A serviceable account best appreciated by students of business and veterans of the airline wars.
An insider’s account of the disastrous challenges that faced American Airlines, a combination of events that led to the creation of the world’s largest airline.
In a workmanlike behind-the-scenes narrative, Kennedy, the company’s general counsel from 2003 until his retirement in 2013, and Maxon, a retired Dallas-based airlines reporter, describe the turmoil and chaos that befell AA following 9/11. Though certainly of interest for those involved in the airline industry, the saga, full of jargon-laden descriptions of lawsuits and mergers and acquisitions, may be lackluster for general readers. NFL legend Roger Staubach, who served on the company’s board during those tumultuous years, introduces the book by referencing the company’s 2011 bankruptcy as “a Hail Mary pass” to save the airline and return it “to health and prosperity.” From there, the authors pick up the story, as Kennedy recounts his long history at AA and the events leading up to 9/11. During that tragedy, AA lost both Flight 11 in New York City and Flight 77 at the Pentagon. (AA would be involved in another tragedy just two months later when Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor in Queens.) The authors explain the complex business circumstances surrounding those events, including the acquisition of TWA’s assets and liabilities and the subsequent recession of 2001. They also provide an accounting of the cost of doing business in the airline industry, referencing fights with labor unions and the federal government, a revolving door of executive leadership, and tussles with competitors like Southwest Airlines over gates at Dallas’ Love Field. It all culminates in the courtroom drama of the company’s bankruptcy and subsequent merger with U.S. Airways. It’s not always riveting, but it does portray the risky landscape that large companies in a public space must navigate among regulators, the market, and their own people and how American just managed to survive.
A serviceable account best appreciated by students of business and veterans of the airline wars.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68261-488-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Savio Republic/Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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