End of another era

[mtnrunner]

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110722006017/en/Kenny-Dichter-Returns-Entrepreneurial-Roots

Santulli - gone
Jacobs - gone
Christiansen - gone
Murray - gone

Dichter - gone

Sad to see who's left.

Best of luck to all!

 

[sshrae]

Gorman is gone too, at least the general is still there. I'm sure everybody is happy about that.

 

[BentOver]

How the general is still there is the amazing thing....Never heard such BS come out of one man's mouth...

Dichter was the equivalant of a car salesman with a little more pizzaz. Hardly in the same league as the others. Marquis was nothing more than taking a product and reselling it by using the FAA regs on fractional sizes etc... He just happened to be the first to apply it to airplanes..... But he did do a good job doing it.

The telling sign may be the BHK quarterly report. If it's really bad then someone was jumping ship. If it's average or breakeven, he may have disliked his job.

Think about his past 10 or so years...He was a rockstar with Marquis. The head of the company. Made his own brand etc...Now he is in a position that doesn't give him much recognition, besides a few CNBC interviews, he really doesn't have much of a presence at NJA. And the most frequently asked questions are about Santulli and Sokol. (as far as I've been able to tell). Now he is just another upper level manager at a company struggling to return to it's former self. On the other side he has a Tequila brand that has had appearances on shows like Entourage, is supposedly doing pretty well in the market, and may give him back his rockstar image. Along with some other ventures he may be dabbling in....

If he has the money, why not get out from undrneath the Netjets stink... It couldn't have been a whole lot of fun for him these last 2 years or so...


My opinion...while nothing great will come out of him leaving.. He wasn't exactly the glue that held this place together the last 2 years....No real change will occur. What NJA needs is either a change of planning by leadership, or a change of leadership.. Either one will do fine. NJA simply needs to sell more shares....

The flying hours are coming back, business is essentially steady as far as owners flying, we just need more of them. And we need those new Phenoms and Globals earlier than originally planned... One slight bright spot is that NJA is taking deposits for the Phenoms ($25,000 non-refundable). So that is atleast a good sign of getting ready for thay operation... Hopefully the Globals will be available for purchase soon also.

Netjets, by being the largest, also needs the largest amount of recovery. The other fractionals need a smaller amount (not percentage) of business to show improvement. NJA will get back to former levels, as will the other fractionals. It will just take them longer to do it based on the sheer volume of business lost in the recession.

 

[BentOver]

Gorman is gone too, at least the general is still there. I'm sure everybody is happy about that.

Just as a side note...Gorman was there the same amount of time as myself. Not exactly a legacy at NJA..He went to FEDEX.. Even if NJA had been doing great, I don't see him NOT going to Fedex.

 

[NJAowner]

Focus

NJA's primary focus right now should be on retaining existing owners. Forget about selling new shares ... try to keep the ones you have. There is a bottle neck at the exit door - regardless of what management tells you. It is much, much easier to keep an existing client than get a new one. That is marketing/sales 101.

 

[BentOver]

NJA's primary focus right now should be on retaining existing owners. Forget about selling new shares ... try to keep the ones you have. There is a bottle neck at the exit door - regardless of what management tells you. It is much, much easier to keep an existing client than get a new one. That is marketing/sales 101.

Completely agree. From what little has been relayed they "say" they had nearly 70%-80% retention as of a few months ago...(who knows how much of that is a lie) If I remember from a few years ago, the old retention was planned on 50-60% retention. But Santulli had the never ending line of new owners to support it.

Since your last PM to me about some of the problems you've experienced, has anything changed for the better on a microscale? Only a few months have passed so I don't expect any drastic noticeable difference..

Sokol is gone, Dichter is gone (although I don't think he dealt with any day-to-day issues). Sokol was the big cancer of the group. We shall see how much more of it can be cut out.

If there is a line at the door, what is stopping them from leaving immediately? Also, the only opposition to the line at the exit theory, I have, is that we have had a fairly steady increase in flying over the last year or so. And thus far there have been no changes in staffing. Which I would undoubtedly think there would be if the place was in dire straights...

On our end there are way too many variables that just aren't adding up. And most of us have been through several mismanaged airlines and know what the usual signs are. At NJA there are alot of conflicting signs.

 

[CE750Driver]

NJA's primary focus right now should be on retaining existing owners. Forget about selling new shares ... try to keep the ones you have. There is a bottle neck at the exit door - regardless of what management tells you. It is much, much easier to keep an existing client than get a new one. That is marketing/sales 101.

Most of the pilots I know are trying hard at this. That is where most are focused.

 

[fischman]

Remember that Sokol is still a NetJets owner. I don't think it is a good idea to call him a "cancer" in a public forum.

While I didn't agree with many of the decisions he made as CEO, I will still treat him with the respect I would with any of our customers. For all you know, NJAowner might be Mr. Sokol!

 

[BentOver]

If Sokol is reading FlightInfo.com he must not be too worried about Lubrizol...... Chances Sokol reads and or even knows about FI.com...0%..Come on the guy is probably worth 100million+.. He is not worried about FI.com......

Take the conspiracy, lawsuit, fear somewhere else...

Sokol sucks..... Even the union leadership basically said he sucks... The whole fractional industry knows he sucks......

Did I mention Sokol sucks.....

If I ever saw his name on a brief I would come down with a severe case of HIV or something worse..... Chances I would ever fly him (if I worked at NJA) 0%...

I really enjoyed every owner I ever flew....Sokol on the other hand...I wouldn't enjoy that flight.

Ok I feel better

 

[fischman]

Good job...