Continental Airlines in 2003 Sustaining the Turnaround
I. CASE CONTEXT
Imagine a company where employees hate the moment when they wake up because they know that they’re going to have to go to work. Once at work, these employees, who even consider maximizing their sick leave just to have an excuse not to be there, are all day with disgruntled customers complaining about the lousy service, the late planes and lost baggage. When the saving grace of break time finally arrives, these employees rush out and exert the utmost effort to pretend not to be associated in any way with the company to avoid helping other employees and more so to avoid the irate and angry customers. After the few minutes of reprieve that lunch and coffee breaks provide, these very unfortunate employees are thrust once again into the hellish environment where each and everyone is trying to step on you because it’s the only way to keep their jobs amidst the rampant cost cutting by management. Working in this kind of company, these employees can’t help but to transfer all the negative energy even to their customers. Of course, you can expect that the company’s reputation will be like that of a skunk, a reputation that repels almost all that come near it. To top of the employees’ miseries, sometimes, they don’t even get paid. Imagine working in an environment like the one described, without even being compensated properly, and even sometimes not being compensated at all. This is what is was like to be working for Continental Airlines in the year 1994. It’s unfortunate that the above description couldn’t be rightly called an exaggeration of how awful Continental’s situation was at that time because it actually accurately depicts it. Founded over more than 80 years ago as Verney Speedlines, Continental’s pioneers Walter T. Varney and his partner Louis Mueller would probably turn in their graves if they ever lived to see the state that their creation is in. Most would look at Continental and would probably say that there never was a
Imagine a company where employees hate the moment when they wake up because they know that they’re going to have to go to work. Once at work, these employees, who even consider maximizing their sick leave just to have an excuse not to be there, are all day with disgruntled customers complaining about the lousy service, the late planes and lost baggage. When the saving grace of break time finally arrives, these employees rush out and exert the utmost effort to pretend not to be associated in any way with the company to avoid helping other employees and more so to avoid the irate and angry customers. After the few minutes of reprieve that lunch and coffee breaks provide, these very unfortunate employees are thrust once again into the hellish environment where each and everyone is trying to step on you because it’s the only way to keep their jobs amidst the rampant cost cutting by management. Working in this kind of company, these employees can’t help but to transfer all the negative energy even to their customers. Of course, you can expect that the company’s reputation will be like that of a skunk, a reputation that repels almost all that come near it. To top of the employees’ miseries, sometimes, they don’t even get paid. Imagine working in an environment like the one described, without even being compensated properly, and even sometimes not being compensated at all. This is what is was like to be working for Continental Airlines in the year 1994. It’s unfortunate that the above description couldn’t be rightly called an exaggeration of how awful Continental’s situation was at that time because it actually accurately depicts it. Founded over more than 80 years ago as Verney Speedlines, Continental’s pioneers Walter T. Varney and his partner Louis Mueller would probably turn in their graves if they ever lived to see the state that their creation is in. Most would look at Continental and would probably say that there never was a