Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders:  What the Airline Industry Can Teach Us About Leadership

Anthony J. Mayo; Nitin   Nohria; Mark  Rennella

Book | 2009

Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders: What the Airline Industry Can Teach Us About Leadership

by Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria and Mark Rennella

Abstract

'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.

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Managerial Roles; Supply and Industry; Industry Growth; Air Transportation Industry;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Mayo, Anthony J., Nitin Nohria, and Mark Rennella. Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders: What the Airline Industry Can Teach Us About Leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

In 2006 Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria launched a study tracking how large companies’ CEOs spent their time, 24/7, for 13 weeks: where they were, with whom, what they did, and what they were focusing on. To date, Porter and Nohria have gathered 60,000 hours' worth of data on 27 executives, interviewing them—and hundreds of other CEOs—about their schedules. This article presents the findings, offering insights not only into best time-management practices but into the CEO’s role itself. CEOs need to learn to simultaneously manage the seemingly contradictory dualities of the job: integrating direct decision-making with indirect levers like strategy and culture, balancing internal and external constituencies, proactively pursuing an agenda while reacting to unfolding events, exercising leverage while being mindful of constraints, focusing on the tangible impact of actions while recognizing their symbolic significance and combining formal power with legitimacy.

When we think of human behavior, especially from a moral perspective, we often rely on explanations based on character. We think that good decisions and responsible behavior require people with integrity and strong character and that immoral behavior originates within people with little integrity and weak character. However, important research in recent decades strongly suggests that situational factors often dominate character in ethical decision making—for leaders and for members of their organizations. This note summarizes the recent research, shows its implications for the basic steps in ethical decision making, and provides a basis for in-depth discussion of the character-versus-situation question.

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Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders: What the Airline Industry Can Teach Us About Leadership

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