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Title: From Worst to First : Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback by Gordon Bethune ISBN: 0-471-35652-2 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 16 August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.74 (43 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Comment: With literary assistance from journalist Scott Huler, Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune describes how he transformed the near-bankrupt airline into one of the best companies in the industry. He describes the massive changes he made to improve the product, changing a low-cost, unreliable airline to a top competitor that emphasizes customer service. The transformations he brought about by exerting strong leadership reshaped financial controls and employee-supplier-creditor relationships. The book is a fascinating read, written in a straightforward, this-is-how-it-was style, typified by Bethune's characterization of the company he took over as a... "lousy" airline with terrible service. Sometimes he gets a little repetitious in summarizing the action at each new step in the transformation, but that's just a minor complaint about an otherwise excellent book.....
Rating: 4
Summary: Strong Management / Business Redesign Book
Comment: In From Worst to First Continental CEO Gordon Bethune discusses how he and his team turned around Continental Airlines (then on the verge of bankruptcy) and produced the profitable, customer-friendly airline that Continental is today.
The book is a good read, filled with numerous examples. Bethune takes the reader through the process that occurred at Continental and comments extensively on how the techniques that he applied could be applied to other businesses. However, Bethune neglects, in many cases to explain the thought process behind the decision that he made. In some cases this is expected: most readers will obviously know that a business needs capital to operate. In others, such as some of his less generally-accepted employee relations techniques, he explains only what he did not why he did it. Because of this, the book is more of a "how to" than a case study on Continental.
Also of note, this book primarily deals with a turn-around situation, and while some of the techniques presented are clearly applicable in any business, others deal specifically with a business that is well established and experiencing difficulty. Other techniques deal primarily with large organizations, and may be of only minimal use to an executive at a smaller company.
Over all From Worst to First is a good read, and the information and techniques provided will well justify the time spent reading it!
Rating: 4
Summary: Worth seeing book with simple but important knowledge
Comment: This book told the story of the great comeback of Continental Airline in an interesting and straight-forward way. We can understand clearly how Continental could do that within 2 years after Gordon Bethune became the Chief Executive Officer.
Continental Airline used to be a low-cost, employee-hated, huge leverage company with terrible service and financial situation. The new CEO Gordon Bethune used a ¡¥Go Forward Plan¡¦ which emphasize the product, employees, suppliers and creditor relationship to turnaround this huge but ¡¥horrible¡¦ airline giant.
Gordon Bethune put the emphasis on the product itself, making employees as business partners through communication, admitting and apologize for the mistakes, controlling financial situation. This shows that transformation requires a lot more than controlling cost.
The structure of the book is clear with key points always showing on the topic. Gordon Bethune used numerous examples and stories to illustrate the strategies he applied and what are the rationales behind. Despite the repetition of some contents, it is full of knowledge!
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Title: Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin Freiberg, Jackie Freiberg ISBN: 0767901843 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 17 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Southwest Airlines Way : Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance by Jody Hoffer Gittell ISBN: 0071396837 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 19 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Hard Landing : The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos by Jr. Thomas Petzinger ISBN: 0812928350 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 24 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Airline Business in the 21st Century by Rigas Doganis ISBN: 0415208831 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 15 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $31.95 |
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Title: Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines by Aaron Bernstein ISBN: 067169538X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: August, 1990 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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