I recently got back from 8 weeks away in the US directing my first documentary film, called Alfred & Jakobine, check it out. Anyway, we covered over 4000 miles of US roads (it’s a roadtrip documentary) but also by air. Now that I’ve flown home to London, it seemed like an ideal time to do a “catch up” post about “travel”– specifically about airline luggage tags, with a vintage slant.

Last year I stumbled across an old collection of my father’s personal luggage tags in a drawer. He was on the road (or in the air) a lot during his career, and as someone who had a very romantic notion of travel (as do I) he kept loads of his tickets, tags, slips, etc. He loved trains for the very same reason.

Anyway, here’s a random selection from dad’s collection. I love the random typographic combos that result from airport code names: YYZ (my hometown Toronto), BEY, YAM, YOW, as well as the colour combos that likely resulted from available card and ink colours more than anything.  Amazing how many of these airlines are no longer around. Below is an oh-so-boring, computer printed, modern luggage tag – mine from my trip back to LHR from ABQ via DFW (I miss all that colour).

Not too long ago, the Michigan (U.S.) State Business School reported that every US$1 (RM3.36) invested in marketing earned US$5 (RM16.80). By contrast, for every US$1 (RM3.36) invested in operational excellence, returned revenue was US$60 (RM201.75).

Despite such data, the majority of Asian firms have been slow to grasp the importance of everyday operational excellence that requires a continuing commitment to quality service, as well as processes that are effective from the customer’s point of view and advanced supply chain skills.

Many Asian firms prefer to spend fortunes on tactics to acquire customers yet very little on the operational and other strategic requirements needed to keep them. Sales and marketing growth based on increased awareness are fine and important but they are activities to be embarked on only after the operational foundations are in place. This is because an acquisition only approach is generally unsustainable.

Therefore, once a customer is acquired, it is critical to develop relationships to retain them. Firms cannot simply ‘hope’ they will come back time and time again because, with so much competition, so many alternatives, if you are not communicating with them – and selling to them, someone else will.

And because customers have the power to make or break our brands, Asian companies must learn to do business on their terms. At the same time, they must become focused on creating PROFITABLE customers (on average, 15% of customers are unprofitable), ensuring those customers become our brand ambassadors, and consistently increasing their share of wallet.

Coca-Cola, Marlboro, Pan-Am, Ford and so on, represent mass-economy brands. These Western brands were successful because they shrewdly used the tools of the mass economy. They positioned themselves by repeatedly advertising in the mass media of one, two or three TV stations, one or two newspapers and knew where consumers were most of the time as there were few leisure time activities to take them away from the home.

They also used mass production to achieve economies of scale, and they used distribution to penetrate mass markets. Global markets were opening up, disposable income was increasing, competition was limited. Customer retention didn’t really matter. Markets were growing so fast, and the mass-economy tools were so powerful, that it is was fairly easy to acquire a new customer for everyone that was lost. They also had a large, essentially one segment, ready made affluent domestic market.

But today, the mass economy is dead. The mass economy was killed by the fragmentation of the media, new leisure time activities, the Internet, greater competition, globalization, immigration, increasing number of and power of retailers, marketing segmentation and other forces.

In its place, we now have the “Customer Economy.” Companies no longer have the exclusivity to make the rules and control information by “positioning” products or promoting “brand equity” through advertising and PR like they did in the mass economy. Moreover, where in the past, prospects were segmented by demographics and geography, now they are part of communities. In these circumstances, can advertising and PR be effective to build brands? As part of a comprehensive brand strategy, yes. On their own, no.

For example, in the 10 year period to 2006, the computer manufacturer Acer spent US$10 billion (RM33.6 billion) trying to build a global brand via advertising. The effort failed. Acer withdrew from the retail market and has only recently reentered it with a new strategy focusing on individual segments.

In 2000 and 2001, Sony spent an incredible US$2.5 billion (RM8.4 billion) on advertising worldwide. The result? The first three months of 2003 saw stunning losses, a 25% slide in the company’s share price in just two days and layoffs of more than 20,000 workers worldwide.

Unperturbed, Sony again tried mass economy tactics in 2008, spending an astonishing US$4.9 billion (RM16.5 billion) to position its diverse range of products including televisions, Blu-Ray players, music players, Laptops, PlayStation games, movies from Sony Pictures and new music from Sony Music. The approach failed and Sony is now exploring a more specific product focused niche approach.

Asian companies obsess with using traditional marketing tools such as advertising and PR to acquire new customers. But what good does it do to acquire customers if you have no idea how long they are going to stay and how profitable they will be? Also required are investments in operational excellence and accountability.

There is also a belief by many firms that they just have to ‘participate’ in an activity to get business. One local firm we’re familiar with collected 200 qualified leads from a trade show, yet months later those leads were still collecting dust! They were waiting for the prospects to contact them!

Another Asian company invested over US$50,000 (RM175,000) on a trade show, instructed 3 ‘top’ sales people to represent the company at the trade show and then failed to train the staff on how to behave and sell at the trade show. Moreover, there was zero investment in a lead management programme for leads generated. This meant the company was unable to measure the effectiveness of the trade show.

