Two Airlines Case

Step One: Gaining Familiarity

In 1985, the client, due to bad weather, had only 10 minutes to make his connecting flight to New York City. Before arriving in London, the cabinet attendant, pilot, and a car driver coordinated to successfully deliver the client to his connecting flight, which took off one minute late.

In 1995, again due to bad weather, the client endeavored to travel to London with only 20 minutes to catch his connecting flight after the initial leg of his journey. After the tortuous navigation of the geography of the airport, the client arrived at the gate 7 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave, with no agent in sight. Waving to the pilot proved to be ineffectual as well. When agents retuned to the gate, the client was booked on a flight scheduled to leave 1.75 hours later than his initial departure time, on another airline. Once aboard the aircraft, the passengers were advised that, due to a systems failure, they would be subject to an aircraft change and a 2.5hour delay. At this point, the client has missed his planned London meeting, and immediately boarded a plane headed directly to Frankfurt, where he was scheduled to be the following day.

Step Two: Recognizing Symptoms

The client was a first class passenger in both years, 1985 and 1995, and therefore had certain assumptions about the quality of service he expected to receive. Due to the advances in technology, the client was more content in his belief that his 1995 experience would be even smoother than his decade older experience. Ten years of advancing technology made the client fairly confident in his assumption.

Step Three: Identifying Goals

In 1985, the first airline's goal was to insure that the client made his flight, despite the fact the flight might possibly be delayed. In 1995, the goal of the airline was seemingly to adhere to strict scheduling guidelines, regardless of the needs of an individual passenger. The second airline, however, was willing to examine the details of the reality of the situation and determine that, even with a late departure, the tailwinds, would, in fact, bring an on-time arrival into reality.

Step Four: Conducting the Analysis

In 1985, the first airline's goal aimed to supply exceptional customer