case Tale of Two Airlines in the Network Age: Or Why the Spirit of King George II Is Alive and Well!! As Profesor Roger McPherson wal 1 go ‘rough the secur process second tine raged on into third hour oni spring dy ‘in 2002 (all passengers had to be reseened ais hough he fog as his airplane moved 1 toch down at Hartsfield Airport ia lant ‘more than Thou aod 15 mine te. Head 30 ‘mimes to cach hs 6.00 ru light o London, ‘wre he would te meeting wth te eceatre Jeaderahip of a major British power company cus the information sate eft frtumate, however, be fying this uti, which had & epuation for onstnding service. He was evea more comfortable base he had a fulfire fiestas Ucket and wae 8 Goll Card member. Profesor McPherson at always uneay bout the large pemiam carps for fl, fs-class tickets but knew atin 8 rua it often meant the diffrence between ‘making connection aad missing on. He ell remembered a decade ago fying this siine ‘oes Milan 6 London to connect 0 a Might 0 [New York Bad weather ten ad sso seduced his [hourand-S0-misute connect me 1910 mimes. A discussion ofthe problem withthe firstchss cabin atendant ad relied ina owe cal fom the pilato London (ie ines fb ity) and car to whisk hi an one aber psenge to the New York hgh which oak of ‘nly ove mint ate. That externa service ad made Professor McPherson 0-year deo In the information age, he knew it woud be Aiteen, and he was seute The ine yas ‘Leadon would have sdenfied him off their Computer as close-conmecting passenger It ‘would have noted he checked mo Dg ough. {td it would be annous to cape is $2,500 fare abot 10 imesh of the average passe on a oaly moder loaded Might "AE his plane pulled int tbe gate a S40 4, helew it would be it bt he wold make it particlay ven the fet dat ll planes were cing inate, Moving is S7-yeaoldfame Into adm eoletion of highschool 40m ‘er pecalis, be set of Two else ies sod ‘one rin i later, the gate hove int sight and head oan at 533 rw ewas clon, but head one Locking through the srpat window, how- ver, he was stnned 1 Se te air rie de- ‘ached fom the plane with splendid extonc ef [cency 7 mints ery Te dort the brage ‘was led no ageat was nigh sn be was ced waving his bags through te window o ‘he pilot 20 yards sway (thad after all, worked ‘nce in similar situation on Continental t= ‘would be 30 minutes Tate for his meeting in22 Introduction Challenges of Managing in a Neowork Economy London, but the executives would understand. Distinctly irritated, he straggled off to the new airline's first-class lounge to begin a frantic se- ries of phone calls and faxes to the United King- dom. As he trudged through the airport, ‘McPherson began to see the beginning of a lec- ture on service in the information economy and the fact that technology is only a small enabling piece of a total service concept. ‘At 7:50 PM, comfortably seated in the first- class cabin of his new carrier, McPherson jerked 1o attention as the captain came on to announce that because of a leak in the hydraulic system, there would be an aircraft change and a two-and- one-half hour delay. Sprinting off the plane, McPherson realized that the meeting with the power company executives, planned three months ago, would be over before he got there. The following day he was due in Frankfurt to give the keynote address at a major information systems conference. Flying to the United King- dom to connect to Frankfurt would be a hassle and unnecessary since the purpose of stopping, in the United Kingdom was now totally negated. Glancing up at the departure board, McPherson was surprised to see a 7:55 PM boarding depar- ture for a plane to Frankfurt, nine gates away. Pulling into the gate at 8:02 PM, he discovered several things: 1. The plane was at the gate, and with com- mendable dispatch the gate agent relieved him of his London boarding pass and his Lon- don-to-Frankfurt ticket and hustled him onto the plane minutes before the door closed: 2, The cabin attendant, giving him his favorite drink, explained that because of favorable tail winds across the Atlantic and the fact that ‘eight passengers (plus now McPherson and cone other) had very tight connections, they had decided to hold the plane Yor 15 minutes to get the extra passengers and still arrive on schedule. The note of pride in the cabin atten- dant’s voice was evident One and a half hours, later, appropriately wined and dined, McPherson drifted off to sleep, reflecting on what a remarkable case study had played out in front of him in the previous two hours. Information technology, operations strat- ‘egy, management control, an empowered (also ‘unempowered) workforce, and service manage- ‘ment had been interwoven into a tableau. A re- vised format forhis speech in Frankfurt began to emerge. Best of all, he would not have to go through a case release process because it had all happened to him.