Finally, within 3 weeks of the trade show ending, two of the sales people manning the booth left the company, taking all the leads generated with them.

As we work to move up the value chain, the goal of every Asian company that wants to build a brand must be profitability, backed by measurement and accountability. Reaching solely for sales or market growth is no longer enough.

Not so long ago, in the US, to reach its sales goals, Ford offered $3,000 in rebates and other special deals off the cost of the Taurus car. Ford maintained its market share – but at the cost of losing money on each vehicle sold. Interestingly, Ford learned from its mistakes. Its next TV ad campaign in the US was based on the following line: “The highest proportion of repeat buyers of any car in its class.” What better testimonial is there? Little wonder then that in a report released by LeaseTrader.com in August 2009, Ford had the highest brand loyalty of any American automotive brand.

Despite the obvious need to invest heavily in retention strategies, ask a typical advertising agency about the branding issues faced by Acer, Sony, Ford and other companies, and what do you think the most common response will be?

Exactly. Recommendations for more ads, in more media across more platforms! They’ll promise a better creative team to provide greater creativity, but what’s really required is accountability for results! The usual agency attitude of “spraying and praying!” may have been the best strategy during the mass economy when there were a limited number of media conduits. But in the customer economy, the proliferation of media outlets and competitive advertisers now makes it practically impossible to build a brand solely based on ‘spraying and praying’.

What Asian companies need more than anything else is a strategic approach to branding that is aligned with the new imperatives of the customer driven global economy. Branding in the customer economy requires a fresh look at customer, market and profitability requirements.

Rather than a simplistic reliance on logos and creative driven, one-size-fits-all, repetitive advertising, branding today demands research, data, measurement, supply chain effectiveness, customer intelligence, service AND accountability to both customer requirements and resources spent. Only once the company has identified who it should talk to and how, can it start to talk to those prospects.

Because acquisition is so expensive, and existing customers make the best brand ambassadors, branding also requires an emphasis on the identification and retention of PROFITABLE customers. This is especially true as the balance of power shifts from sellers to buyers.

The payoffs from such customer-economy branding can be substantial. British Airways calculates that customer retention efforts return $2 for every dollar invested. The clothing label Zara has thrived against powerhouses like Gap by moving from four collections a year to releasing new styles every two weeks.

So, as Asian firms attempt to move up the value chain, it is imperative companies monitor their retention rates (which fewer than 20% of companies do), because it is the best indicator of future profitability and brand strength.

Track RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) because it shows which customers may be prone to defection and which are candidates for up – or cross – selling. Since it is likely 20% of customers are generating 80% of profits, segment customers according to profitability, and develop unique value propositions for the top 1%, 4% and 15%.

Calculate the lifetime value of clients. For instance, Ford calculates that a customer who buys his first car at the age of eighteen, upgrades it every three years and services it at a Ford dealership is worth a six figure sum to Ford over a lifetime. Cadillac estimates the lifetime value to be $300,000.

Revisit dormant customers. And optimize spending by developing marketing ROI based on actual customer profitability.

Other areas of operational excellence that are key to building global Asian brands include recruitment and training. The retail sector is only realizing a fraction of its potential. This is partly due to the lack of training of staff and subsequent indifference of frontline staff when interacting with customers. If there is no attempt to build rapport with a prospect, why should the prospect return?

This is also true of manufacturing. One company in Malaysia we contacted recently listed 2 markets it wanted to develop as the UK and France. Yet when we called the office, no one spoke English.

Building Asian brands will take much more than basic advertising and PR. Core requirements include research, accountability, operational excellence, data management and customer equity (lifetime value of customers).

In Malaysia, according to research carried out by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, 86% of Malaysian CEOs and their Board of Directors say that they believe in the economic potential of effective brand building. However, almost the same number of CEO respondents admitted that they do not have a brand unit to integrate brand practices within their organisation. Sentiments are similar in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam

Until those C level executives take the plunge and invest in their brands by building operational excellence into their brand strategy, the concept of building global Malaysian or other Asian brands will remain just that, a concept.

KRC8UE5H2XBQ

Steve Stoute

I have noted the reports that Mario Vazquez Rana influenced the outcome of the vote for the site of the 2015 Pan Am Games. I question that. The Caribbean, for once voting as a block, were mainly responsible for the Toronto win, and Sr. Vasquez has little if any influence over the Caribbean.

The CANOC block is good for 26 votes that includes two each from Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I am fairly certain that a minimum of 23 votes and a maximum of 25 came from CANOC. Canada and the USA contributed four, and I think Vazquez Rana did influence Mexico to vote for Toronto with 2 votes–that’s 29 votes. This leaves only four votes from Spanish speaking countries.

Mario Vazquez Rana’s good friend, Carlos Nuzman of Brazil, said he was voting for Lima for the same reasons that Rio won the 2016 Games. Vazquez Rana would have played a key role in Rio’s success, but yet he was unable to influence Brazil.

Gifts were a minor motivator in the decision. Toronto stared wooing the Caribbean at our 2009 Assembly in Curacao, where neither Lima nor Bogotá showed up. The plain fact is that Toronto had a superior bid, and Lima started their campaign far too late.

