13Alpha, yes, noted that you meant that OLCI gave little to clients. Also, certainly the case that old companies forget what made them great, it happens all the time. One of the current candidates is VS.
I wonder if part of it is that the back office staff have seen a faster turnover than front office? Could it be that the recruitment and training of front line staff is still 'old school'? That is, 'look after the customer'? If so, then we shall
really notice it when
bealine and colleagues leave or retire. He is one of the most reliable informants here and often takes a pounding for his troubles.
One of the other big problems for airlines is that the back office staff are sooooo far away from the customers. It's not just in the office block across from the terminal, but they are in call and data centres across the country and do not see the problems every day. Nor, I'll bet, do their managers.
(Slight thread drift)
One area where I now work, takes me to locations where the office block is sometimes close coupled with the venue for their customers and others, where the office is 1,000+ yards down the drive. Colleagues and I have noticed that, if the staff walk out of their office and are immediately surrounded by customers - they are more receptive to problems. When the working area is remote, then the office staff tend to be remote. Of course, an airline cannot get all it's staff through the terminal every quarter - but someone has to accurately represent the problem.
A real difficulty is that most large companies have, over the past 15 years, split themselves into discreet sections and given more autonomy. That means that they concentrate on just fixing their
own problems and are less concerned about the complete picture. That leaves it to the senior managers to link it all together. Ooops, sounds like another problem.
