"Entrepreneurs, Managers and Leaders" examines the role that business leaders play in shaping industries and how the evolving context of industries shapes leaders in turn. This co-evolutionary process of leadership and industry development is told through the story of the American airline industry across the 20th century. "Entrepreneurs," who explored a variety of different airline concepts in search of a viable business model, dominate the industry's early history. As the industry evolved, a new breed of "managers" emerged who built a dominant business model that enables their companies to grow dramatically. Later, after the industry matured, "leaders" took center-stage as agents of change to rebuild and revitalize the industry. The lessons of entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders from the airlines can be applied to understanding any industry's evolution.
"Entrepreneurs, Managers and Leaders" examines the role that business leaders play in shaping industries and how the evolving context of industries shapes leaders in turn. This co-evolutionary process of leadership and industry development is told through the story of the American airline industry across the 20th century. "Entrepreneurs," who explored a variety of different airline concepts in search of a viable business model, dominate the industry's early history. As the industry evolved, a new breed of "managers" emerged who built a dominant business model that enables their companies to grow dramatically. Later, after the industry matured, "leaders" took center-stage as agents of change to rebuild and revitalize the industry. The lessons of entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders from the airlines can be applied to understanding any industry's evolution.
Introduction PART I: THE ENTREPRENEURS The Guggenheims Promoting Aviation in America Juan Trippe's Early Entrepreneurial Efforts C. E. Woolman and Delta Air Lines PART II: THE MANAGERS Juan Trippe and the Growth of International Air Travel C. R. Smith and American Airlines William 'Pat' Patterson and United Air Lines PART III: THE LEADERS Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines Gordon Bethune's Revival of Continental Airlines Epilogue Bibliography Index
ANTHONY J. MAYO is the Thomas S. Murphy Distinguished Research
Fellow and Director of the HBS Leadership Initiative.
NITIN NOHRIA is Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business
Administration and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Faculty
Development at the Harvard Business School, USA.
MARK RENELLA is the author of The Boston Cosmopolitans:
International Travel and American Arts and Letters (Palgrave
MacMillan, 2008).
"An excellent read. Important lessons and insights from some of the key pioneers and innovators in the U.S. airline industry. Practitioners, airline managers, and students of the industry should find this book to bequite relevant." - Mark Diamond, SH&E International Air Transport Consultancy "Having the right business model for the right context is a key to business success - but business leaders can also shape this. The complex interaction between leaders and their organizations is demonstrated with authority in this novel and empirically rich study of the turbulent one-hundred year history of the American airline industry." - Geoffrey Jones, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School
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