...And Here, Darn it, Are The Heartbreakers
It is both the most "fun," and most difficult task, facing the
ANN staff at the end of every year -- determining who, or what, did
the most to promote the cause of aviation in the past 365 days...
while also chastising those people or entities that did all they
could to undermine the many successes the aerospace community has
managed to accomplish.
Alas, 2007 saw more than its fair share of downers,
aviation-wise. Sure, "stuff" happens... but a few folks, issues, or
entities seemed to go out of their way to create problems for the
world of aviation.
So... it is ANN's annual obligation to recognize a solid dozen
of our Aero-Heartbreakers for 2007... in something of an informal
order, starting from 12th to the 1st. Let us know what you think of
our selections... whom YOU would have liked be included, or
omitted, from such a list. In the meantime, we hope those who had
something to do with this year's selections think a little more
positively about the welfare of this industry, so that future
lists become harder and harder to catalog. Be it ignorance,
arrogance or just plain incompetence, these were the folks or
topics that made our lot a whole lot more difficult and
immeasurably injured the aviation world in the past year.
Shame on those issues, folks or topics that made our lot so much
tougher in 2007...
From the Heartbreaker's List #11: Industry
Badmouthing/Name-Calling
The problem comes and
goes... but 2007 seemed to be a landmark year for innuendo,
name-calling and badmouthing... All throughout the industry,
possibly inspired by the latest exchanges between Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama, it seemed that a number of aviation
"professionals" found the need to try and get ahead by badmouthing
their competition. Outside of the fact that most of what we heard
was just plain wrong (in many cases, ridiculously so), it sure as
hell made us all look bad. And this year, as in year's past, we
received reports from potential buyers of aviation products and
services that they were "totally turned off" by negative games
played by those with such a lack of confidence in their own product
that they had to "run down" someone else's.
OK, it's bad business... but when you deal with an industry in
which confidence in the integrity of the products, personnel, and
companies we work with may literally become a matter of life and
death; this kind of behavior remains inexcusable. Worse, folks, it
just doesn't work. The competition for our aero-bucks remains
intense, but those salespeople who think that bashing their
competitor's product provides a path to making a quick sale,
are deluding themselves most of all. Based on what we're hearing
from the potential buyers (and we've said this before) who are
victimized by such sales pitches, the tactic is not only NOT
working, but quickly turning buyers away from the brand that they
represent... and possibly even from buying a plane (or other
product) altogether. This is the height of stupidity. While no one
manufacturer is uniformly guilty of these tactics, they all need to
quickly and aggressively retrain or remove ANY salesperson who
engages in such tactics. Period.
Competition is fine. Rivalry and pride in one's product is
laudable... but a few years ago we were able to specifically detail
that at one fly-in alone, telling nasty stories about a competitor
cost 5 different manufacturers at least 11 sales. Worse than
that... in that event, one of those erstwhile buyers decided that
he wanted nothing to do with this business after getting similar
treatment from three different manufacturers over the course of two
days.
Folks... this has got to stop. If we want the world to look at
aviation (and aviators) as competent members of a high-tech
industry, then we need to set our personal performance bar (and the
ethics we work by) a lot higher than we saw (way too many times) in
2007.
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