Bogotá’s poor showing in my view was due to three things. The fact that the Colombian NOC threw out the popular Andres Botero who was the front man for their bid was one. He became bitter and was virtually hands off. Then they brought him back too late. Lima broke the PASO rule and invited a number of countries to Peru and gave the delegates a great time and a number felt indebted. Thirdly there was the sympathy vote that worked for Rio 2016.

For the first time the Caribbean demonstrated that we can be a formidable voice in the PASO region if we work together. This is a strategy a position I have been working to motivate on for a long time.

Steve Stoute is the Chairman of Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees, and President of the Barbados Olympic Association.

Op Ed is a weekly column of opinion and ideas from Around the Rings. Comments, as well as guest columns are welcomed: comment@aroundtherings.com

Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.

(Copyright 1992 2008, all rights reserved. The information in this report may not be published, excerpted, or otherwise distributed in print or broadcast without the express prior consent of Around the Rings.)

PASO President Mario Vazquez Rana signs the host city contract with Toronto 2015 leaders. (Getty Images)

(ATR) The islands of the Caribbean – including Cuba — are credited with giving Toronto the edge in its victory for the 2015 Pan American Games.

Toronto won on the first round of voting at the Pan American Sports Organization general assembly held in Guadalajara, picking up 33 votes, to 11 for Lima and eight for Bogota. A majority of 27 votes was needed from the 52 ballots cast.

“It was the English-speaking islands that made the difference,” Dominican Republic NOC President Luis Mejia tells Around the Rings

While those 15 island nations (and the U.S. and Canada) provided a strong base of support for Toronto, 14 other votes would have come from nations where English is not the first language.

Cuba would be one of them says one Caribbean NOC leader familiar with the way the votes lined up. And because Cuba hosted the 1991 Pan American Games, it’s a member of the PASO club that can cast two votes.

Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the U.S. are the others which get two votes for hosting Pan Ams.

Commonwealth Games solidarity also helped cement the bond among the 15 who also share PASO membership. The president of the Commonwealth Games Federation is Jamaican NOC President Michael Fennell, himself an influential leader of PASO.

Acting USOC CEO Stephanie Streeter casts the two U.S. votes. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)

The victory of Toronto came despite the presence of the first heads of state to personally lobby for a Pan Am bid, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Alan Garcia of Peru.

The Toronto bid was represented by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Mayor David Miller and federal sports minister Gary Lunn.

All three politicians made clear that their governments fully backed the Pan Am Games, successfully matching the same pledges made by the South American leaders.

If presentations were the rule from which to judge a bid, Toronto was well-executed with the most production elements. Along with video to sell the sizzle of the city, Toronto imagery gave the clearest picture of what the Pan Am Games would be like among the three bids.

A closing video from Toronto portrayed a trio of young athletes rising from their sleep in 1999 to train for swimming, football and track. The video jumps to 2015 and the venues of Toronto, filled with fans cheering the now-grown athletes.

A total of 11 speakers came to the podium for the 60-minute presentation for Toronto, led off and finished by Canadian Olympic Committee President Michael Chambers. He emphasized his long involvement with PASO as a way to ask the trust of delegates.

The only Spanish speaker for Toronto was a heavyweight Anatol Von Hahn, executive vice president for Scotia Bank. The bank not only supports the Toronto bid; last month Scotia Bank became the biggest sponsor so far for the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, a deal believed to be worth a few million dollars.

Guadalajara, with its somewhat troubled path to the 2011 Pan Ams, may also have tipped the 2015 race to a city that seemed best-suited to deliver anxiety-free games.

Toronto 2016 bid leader David Peterson with Carlos Nuzman of Rio 2016. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)

Carlos Nuzman of Brazil, leader of the successful bid from Rio for the 2007 Pan American Games which led to winning the 2016 Olympics last month, says he was impressed with Toronto.

“I think they had a good presentation. They deserved to win,” he says.

He says he stands ready to assist the Canadians with his experience from the 2007 games. And he says it would not be out of the question for talk to start about a Toronto bid for the Summer Olympics, just as Rio de Janeiro parlayed its Pan Am Games into the 2016 Olympics.

Nuzman adds that the 2015 Pan Am Games, coming on the one year mark to the Rio Olympics, should help increase interest in 2016.
Ivan Dibos, Peru IOC member and senior adviser to the Lima bid says the NOC is now interested in pursuing other international sports events such as the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. He says another Pan Am bid is possible although he admits he and others with the 2015 bid may not be young enough to try for 2019, to be decided in four years.

Mino Auletta and Yumilka Ruiz Luaces count votes. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)

Given the north-south tug in PASO, it’s logical to expect that choice would go to South or Central America, effectively ruling out a U.S. bid until 2023 at the earliest.

Distinguished Vote Counters

Casting secret ballots on slips of paper placed into a Lucite box, the Pan Am voters do it the old fashioned way. No speedy electronic voting of the sort used by the IOC.

