Hard Landing (the book)

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

I'm relatively new to this board so I don't know if this subject has been brought up before...
I'm about 2/3's of the way reading the book, Hard Landing. I find it to be a combination of business and history. If the book is indeed accurate, a few things that stuck me were how miserable most executives are. They seem to be more interested in "winning" rather than running a top notch airline/business. While there is some merit to always never being satisfied and always striving to be better, it seems like they all want to be number one for the sake of being number one.

Another thing that struck me was that for all the bad mouthing Lorenzo gets from labor it was the Dems who gave him the green light (Ted Kennedy, Maxine Waters, et.al.). These people are always seen as pro labor. Of course the Republicans are supposed to be the "champions" of freedom and they're leading the charge for more government control. Politics is a professional wrestling match, it is all an act and the outcome was decided before the game began.

With that said, would highly recommend the book and look forward to reading the rest.

 

[flint4xx]

"It's a dirty rotten business" is my favorite quote.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

What's ironic about the "it's a rotten business" quote is that is supposed to have come from Crandall. The book portrays him as being ruthless and relishing in the "rotten business". Pot meet kettle....

 

[bobbysamd]

Hard Landing

Who's the author? I found Thomas Petzinger and Lynn Heitman on amazon.com. I suspect that it's the former, but I want to double-check before I order the book.

Thanx.

 

[TurboS7]

I flew Crandell around a couple of times, he called pilots little Caesars running around with their little kingdoms.He had no respect for pilots, I think Lorenzo acutally had more respect for pilots than he did. Lorenzo problem is that in his mind he bought EAL and was going to do with it as he wished. He didn't see EAL as a national emblem of freedom that should have and could have been saved.

 

[SaabStory]

Bobby,
It's Petzinger, & the book is great.

 

[bobbysamd]

Thanx. I'll order it today. It's cheap on amazon.com.

 

[Andy Neill]

The parts of the book I enjoyed most were the stories of how Herb managed to get around obstacles in his path at Southwest. As a lawyer, he even represented Southwest in court when he was trying to get it off the ground. I suppose I should read "Nuts" some day.

 

[Wiggums]

Great Book.

At least with Crandell the pilots benefited in the end, once B-scales had been defeated. Under Lorenzo, Borman, and Burr pilots didn't fair so well.

 

[TurboS7]

Crandell's idea was grow from within. Lorenzo's idea was merge and takeover and destroy. I really don't feel that either had a real feel for the airline business-they were just glorified bookeepers. An airline is like a baseball team (Yankees, Cubs etc.), it is sacred, something is passed down from generation to generation, it is called heritage and in our culture we need to respect that-we don't and should.