What entrepreneurs can learn from the Air Berlin crash

For Years it became clear: At Air Berlin, the crash pilots are in management For a long time, Air Berlin was seen as a rising star in the airline sky over Germany. With strong growth, competitively priced tickets, and a hub in Mallorca, the former CEO Joachim Hunold demonstrated a good sense for which he was rightly celebrated. The irony of fate: this soaring success was the starting point for a crash in five acts. Air Berlin Crash Cause: Success Blindness What began as controlled growth according to a clear strategy, evolved more and more into daring takeovers on credit of competitors whose route networks did not fit Air Berlin at all. DBA, LTU, Niki, Belair...just to name a few. It seemed that the years of success had made the exemplary manager Hunold blind to all risks. In pilot circles, this behavior is called "Target Fixation": years of experience lead to a deceptive carelessness. Despite severe turbulence and heavy rain, the pilot forcefully tries to land the plane because it worked the last 100 times. A dangerous tunnel vision in which all warning signs are ignored. Air Berlin Crash Cause: Power Distance Not least because in every cockpit there are two full pilots to prevent blind solo flights of this kind. Air Berlin lacked the strong co-pilot beside Hunold. No one dared to take control from him when he turned the capital airline into a patchwork of unprofitable business models. Power distance prevents teamwork! Unbelievable but true: captains crash significantly more often because the support and control of a second, strong-willed pilot are often missing. Air Berlin Crash Cause: Lack of Prioritization The management increasingly lost sight of priorities. They wanted to participate a little bit everywhere, without clear market positioning: domestic business shuttle, long-haul tourism, European city connections, holiday destinations in the Mediterranean. Good pilots and successful managers know at every moment what matters and focus solely on that. Multitasking stresses and provokes unnecessary mistakes. Air Berlin Crash Cause: Crisis Management Leadership is particularly evident in the cockpit and in the executive suite when things do not go according to routine. In the case of Air Berlin, there was again a lack of a clear concept and a steady hand. A strict austerity policy is certainly a correct step. However, it leads to nothing if the true causes are not identified and resolved. None of Hunold's successors dared to make a radical change in course, even though the numbers clearly showed where the money was being burned. Air Berlin Crash Cause: Loss of Control Also typical of corporate bankruptcies and plane crashes is the final loss of control by the drivers. The feeling of being overwhelmed literally paralyzes and one watches the downfall helplessly. In recent months, Air Berlin was a complete mess, which also drove away the last guests. Established procedures failed because capital, personnel, and belief in their own product were lacking. They had become entangled in dependencies with the supposed savior Etihad and the airline alliance "One World," which made a radical overhaul fail due to third-party conflicts of interest. A strong team, an awareness of individual responsibility, and transparent error management are the decisive success factors on the ground as well as in the air. And so, each individual and each company can draw important insights for their own journey from the bankruptcy of Germany's second-largest airline.