Decisions In Paradise

Decisions in Paradise: How to be, or Not To Be

I have graduated from college recently and was offered a very interesting and challenging position in an airline. The company consists of two significant parts: a cargo charter airline and a passenger airline. The company is rather big with the representation offices in Europe, Asia and North America. A new company's project is to establish its representation on island country of Kava in the South Pacific. The owner of our company predicts that in the nearest future this island will be very attractive for both passenger and cargo airlines. The owner whose name is Chris Morales is sure that the future economy of Kava will depend on two things: tourism and petroleum. As we all know both tourists and petroleum need transportation.

I can say that in my imagination Kava was a paradise with white beach, palm trees and ideal work and life conditions. But when my plane landed I discovered that Kava was a mess. Mess was to be observed absolutely everywhere: starting in the airport and ending in our so-called make-shift office. I blamed myself that I had concentrated so much on my flight arrangements rather than being concentrated on the research of the island's economy. The more information you have - the more prepared you are. The second thing that bothered me was that I was not exactly aware of my responsibilities. The only thing I knew was that my supervisor's name was Alex and he was a very experienced, demanding and influential executive. Alex introduced me to the real Kava which is not as attractive as it has been in my imagination.

As soon as I got more information about the island I started to doubt our company's success in the mission of establishing its presence on Kava. First of all, I think that the location our president has chosen for business is not the best for an airline company because of hurricanes, tsunami, tornadoes and floods. It is quite obvious that not long before my arrival some disaster has hit the place. Alex confirmed my observation but what is even worse that there has been a number of disasters. "In the long run, economics drives everything," as Alex put it. From what I observe right now I cannot say that I see many opportunities for business development and profitability.

Besides, more than half of Kava's population is under 15 years of age but as we all well know aviation industry demands well-trained and experienced professionals. We are in aviation business where people's lives are at stake and employees' mistakes can lead to disasters. To train employees among the