Scrutineers for the counting were IOC member Yumilka Ruiz Luaces of Cuba and Mino Auletta, president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The distinguished Italian lawyer and the twice-gold volleyball player were speedy in their mission, taking just 15 minutes to count the results.

Written by Ed Hula.

For general comments or questions, click here.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.

(Copyright 1992 2008, all rights reserved. The information in this report may not be published, excerpted, or otherwise distributed in print or broadcast without the express prior consent of Around the Rings.)

By now I’m sure most of you have heard about Toronto being the host to the Pan Am games in 2015. This is very exciting and a huge step forward for Canada. Let’s hope that this will bring more focus to summer Olympic sport in Canada and that this nation will be revived like it is for Vancouver 2010.

Check out this article:

Toronto’s Pan Am win greeted with excitement and anticipation from athletes

G-Force

I turn on the tv, scroll through a few channels and see breaking news report for shootings in Florida, America, and Canada. Also a missing child report (update from October 5).

It seems that news today is depressing. Or maybe it’s just me.

I guess, that maybe the PAN AM games is supposed to cheer me up.

click to enlarge

Warehouse Sale @ Eleven After Eleven Store starts this Friday October 30th and ends November 27th ONLY at Causeway Bay store. Up to 50% off products including sweatshirts, zip-up hoodies, hoodies, jackets, t-shirts and accessories. Get them while quantity last.

Eleven After Eleven將會由10月30日至11月27日於銅鑼灣店開始清倉大減價, 清倉貨品全部低至半價, 貨品包括衛衣,有帽衛衣,外套,T-恤,帽子和配件。

* Only apply on selected items (只限於特定貨品)

Who doesn’t love a good episode of The Office? Okay, I’m sure there are some people who don’t, but in general, the office=love. (Yes, I did just do the lame, thirteen-year-old girl thing, please try not to judge me too harshly at least I’m not, like, using the word like, like, a million times each in all my posts, like, don’t you just, like, think people sound really stupid when they, like, do that?)

Getting to the actual point now: the real song, courtesy of Billy Joel, can be found here:

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/We-Didn%27t-Start-The-Fire-lyrics-Billy-Joel/C753C82435AC97D148256870001F1100

Specifically, I’d like to focus in on this section:

“Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore”

At the risk of sounding cliche, history really does repeat itself. Let’s review, shall we?

• Palestine: http://washingtonindependent.com/64267/israelpalestine-peace-process-about-to-relaunch –Palestine and Israel are still at each other’s throats, with tentative grasps at peace. (Although, as an aside I’d really like to point out the fact that Palestine is not a country, but a territory, and hasn’t been a country for about fifty years now. Perhaps its time for them to give up?)
• Terror on the Airline: Um, yeah, September 11th, need I say more? Back then they were dealing with *”Pan Am 103 Bombing, December 21, 1988: Pan American Airlines Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb believed to have been placed on the aircraft in Frankfurt, West Germany, by Libyan terrorists. All 259 people on board were killed.”
• Russians in Afghanistan: **But not for long, we helped the Afghans take back their country–but we didn’t stick around to help them develop it, set up a government, or help in any other way. Now, we are dealing with the consequences of our actions then. I recommend that you all go watch Charlie Wilson’s War for an entertaining overview of the situation and how we royally ^#$%ed it up.
• Foreign Debts: Here’s a great idea–let’s just keep borrowing money from China, its not like we already have a huge deficit or anything.
• China’s Under Martial Law: And speaking of China, this hasn’t really changed either. They may not specifically be under martial law anymore, but they are definitely still communist.
• Ayatollah’s in Iran: ***He’s gone now, but I’m almost wondering if we wouldn’t take him back if it meant getting rid of our dear Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• Also, just to throw it there we are continuing to deal with homeless Vets, Wheel of Fortune, crack, AIDS, suicide, and heavy metal.

Comments, critiques, fashion tips, book recommendations, and excellent dessert recipes are not only welcome, they are encouraged.

*The link from which I drew the excerpt concerning Pan Am 103 http://www.awesome80s.com/Awesome80s/News/Special-Reports/Terrorism/

**For more information concerning our involvement in Afghanistan, then and now, please choose from the following links (also feel free to comment/contact me if you would like to know more):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan

http://www.globalpost.com/taliban (recommend that you read this)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/us.html

*** Presidential history of Iran http://www.iranchamber.com/history/islamic_revolution/islamic_revolution.php

That’s a Ray Bradbury collection of short stories.

A man accused of playing a role in the 1968 hijacking of a Pan Am flight from New York to Puerto Rico was captured yesterday.

From CNN:

Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 66, surrendered to federal authorities at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after exiting a flight from Havana, Cuba, officials said. It’s the same airport from which Pan Am Flight 281 took off more than 40 years ago.

He flew to New York under the custody of State Department diplomatic security personnel, said a law enforcement source and a senior State Department official.

Authorities did not offer additional details about Soltren’s arrest.

Soltren “will finally face the American justice system that he has been evading for more than four decades,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

According to a December 1968 indictment, Soltren and three others — Jose Rafael Rios Cruz, Miguel Castro and Alejandro Figueroa — conspired to hijack Flight 281 on November 24 of that year.

