Learn a Qantas lesson

The drama played out a Qantas over the weekend wouldn’t appear to have much to do with start-ups, unless you were one of those entrepreneurs whose flight was cancelled or delayed.

But I think there is a nice lesson, not in how Qantas has acted but how its competitors have been able to swoop in.

Virgin Australia, for example, has played the situation beautifully. It’s not hard to look like the good guy in that sort of situation, but it does suggest that Virgin did have some planning in place to allow it to put together offers for affected Qantas passengers within a matter of hours.

This contingency planning is perhaps easier in the airline game, where you need to be able to react to big changes – think storms, Icelandic volcanos, epidemics – in a short space of time.

But being able to react quickly is the hallmark of a business that can seize upon opportunities. So think about how your business could react.

How quickly could you get your key team members together to nut out an offer?

How quickly could you put the details of the offer (communications collateral, any back-end processes) together?

How would you advertise?

What resources would you need to deal with a surge in demand?

Like the Scouts, it pays to be prepared.

Get it done – today!