjoy a good future, with our local airlines now okay to have more direct flights worldwide like never before. We also have a fast-growing tourism industry and a dynamic Philippine economy.
How piloting and managing are similar
Mitch Free’s friend Jim Murphy at Afterburner has written and speaks extensively about the similarities between the skills required to pilot a plane and the skills needed to manage a good business.
He said an airplane’s pilot usually possesses certain data from his instruments, which are important metrics about the health of the aircraft (or the business) that influence his or decision-making. However, mechanical instruments only give the pilot (or company boss) limited information. Regarding “situational awareness,” all that is derived by the plane pilot (and business chief) from actual experience, flexibility, the ability to quickly comprehend and integrate new information, adapt to changing conditions, and to anticipate future changes.
Free wrote: “Situational awareness means relying on more than gut instinct and layman’s logic. It means re-evaluating your priorities, taking on new information, and being willing to adapt if what you’re trying isn’t working. For a business, this likely means a turn toward focused sales and market research: is cash flow down because the market doesn’t want what you’re selling?
“If you are running a business that is approaching a stall (declining sales and cash balance), determine how much altitude you have and direct some of that cash and all available resources toward getting the sales engine revved up. Trust your gauges. Be willing to drop altitude and pick up enough speed to level off safely.”
Like a pilot, a business person or leader should have good training, learn the technical skills required, research the climate and environment, do some planning, check crucial communication, check out emergency exits and options in case of crisis, possess courage and a calm demeanor, be innovative and have passion.
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