Segundo o meu professor de finanças e de economia Milton, saiu uma pesquisa feita no Brasil, na qual empresas/marcas que são abertas hoje, tem uma expectativa de sobrevivência no mercado muito pequena. Mais que a metade das empresas abertas, fecham as portas no máximo em 2 anos, devido a dois fatores:

1. Empresa despreparada ou com falta de competência administrativa dos profissionais;

2. Falta de recursos.

No mercado não se pode brincar, uma jogada errada pode condenar a empresa para sempre, não importa se é uma empresa inovadora ou uma empresa de tradição de muitos anos, não tem perdão. Fiz uma lista de algumas empresas/marcas famosas já falidas. Veja como elas foram a falência e se você lembrar de uma empresa/marca que não foi colocada abaixo, por favor acrescente nos comentários.  

Marca: KONICA

Tempo de vida: 1873 – 2003 (130 anos)

Motivo da falência: Em 2003 a fusão da Konica Corporation e da Minolta Co. formou a empresa Konica Minolta, resultando no desaparecimento da marca Konica do mercado. Em 2006 a divisão de fotografia digital, que produzia suas câmeras digitais, foi desativada passando a ser controlada pela Sony. No mesmo ano, ao se retirar definitivamente do mercado fotográfico, a empresa demitiu 3.700 empregados.

 Marca: BCP

Tempo de vida: 1998 – 2003 (5 anos)

Motivo: A BCP telecomunicações iniciou suas operações em maio de 1998, e usava a tecnologia TDMA, onde hoje não se usa mais. Em 2003 foi vendida para o grupo mexicano Telmex, muito forte na América Latina, e hoje faz parte da operadora Claro controlada pelo grupo América Móvil.

Marca: MAPPIN

Tempo de vida: 1913 – 1999 (86 anos)

Motivo da falência: O Mappin teve o lamentável encontro com a crise e com a má administração que culminaram na sua falência em 1999. Junto a ela as lojas Mesbla que haviam sido incorporadas ao Mappin, em 1996, também tiveram o mesmo fim. Fato curioso, segundo a coluna de Mônica Bergamo em 3 de junho de 2009, Ricardo Mansur (último proprietário da rede), estaria supostamente interessado em reabrir o Mappin. Mansur teria encaminhado um pedido ao juiz de seu processo de falência e estaria tentando captar dinheiro com investidores internacionais.

Marca: YOPA

Tempo de vida: 1972 – 2000 (28 anos)

Motivo: A Nestlé comprou a Yopa e passou a usar a própria marca institucional para batizar a linha de sorvetes.

Marca: BAMERINDUS

Tempos de vida: 1952 – 1999 (94 anos)

Motivo: O nome do banco paranaense foi abandonado depois da compra pelo banco HSBC.

Marca: PAN AM (Pan American World Airways)

Tempo de vida: 1927 – 1991 (64 anos)

Motivo da falência: Em 1985, A PAN AM vendeu à United Airlines, por US$ 750 milhões, todas as rotas da empresa para a Ásia, Austrália e ilhas do Pacífico, além de 18 aviões para quitar as dividas acumuladas ao longo dos anos. Com isso, a PAN AM encolheu 21%. No dia 21 de Dezembro de 1988, um fato decisivo ocorreu para a empresa: um pedaço de explosivo plástico dentro de um Walkman que estava em uma mala, explodiu dentro do avião em Lockerbie na Escócia. Todos culparam a PAN AM pelo ocorrido, mas técnicos da aviação admitiram que não há muito o que fazer para prevenir uma coisa destas. Existiu um plano de se manter a PAN AM operando nas rotas para o Caribe e América do Sul, como uma subsidiaria da Delta Airlines, mas este plano logo desmoronou. Além disso, a Guerra do Golfo, em janeiro de 1991, reduziu ainda mais o número de passageiros da companhia aérea. Desesperada por capital, a empresa vendeu suas rotas transatlânticas, parte para a United, parte para a Delta. A empresa sangrava: perdia US$ 3 milhões a cada dia. A Delta ofereceu US$ 416 milhões em cash e assumir US$ 389 milhões em dívidas, porém quando os executivos da Delta tiveram acesso ao caixa da PAN AM, descobriram um buraco de US$ 1.7 bi. A Delta saiu do negócio. Sem capital para continuar operando, a empresa teve sua falência decretada em 4 de dezembro de 1991.

Marca: GURGEL

Tempo de vida: 1969 – 1994 (25 anos)

Motivo da falência: Em 1990, o surgimento do Uno Mille, seguido por outros modelos de um litro, bem maiores e mais rápidos que o pequeno Gurgel, surgiu-se uma incômoda concorrência, pois custavam quase o mesmo. Atolada em dívidas e combalida no mercado pela concorrência das multinacionais, a Gurgel pediu concordata em junho de 1993 e acabou fechando as portas no final de 1994.

