What Do Sony & Jet Blue HaveIn Common?

George B. Weathersby

Chairman & CEO, Genesys Solutions, LLC

If you surveyed 100 leaders drawn from the world's major corporations and asked them what kept them awake at night you might be surprised by the answer. A few might answer the competition or government regulations or rising interest rates, but most would whisper a frightened word or two about execution. No, not execution with the meaning that would surely keep a person up at night, but rather the we-have-a-great-strategy-now-can-we-make-it-happen variety of execution. Failure to execute is a nightmare that has haunted many a CEO and it can take many forms.

Consider Sony where the nightmare that was the BetaMax fiasco has just re-emerged as the fiasco that is Blu-ray, a technology for HD DVD players. After almost a decade of secrecy surrounding their significant investments in blue laser technology, Sony finally admitted that they could not solve the technical problems of blue laser light technology and licensed much needed intellectual property from a small Japanese company. But wanna see something really scary? Just as IBM did in its dealing with Microsoft, Sony allowed the smaller company to retain the rights to license their technology to Sony's competitors. This month LG, a large Korean competitor to Sony, launched a HD DVD player that can read all available formats, including the Sony Blu-ray. Cue scary musicâ€¦

The opportunity for Sony to make a market-defining move was lost by Sony's inability to perfect its own technology. The strategy was in place and the market was readyâ€¦ but Sony failed to execute. This failure to execute also spawned another nightmare. Sony made the decision to include Blu-ray technology in the next generation of its venerable Playstation game platform. The substantial delay caused by the Blu-ray fiasco delayed the launch of Playstation3 and opened the window for Nintendo to grab market share through its successful execution and launch of its Wii platform. All in all, there will be a lot of lost sleep over at Sony this yearâ€¦ It is difficult to guess what the long-term impacts of all this will be. In the past Sony has shown a remarkable ability to execute but missed opportunities like these often become examples of how failures to execute can permanently alter a competitive marketplace.

Another failure to execute has the up-until-now darling of the airline industry scratching its way out of a nightmare of bad publicity and angry customers. In the midst of the "Valentine Day" ice and snow storm, JetBlue left a plane full of exhausted, angry, and probably frightened customers sitting out on the tarmac for almost twelve hours. In this scenario, there are two nightmares: (1) the execution nightmare which JetBlue faced; and, (2) the real nightmare its customers had to live through. Although there are varied accounts of what was going on operationally at JetBlue and recognizing the fact that the chain of events and circumstances that led to the decision to leave passengers sitting in a plane for twelve hours is twisted and long, one clear conclusion can be drawn: For an airline that has spent millions of marketing dollars to position itself as the most customer-friendly airline in the world, the events which occurred in February resulted in JetBlue's massive failure to execute a customer-friendly strategy.

In the aftermath of this failure to execute, JetBlue has announced a rebate plan for travelers who have or in the future do receive poor service - at a considerable cost to the airline. Once again, it's difficult to gauge the long-term effects of a failure to execute, but this could mark a competitive shift in the very competitive airline industry. JetBlue has also announced that it is changing its business model and hiring a lot more ground and operations staff. For an airline that has built its reputation and customer base on friendly, low-cost service, the future is anything but certain...

In both of these nightmare examples, there is no boogie man. The companies had the strategies, the people, and the resources they needed. No competitor cut their feet out from under them; no government agency slammed them with new regulations; no unforeseen event shook the very foundation of their industry. (Sorry JetBlue, ice storms happen often enough not to count.) So what happened? In both cases, the companies failed to execute. Why?

Because even in large, well-funded organizations with a history of doing things right execution is hard. Successful execution requires a constant stream of correct decisions from thousands of individuals all with the same focus and intent. It requires that every person in the chain of value that stretches from supplier to customer be able to execute their specific responsibilities when called upon. And it requires agility--sometimes circumstances arise that aren't in the book, and at those times, people must make decisions with only their values and experience to guide them.

Unfortunately, when those crunch times do occur, most executives have little or no idea how their people will react. As an executive, you must ask yourself: Have you properly equipped your people to execute the tasks required of them? Have you ensured that the values which they will call upon in time of crisis are the shared corporate values that will produce the right decision? When mistakes are made, can your organization respond quickly and properly? One failure to execute can forever change a company and an industry. Whether it's a slow-motion train wreck like the inability of Sony to deliver Blu-ray as intended or a dramatic made-for-TV failure like leaving your passengers sitting in a frozen aluminum tube for twelve hours, the failure to execute IS the nightmare that should be keeping you up at night.

The good news for Sony, JetBlue, and all the other organizations of the world, who are seeking to recover from failures to execute, is that recovery is possible. If handled properly, failures can actually be transformed into the launch pad to catapult tremendous success going forward. For instance, if JetBlue uses this opportunity to reinforce the company's core values, to clarify and strengthen roles and responsibilities, to improve its decision-making engine at all levels, the company will be all the better for it. (Unfortunately, the decision to rapidly add personnel does little to reinforce these things and may actually cause long-term permanent damage.)

The good news for you is that you can do all of these things--ensure execution capability, reinforce core values, improve the agility of your organization--now. You don't have to wait for a nightmare to unfold. Since the inception of Genesys we have been helping companies and large organizations do just that. We use a process of definition and measurement that allows our clients to know and to lead exactly where they stand on all of these make-or-break execution issues. And, hopefully, to enable them to sleep well at nightâ€¦

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What Do Sony & Jet Blue HaveIn Common?

George B. Weathersby



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