Out of the Ashes

How to turn a company around that has been hard hit by a major crisis? This is the challenge entrusted to Jean-Frédéric Mognetti by the management team of SN Brussels Airways, created in 2002 from the ashes of Sabena. Largely inspired by this experience, but also from cases encountered in his consulting career, Mognetti’s book offers richly detailed descriptions that serve as a practical guide on getting through a crisis.
The importance of analyzing the situation astutely is underlined in chapters 8 and 9, and in the conclusion, illustrated by the DHL case.
The need to shake the company out of the lethargy created by the crisis and to thereby get all hands on deck is a vital objective that must motivate most strategic decisions, from the choice of the leadership team (chapter 2), the selection of top-priority initiatives to produce quick wins (chapter 4, with the Glaverbel case), moving from a budget-oriented culture to a forward-thinking and objective-based culture (chapters 13 and 14), etc.
In this context, the CEO also plays an essential role. The means at the CEO’s disposal to communicate efficiently and re-launch the organization are explained in chapters 1, 3 and 5, with references to the leaders of Bull and Accor, in addition to the SN Brussels Airways case.
Finally, the author dedicates long passages to the importance of the day-to-day indicators that guide employees in their everyday work. The choice of these indicators and the way they were communicated at SN Brussels Airways is described in detail in chapters 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12, with additional references to Sodexho.