Marca: ENRON

Tempo de vida: 1985 – 2002 (17 anos)

Motivo: A Enron Corporation foi vítima de fraudes contábeis, conspiração e lavagem de dinheiro e com uma dívida de US$ 13 bilhões, o grupo pediu concordata em dezembro de 2001. Na época, as investigações revelaram que a Enron havia manipulado seus balanços financeiros, com a ajuda de empresas e bancos escondeu dívidas de US$ 25 bilhões por dois anos consecutivos, tendo seus lucros inflados artificialmente. Em razão de uma série de escândalos financeiros corporativos foi decretada a sua falência.

Marca: LAMBRETTA

Tempo de vida: 1947 – 1982 (35 anos)

Motivo da falência: Em 1979, a indústria automobilística estava em crescente expansão e novas marcas de motocicletas (japonesas) no mercado brasileiro influenciaram muito na decadência da marca. A Lambretta parou de produzir a motoneta (scooter) e passou por uma grande crise para tentar sobrevier no mercado. Lançou a Lambretta Br Tork nas versões 125P, 125T e de 150cc, voltado para o segmento de veículos populares com preços acessíveis, mas não resistiu e a fábrica faliu em 1982. Hoje a Lambretta ainda é produzida na Índia pela “S.I.L” ( Scooters India Ltd), porém somente o triciclo conhecido como “Tuk Tuk” tem a tradicional marca.

Marca: SWISSAIR

Tempo de vida: 1931 – 2002 (71 anos)

Motivo: A marca Swissair desapareceu dos céus do mundo em 1º de abril de 2002, quando deu-se a mudança oficial para a marca Swiss, resultante da fusão do que sobrou da Swissair com sua sucessora, a também suíça Crossair.

Marca: VASP (Viação Aérea São Paulo)

Tempo de vida: 1933 – 2005 (72 anos)

Motivo:  No início da década de 90, a Vasp foi privatizada e iniciou uma agressiva expansão internacional: Ásia, Estados Unidos, Europa e até mesmo o Marrocos. Aumentou a frota trazendo entre outros três DC-10-30 e depois nove MD-11. Criou o Vasp Air System, após adquirir o controle acionário da LAB, Ecuatoriana e da Argentina TAN. Não conseguiu sustentar o crescimento, deixou de pagar obrigações, salários, leasings e até taxas de navegação e as rotas internacionais foram canceladas. Em setembro de 2004, o Departamento de Aviação Civil (DAC) suspendeu as operações de oito aeronaves da Vasp. Uma nova companhia de aviação ingressou no mercado (Gol) e a Vasp operou em novembro de 2004 apenas 18% dos vôos programados.  No final de janeiro de 2005, a Viação Aérea São Paulo parou de voar quando o DAC cassou sua autorização de operação. Suas aeronaves hoje estão paradas por aeroportos de todo o país.

Marca: AMC (American Motors Corporation)

Tempo de vida: 1954 – 1987 (33 anos)

Motivo: A competição feroz do mercado levou a AMC a fechar uma parceria com a Renault em 1979 que durou até 1987, quando a AMC foi comprada pela Chrysler Corporation e depois deixou de usar a marca AMC.

Marca: STARMEDIA

Tempo de vida: 1996 – 2002 (6 anos)

Motivo: Starmedia. Exisitiu com o lema “Sua comunidade na internet”. Precursor da bolha pontocom no Brasil e America Latina; lançou serviços pioneiros como webmail, hospedagem grátis de sites, etc. A Starmedia foi adquirido pelo Yahoo! em 2002.

Marca: KOLYNOS

Tempo de vida: 1917 – 1997 (80 anos).

Motivo: A Kolynos foi comprada pela Colgate-Palmolive (empresa norte-americana) e envolveu uma transação de US$ 1.040 bilhão, sendo que US$ 760 milhões foram destinados ao mercado brasileiro. Na época, protestos das concorrentes, principalmente P&G (Proter & Gamble), grande interessada na compra, trouxeram à mídia uma série de discussões a respeito da lei antitrust e sobre a atuação do Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE). Por isso, a Colgate-Palmolive foi obrigada a matar a marca por determinação do CADE. Um fato interessante, a marca Kolynos tinha uma força tão grande que apenas em 2003, quando indagados por uma pesquisa, que tinha o objetivo de tabular as marcas mais lembradas na cabeça do consumidor (TopofMind), a Kolynos perdeu a primeira posição pela primeira vez  para sua substituta, a Sorriso, um fato incrível já que desde 1997 ( 6 anos) a marca havia sido extinta

Marca: TV MANCHETE

Tempo de vida: 1983 – 1999 (16 anos)

Motivo: A TV Manchete ao longo dos anos acumulou um prejuízo enorme, fechou um acordo com a Igreja Renascer em Cristo para uma tentativa de se reerguer novamente no mercado, mais o acordo não durou muito tempo. Depois do término da parceria com a Igreja Renascer em Cristo, a Rede Manchete tentou sobreviver sozinha no mercado. No dia 8 de maio de 1999 foi anunciada, com aprovação do Ministério das Comunicações, a venda da Rede Manchete de Televisão e seus cinco canais para o Grupo Tele TV, de Amilcare Dallevo Júnior, o nome da emissora foi trocado para Rede TV!

