BG 3 June13_FinanceSept 20/05/2013 17:23 Page 1
BUSINESS AVIATION AND THE BOARDROOM
BizAv Services Use Policies. How will you prioritise use of your Company’s airplane? Peter Agur Jr. is managing director and founder of The VanAllen Group, a business aviation consutancy with expertise in safety, aircraft acquisitions, and leader selection and development. A member of the Flight Safety Foundation’s Corporate Advisory Committee and the NBAA’s Corporate Aviation Managers Committee (emeritus), he is an NBAA Certified Aviation Manager. Contact him via www.VanAllen.com.
Boards set policy, and Business Aviation must not be an exception to this ethos. But each policy should reflect the unique needs of the corporation, assert Pete Agur and his associate Don Henderson.
W
hen I started my aviation consulting career, one of my first clients told me; “Once you’ve seen one company’s use of Business Aviation, you have seen one company’s use of Business Aviation.” His point was straightforward: The business, organizational and cultural challenge related
to “who can use the company airplane” is unique to each user. The “one-size-fits-all” approach to policies can degrade the benefits that business aircraft create. Before policies can be developed, it is critical to answer three questions: 1. What is your business’ Strategic Intent? 2. What is your corporate Organization and its resulting Culture? 3. How does Business Aviation support each?
STRATEGIC INTENT Is your business growing or maintaining? If you are maintaining (i.e., focusing on holding cash) then cost management is a major part of your strategy, which may be mutually exclusive to the premium costs of Business Aviation. On the other hand, if your goal is growing, you are more focused on revenue development through offering new products or services, reaching underserved markets, or seeking horizontal or vertical acquisitions. The impact of time on the key people making growth happen has a leveraging effect on your business’ success that far outshadows the marginal cost of Business Aviation over the Airlines. The highest and best use of Business Aviation is, therefore, in support of accelerating and assuring the achievement of your enterprise’s Strategic Intent.
CORPORATE ORGANIZATION AND CULTURE The use of Business Aviation is an effective method to support the enterprise’s structure and to communicate its corporate culture. For example, if your company is organized around a small team of key executives, you will liberate them to make the most U continued on page 46
42
WORLD AIRCRAFT SALES MAGAZINE – June 2013
www.AvBuyer.com
Aircraft Index see Page 4