Gordon Bethune at Continental Airlines - Assignment Example

2. This airline could not capitalize on deregulation since all major as well as minor decisions and most minor decisions were made by a single person. Again, the continental airline was an attractive target for acquisition due to its respected brand name. 3. There are several actions that were initiated by Buthene, which led to continental’s turnaround; these include: Fly to win plan - his plan was designed to maximize the company’s strength and stop its engaging in non-profitable activities.

Fund the future plan- This was a revenue generation plan based on restructuring Continental fleet of the company. Make reliability a reality - This was a plan to measure continentals reliability using performance metrics, most significant of them being the ones measured through transportation department such as customer complains, mishandled bags and involuntary denied boardings statistics. Working Together Plan. This plan encouraged teamwork rather than working individually in a sort of Darwinistic survival of the fittest culture (Nitin, Anthony and Mark, p.13). 4.

Factors  that enabled Bethune to lead the turnaround effort include: His influence as the chief executive officer and introduction of codes used to bring order during debate and meeting. Ability to identify strong players, role player, staff in need for improvement as well as those in overall effort to achieve team goals Encouraged early retirement or helped in finding employment elsewhere (Nitin, Anthony and Mark, p. 15). 5. Buthane’s leadership in general was democratic in that he included all employees in decision making and running of the company.

Buthane’s experience on power plant mechanics and his 20 years naval career played a major role since he had a good background understanding of the field.