Marca: WILLYS OVERLAND

Tempo de Vida: 1908 – 1987 (79 anos)

Motivo: Em 1968 houve a união da Willys Overland do Brasil com a Ford Motors do Brasil que passou a chamar Ford-Willys, passando a fabricar seus veículos, até o último em 1984 (A pick-up F-75). Em 1970 a American Motors Corporation comprou a empresa, que mais tarde seria adquirida, em 1987, pela Chrysler Corporation. A marca acabou sendo absorvida e substituída pela Jeep.

The tragic loss of class on airlines, especially as it pertains to stewardesses, is a setback that causes me hurt on a daily basis. If the goddesses of the sky would once more refuse to recognize the feminist movement and cease to wear loafers and baggy pants, I am positive that I would not currently be a student in sticky Savannah but rather in mid air on my way to Vegas, serving drinks to illustrious men in skinny ties. Hopefully the lovely ladies of the CWs new reality show  Fly Girls will revive the long lost class of the ’60s. Air hostesses, I miss your snug pencil skirts, pill box hats and your easy virtue.

Sky girls, I miss your face-Shassie

UPDATE: October 4, 2009- The stewardess’ on Delta are now wearing jeans and T-shirts. Airline class is at an all time low.

Fun Find:

Coffee, Tea, Or Me?- a fantastic collection of memoirs

If you are afraid of flying, then I suggest you stop reading right now. This post is dedicated to plane crashes from around the world. Personally I depend on flying several times a year, to see my boyfriend, and so does he to see me. Yet I’m watching Air Crash Investigation on National Geographic Channel every day. Knowledge is power, or something? Not that I can stop a plane from falling down. Anyways, moving on to the subject… I will focus on passenger airplanes, and stay clear of the 9/11-catastrophy (which, when looking at number of people killed, is the worst in plane crash history).

Tenerife Airport disaster
Taking place 27th of March 1977, this remains the deadliest accident in aviation history today – and it was on the ground. This was a collision between two Boeing 747 airliners on the runway of what is now known as the Tenerife North Airport. Taking off in heavy fog on the airport’s only runway, a KLM flight crashed into the top of a Pan Am aircraft backtaxiing in the opposite direction.

Wikipedia presents a rendering of the Pan Am about to get hit by KLM. Some fog has been cleared away to give a clearer perspective of the aircrafts.

Neither the Pan Am or the KLM was meant to stop by this airport. Their destination was Las Palmas airport. A terrorist bomb had gone of in the terminal of Las Palmas Airport, and the airport naturally closed. Both Pan Am and KLM was instructed to land at Tenerife North Airport, along with at least 3 other big aircrafts who were schedualed to land at Las Palmas. This led to the critical cramped aircraft conditions within the smaller island’s airport. The airplanes took up so much space they were parked along the taxiway, which of course means that it could not be used for taxing.
Las Palmas Airport opened again, and the Pan Am was ready to go. But the KLM and a refuelling vehicle was in the way, hindering Pan Am to take off first. KLM was cleared to backtaxi the full length of the runway. Shortly after Pan Am was instructed to follow the other aircraft down the runway, but to move to the “third exit” and onto a parallell taxiway to the one KLM was in. The crew began the taxi and proceeded to identify the unmarked taxiways using an airport diagram as they reached them. The crew successfully identify the first two taxiways, but never seemed to locate the third one. They remained unclear about their position until the collision.
A series of misunderstandings in communication led up to this fatal crash. Long story short, KLM’s pilot assumed too soon that they were clear to take off, and radio disturbance made communication difficult. Due to the heavy fog neither crew could see the other one before it was too late.
The lower fuselage of the KLM plane hit the upper right side of the Pan Am’s fuselage at approximately 260 kph, ripping apart the center of the Pan Am jet nearly directly above the wing, and KLM’s right engines totally took out Pan Am’s upper-deck passenger cabin on the 747. Both airplanes were destroyed. All 234 passengers and 14 crew members in the KLM aircraft died, while 326 passengers and 9 crew members aboard the Pan Am flight were also killed.

planecrashinfo.com presents a picture of survivors escaping the burning planes

Japan Airlines flight 123
This accident happened 12th of August 1985 on JA8119’s domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport to Osaka International Airport. 12 minutes into the flight the crew lost control of the airplane and crashed into Mount Osutaka. Later investigation shows that the loss of control was caused by the rear pressure bulkhead failing. This resulted in an explosive decompression ripping the vertical stabilizer from the aircraft and destroying all four of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. The loss of pressure in the cabin caused lack of oxygen. A distress signal was sent to Tokyo Area Control Center from the pilots, who had no idea what was causing the problems.
All of the hydraulic fluid quickly drained away through the rupture, and the aircraft begun moving up and down in a steap cycle. The pilots eventually figured out how to control this a little, but after 32 minutes they lost the fight for life and death. The aircraft crashed into Mt Osutaka from 4000 meters.
The 32 minutes was enough time for some of the passengers to write goodbye-letters for their loved ones. The crash killed 520 people, leaving 4 survivors. Poor visibility and “no sign of survivors” caused a 14 hour delay in the rescue operation. One of the survivors could tell that there had been more survivors immediately after the crash, but their voices died away in the night.
The cause of this accident was a tailstrike incident 7 years before, that injured the planes rear pressure bulkhead. It was repaired by Boeing officials, but it wasn’t done the way it should have been. Instead of using two rows of rivets, only one was used, and this caused the bulkhead to eventually give away. Boeing took the blame, but Japan Air Lines lost passengers. Its president resigned after the accident, and a maintenance manager commited suicide.

plaincrashinfo.com: The crash site in Mt Osutaka, where only 4 surviving passengers were found.

