Aviation Marketing Intelligence

The world of private aviation marketing savants may not be accustomed to reaching into the well of 1980’s cult television, but . . . . sometimes we must. Not only that, smart people who study strategy and management have shown that Faceman, Hannibal, B.A. and Murdock have something larger than themselves to share with us.

If the management of any company were to define risk as the integration of different business units and how well they perform together, the A-Team is one of the best examples of the typical integration of those units. To use the “your business as an engine” analogy…. any contemporary engine, be it a diesel or turbine engine, has a lot of moving parts. As long as they all do their job (to the tolerances the engineer specified) then the goal of power output is achieved. The failure or degradation of one part, however, especially at 4,000 or 40,000 RPM, can lead to disaster or in a best case scenario, tremendous inefficiency.

That is what makes the A-Team such an interesting case study: Knowingly putting themselves into high risk (a/k/a 40,000 RPM situations) time and again, they always come out unscathed in their wonderfully scripted cartoon explosion and action fueled episodes. In fact the recipe for their rising action, confrontation and solution is also classically defined and continued. (There are websites that allow you to build your own episode.) A local tech pundit even quipped, “The casting for the show was seemingly done out of some MIT Sloan School of Management playbook.”

Let’s look at the basic four elements the A-Team offers in terms of casting: Production, Distribution / Delivery, Sales & Marketing and Senior Management.

Production

Originally the entire concept for the A-Team was centered around “Mr T” or B.A. (Bosco Albert a/k/a “Bad Attitude”) Baracus due to his eccentric personality and notoriety. While B.A. plays a variety of supportive roles, such as driving, fighting and lifting, his true talent (that drives the show and his character) is his ability to make anything from anything. Hannibal once quipped to him, “With a pair of pliers and a little time, you could fix anything but dinner.” Indeed the “making scene” (that is what I called it at 13 years of age) was the apex of the show from which the final battle would erupt and ultimately poetic justice for the downtrodden victims of a remote town in the Mexican Cordillera.

B.A. is also no slouch in the rest of the teams activities, most noteably picking up victims and hurling them through the air and outstanding martial arts skills. Imagine B.A. as your shop floor, your consulting arm, or your software engineers. They are difficult, eccentric, hard to please people, but ultimately need to be satiated for the good of the entire organization. Without production, there is nothing: You have no show, nothing to deliver, sell or direct. Production is essentially the combustion part of your engine.

Distribution / Delivery

No combustive event delivers power without reliable valves, camshafts, but most importantly a crankshaft. Who takes the power to the delivery point?

All good production teams are effectively worthless without a distribution channel, or in the A-Team’s case, we’ll call it “getting B.A. to the place where he can then make something to fight the bad guys with.” No commercial enterprise works without a delivery mechanism. While “Howling Mad” Murdock does not seem like the person you’d want working for you every day, his ability to “get the job done” is what has him stand out in this iconic group. One dysfunctional element that is worthy of note is that Production really doesn’t like Distribution / Delivery. In fact, the extent to which B.A. hates to fly is a chronic source of angst, since each time aircraft are required the question becomes how will Production be tricked / drugged / tied so that he can be brought to the location. Nobody likes deadlines, yet they are what make business work.

Another often overlooked feature of Murdock’s ability to “assure delivery” is his command of Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, and several other languages. The genius level of his intellect, his past with the CIA and his adept acting skills allow him to bleed into the con-artist part of the crew (see Sales and Marketing below) where he works with Faceman (Lt Templeton “Faceman” Peck) on several convincing stunts in order to get equipment, information or simply access to needed material. Whatever it takes, Murdock will see you there.

Sales & Marketing

Technically Templeton “Faceman” Peck is second in command behind Hannibal - and it is no wonder. He is responsible for closing deals, be it the acquisition of much needed equipment or convincing a weary helper that one more loan, car ride or spare set of tires is not only necessary, but needs to be delivered by this afternoon.

In litigation we can call these types “mediators” since they prevent years of painful expenses, but in the practical world of the A-Team… Faceman is responsible for getting stuff done. On the sales side of the house, he represents the hedge against the less than perfect customer - namely the one that is always fickle, always wanting to underpay, always in distress. In fact, this less than optimal customer can be downright deceitful on a bad day, but Faceman knows this. He’s planned for it and can navigate the ugly waters.

No matter how distasteful the process might be, he will open the dialogue, find the opportunity and accomplish the mission. The behavior and skill set required to make Faceman good at what he does makes it a bit like hot dog manufacturing: You don’t really want to know what goes into the hotdog, you just want to enjoy it with some mustard. Faceman’s con-man skills are not exemplary of the best parts of humanity, however they are clearly seen as invaluable in the preparation for battle. (He’s not to shabby at “tap dancing” mid-battle either.)

Since aviation marketing is our purported speciality, Faceman deserves special attention: Nobody likes the sales and marketing guys. By their very nature they conjure up sentences like, “Watch out for her, ….she’s a real salesperson.” However, as any business owner will tell you, when you believe in what you are selling, you’ll do just about anything to “help” your prospect by getting them to buy into your program. Help is defined as pushing the limits of truth, fact and reality in order to create an image in the prospects mind so they are emotionally crippled to the point where they not only buy from you, but they must buy it all from you now.

Management

The leader (Hannibal) plans, directs and provides course corrections as need be to get the beautiful van safely back into the heart of Los Angeles at the conclusion of each mission.

George Peppard’s role as Hannibal is the classic leader, named after one of the most esteemed military planners and commanders in history, Hannibal of Carthage. (For those of you a little light on your history, he is the “I took my war elephants through the mountains - yes the Pyrenees and Alps - then defeated the Romans on their own turf.”) Hannibal (Lt. Col. John “Hannibal” Smith) is a master of disguise, strategy and tactical execution.

While we could dissect Hannibal endlessly the salient features are the simply what you want in your leader. Under the toughest duress he keeps his head cool and keeps the gang in line. However, he also gets his hands dirty in battle and is an equally skilled member of the team, contributing in every way to show the troops that he may be above them on paper, but in the heat of battle he is taking the same risks that they are. His management style not only cultivates loyalty, but assures blind trust when tough calls are made on short notice.

Summary

If anything can be learned from Hannibal and the A-Team in general, we could summarize it based on what our firm has learned from Derek Gatehouse. When you operate in a results based environment, hire the right people and reward them appropriately, it is truly amazing what can happen. We’ve seen our own company transformed from a small group to a growing crowd of people who work whenever they choose, however they choose, so long as the results are delivered on time and above quota. It might be a stretch to say that the A-Team is that team, but one thing remains crystal clear: Each member of the team knows their skill set, knows what is expected of them and they deliver time and again. No one member could ever let the team down, since the weight of such responsibility is too high. Imagine having every employee feel that way about your company?

Most firms crave the type of solidity that such a team engenders. But when you are wanted outlaws, benevolent mercenaries for hire, and live disparate and disconnected lives, with the exception for when the team is on assignment together, you need to exude the values of the A-Team in order to not only come home alive, but to build your reputation so you can keep saving desperate remote villagers from evil doers.

This primordial white paper was authored by Scott Russell and Adam Webster (c) 2008 If you’d like to learn more about how they make their A-Team hum, contact Adam at adam@rsvpair.com or post a comment below.

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