St. Florian’s Principle²

“Our Heads Are Round so our Thoughts Can Change Direction” [Francis Picabia]

Oh holy dear St. Florian
Don’t burn my house
Take the neighbors one

Four related cases in the past weeks triggered this Food For Thought:

helpdeskGerman Rail – remember Lufthansa…

The IT system of German Rail crashed, disabling not only the entire distribution for a day, but also the train guidance system EBULA causing major delays on train schedules, stranded passengers, the whole nine yards.

The German FVW titled its blog “That wouldn’t have happened in the past”. In m comment I referred to Lufthansa’s IT-crash in 2004 (German article). It is not impossible for IT to fail: A “99,9% up-time” is an +8 hour outage. Usually at the most busiest and inconvenient times.

Purely incidentally I was once at Frankfurt airport when the system failure disabled issuance of boarding passes. To date, I do not understand, why the staff just sat back and delayed boarding for “technical reasons” until I came, wrote the seat numbers on blank boarding passes and handed them out to the check-in agents. A wonder: NO single traveler sat on any middle seat, they either had a window or an aisle seat. I think that never happened ever since 😉 And that flight was about the only one that left that day “on schedule”…

But the believe in the invulnerability of the IT-systems is as unfounded at is is common. Contingency planning for any possible natural disaster, but none for the case of a computers black out! There were processes in place “b.c.” before computer. Have copy samples of “manual documents” dusting in a folder in the closet is not much of an investment, but it could be the difference to a cancelled operation. And for the case of a power outage just a box somewhere with enough copies for a 24 hour backup could not be that expensive either…

bahnAnd even if you rely on it, German rail sure saved a few hundred Euros not investing on a cache memory for the train guidance system that would have saved them from major train delays…

Don’t they ever learn? Bean counters…

Oh holy dear St. Florian…

Striiike…

Image courtesy -die Welt-, click for full image series
Image courtesy “die Welt”, click for full image series

It is simply a miracle how lightly the passengers of U.S. Airways got out of a potentially fatal situation that is not uncommon in the aviation industry: Bird strike. Yes, the pilot is a hero, but as usual that means he has been faced with an impossible situation and by tons of luck was able to avoid desaster by a hair. As safe as flying is, accidents happen.

Reports do question the efficiency of the New York authorities. It’s not far from the hudson to central Manhattan. And a bird strike can disable steering capabilities… Let’s say, they got another wake up call.

wigFriends called raising a discussion related to my WIG-idea. No, that one is also “stalled”. But yes, In case of a bird strike, a WIG would not crash but simply drop some meters and float. And despite the fact that I am sure, countries in the tropical belt, especially faced with global warming should have a vital interest to push that technology, Mauritian Air Taxi just ordered a fleet replacement using standard engines.

Oh holy dear St. Florian…

Nokia

nokiaYes, I know gloating is not nice. But a report last week on Nokia is a case that does make me smile. Nokia in 2007 shut down their plant in Bochum from one day to the other to replace it with a newly built plant in Romania. The result: Nokia’s reputation went through the floor (they became “the example” in Germany), their sales dropped, the Romanian plant only employs less than half of what they planned for. So the bean counters were miserably wrong with their previous assessments about the advantages for Nokia.

The closing of the report said something like: In the retrospect of the financial crisis, sure Nokia was just a little premature, but it shows how wrong it is to focus on numbers and short term profit only, underestimating social cohesion in crisis. It’s tough to calculate people’s reactions. And yes, more than 1.300 of the 2.500 former employees still have no new job… Them having the usual 50-100 friends and relatives in direct vicinity plus the usual 50-100 friends of these friends that are being aware of that, even on a conservative calculation that accounts easily up to some 5-10 million “lost customers”.

Oh holy dear St. Florian …

Uptime

99% uptime = +8 hours/year outage
99% uptime = +8 hours/year outage

Speaking with the IT-expert in a German tour operator about “dynamic packaging” he gave an example of his counterparts in other companies to target 70% uptime of their GDS-based functions. The issue we discussed being “time outs” on API-calls on the GDS causing vital systems to stall. We agreed. 70% is a farce! 99.x is the necessity. 99.9+ must be the goal. Having been pace makers on the IT-networking since back in the 60s (SITA, Sabre & Co), the travel industry has lost its drive.

Asking about why the tool they use does not have a function to check on API-calls for a time-out, I was told that the IT-company developing the tool did develop it for “agent use”, not for an “Automator” working unsupervised…

Oh holy dear St. Florian …

Do you have other such cases?

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Job Challenge or Play It Safe?

“Our Heads Are Round so our Thoughts Can Change Direction” [Francis Picabia]

sxc278961I am recently faced with the question, if I shall take up a very challenging position, asking the best of my abilities, thus meaning fun, but at high risk of a temporary assignment … Or play it save and go for a job I can do good, but which does not pose any real challenge but routine work – in return for a safe job?

And many friends face a similar question. Do they leave their “secure” job for another one around the corner they don’t know how “secure” it truly is? Monetary thoughts, very high valued by the bosses are of minor interest to most. It must be decently paid. No question about it. But if that is the case. Would you trade safety for some risky challenge? Sure – this answer did change quite a bit since the financial market turned the entire world into a madhouse.

So we all have to think about this question and give it serious consideration. But it can not be generally answered. Any one’s risk assessment is different. It depends on obligations to others, family, credit for a house, etc., etc..

If we have a challenging, well paid job and loose it? It is sad to see friends going broke, their spouses leaving them when times are no longer luxurious. So what values are important in life? At the same time, there are many companies speaking not of personell, staff or “our people”, but of human resources… What messages do we get from that?

Reconsider your values…

Food For Thought

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Have Space Suit – Will Travel

“Our Heads Are Round so our Thoughts Can Change Direction” [Francis Picabia]

HaveSpaceSuitWillTravel… is a book title. I referred to it in a discussion about relocation, where I want to share my experience here.

I found three “types” of people in regards to the willingness to relocate:

  • Type 1: The Earthbound
    They grew up, work and will die in their home town. Maybe relocate to the next bigger town, but within a vicinity. They are rooted in their environment, friends, family.
  • Type 2: Upgrade + Stay
    Relocate once to where they believe they find their fortune, root there and stay there. See Type 1.
  • Type 3: The “Bird of Passage”
    Have Space Suit, Will Travel”. Will go, whereever a good job is offered knowing you can find friends anywhere and you can blend into any environment.

Concerns voiced in the discussion where related to environment, political insecurities, missing infrastructure, religion. These are usually Type 2’s, relocating only at forced necessity, but they prefer to stay where they are.
Many “birds of passage” evolve into a Type 2 when they get “tired”.

My only concerns on any relocation are (family and) my books. Everything is replacable, but I admit, my books I would miss. All my music is already MP3 and thanks to Terrabyte portable drives, it is no longer a problem to take movies and music along, but I did not yet find a good “book reader” replacing the paper version…

How do you think about relocation? Have I missed anything important? Thank you for feedback 😉

Food For Thought

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IATA says Aviation declines. Really?

“Our Heads Are Round so our Thoughts Can Change Direction” [Francis Picabia]
Update 2012
Update 2012

According to IATA General Secretary Giovanni Bisignani, aviation warns of a decline in global aviation. But is that reasonable? Yes, global economy suffers. But look at the global maps and you will find a clear relation between airport and decent aviation and the size of cities. Aviation is a key motivator for business, but the travel industry suffers from a major inferiority complex:

Travel Agents: Any financial consultant who at the end of the year gets you €1,000 interest a year will be decently paid, but the consultant where you spend €5,000 for a vacation shall work for free?

Airlines: Global economy needs aviation. But thanks to price dumping (and not only since “low cost”), airlines operate for years at the edge of commercial harakiri.

In December, I was asked by an airline manager, what I would change in the airline industry if I’d have a chance. What I mentioned, many of you heard from me before again and again:
Remove the price tag from the tickets! No other industry in the world provides the information about the price the seller pays for the product. Or you would not buy a car or even a yoghurt without arguing with the cashier about a discount! This is a relic from the decades when airline tickets were decently priced and the travel agent truly was an agent, receiving 9% commission. At the time, many agencies cross-financed other business with their airline sales. An Economy Class ticket for €2,000 at 9% was a nice deal… The hotels, at the time frequently not paying the commission were “negligible”. That’s “the good old days”! Gone.
But if the travel “agent”, or better the travel consultant sells today, they get no commission. Then why do the airlines show the price? It is totally outdated thinking that must be addressed.

The second thought I had in mind I mentioned last week: Airline sales is “suddenly” en vogue again. The managers promoting sales-free and sales-independent “self service” and “internet” without a strategy find themselves the most hit by the financial crisis and the recessive commerce. Because cheap flights sell themselves, but they are also the most vulnerable. Selling a product is a question about long-term relation. So better have or build a sales team with a personal reputation in their market. As they represent you.

Food For Thought. Please share yours 😉

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