Aloha Airlines Flight 243
28th of April 1988 Aloha Airlines domestic flight from Hilo to Honolulu in Hawaii suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression at about 24 000 ft. The decompression tore off a large section of the roof, consisting of the entire top half of the aircraft skin extending from just behind the cockpit to the fore-wing area. The pilots immediately sent a distress signal to Air Traffic Control on Maui.
When the roof was ripped off, the chief flight attendant C.B Lansing was standing at row 5. She was sucked out through a hole on the side of the airplane. Another flight attendant, Michelle Honda, standing around row 15, was thrown violently to the floor, but despite her injuries she was able to crawl up and down the aisle to help passengers. Flight attendant Jane Sato-Tomita was also thrown to the floor and lost conciousness. Passengers, who were literally under the clear blue sky, held on to her through the flight.

Air Craft Investigations reconstruction of a passenger holding on under the clear blue sky during the dangerous landing

Miraculously enough, the pilots managed to land the airplane despite the immense damage. Out of the 90 passengers and crew of 5, 1 died. 65 were injured. The investigation that followed uncovered that the root cause of the problem was failure of an epoxy adhesive used to bond the aluminum sheets of the fuselage together when the plane was manufactured. A passenger reported noticing a small crack on the outside of the plane when getting on, but she did not get the chance to tell anyone before the incident (and would they have done anything about it?). The key problem was the age of the airplane, it was 19 years old. Having sustained a remarkable number of takeoffs and landings, over 89 000, it was well above the 75 000 trips it was built to sustain. After this accident, the United States Congress passed the Aviation Safety Research Act of 1988. This provided for stricter research into probable causes of future airplane disasters.

A picture of the plane after having landed, from Wikipedia

I think I’ll stop after these 3 accidents, this is turning into a maaaassive post. It’s not unlikely that I will write about more later. And just to calm you down if you are considering never ever flying again: It is considered one of the safest transportations today. This blog post reports that World’s Health Organisation (WHO) claims that 1.3 million people worldwide die in car accidents every year. Compare that with Aircraft Crashes Record Office’s report of 992 fatalities worldwide caused by plane crashes in 2009. I don’t know, the conclusion seems obvious to me…

Holder’s warning to Scotland’s justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, came nearly two months before the bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released from a Scottish prison and greeted by a cheering crowd on his arrival in Libya last week. Notes prepared ahead of Holder’s June 26 conversation with MacAskill were provided to the Associated Press by Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc. Duggan said a Justice Department official read him notes that Holder used during the conversation.

Duggan also provided notes of a July 9 teleconference between MacAskill and some victims’ relatives, an emotional exchange in which family members told stories of their loved ones and implored MacAskill not to return Megrahi to Libya.

Scotland has faced unrelenting criticism from both the US government and the families of American victims of the airline bombing since the decision to free Megrahi on compassionate grounds. The Scots said he was dying of prostate cancer.

its been a little over a year but im back in school.
finally.

so far not so bad.

the expenses are pretty much kept a minimum.
(found one of my books for $11 on amazon)

this semester i am retaking design I
after a disastrous first outing with a horrible professor.
sorry but a masters in quilting is pretty sad and not very useful to us whatsoever.

i am also taking photography as an art form which is basically 35mm photography with an emphasis on black and white photography.
and typography.
you know, fonts and what not…

ill have a back to school mixtape up by the end of the day :]

but for now.
in the union…on my laptop…
downloading frodus, mount kimbie and birdnoises…

union

.t

British intelligence sources report to WMR that a series of high-level financial deals between Libya, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, former Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin, and Scottish First Minister Alexander Salmond resulted in the release from a Scottish prison of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan Arab Airlines officials convicted of planting the bomb on board Pan Am 103 that killed 281 people on the plane and in the village of Lockerbie in 1988. Megrahi’s colleague, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted of charges in the terrorist attack.

In fact, according to the British intelligence sources, the Libyans were never responsible for the bombing of PanAm 103, which was carried out by the Iranians and their Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) proxies in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in retaliation for the shooting down by the USS Vincennes of an Iran Air Airbus-300 over the Persian Gulf in July 1988 that killed all 290 passengers and crew.

WMR discovered from Cypriot authorities that the bomb intended for PanAm 103 arrived at Larnaca International Airport on a private plane from Lebanon, was placed on a flight to Frankfurt and then transferred to a feeder flight from Frankfurt to London Heathrow and, ultimately, on the ill-fated PanAm Boeing 747 bound for New York.

National Security Agency (NSA) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intercepts of Iranian and Greek banking communications proved the Iranian connection but the U.S., British, and Israeli governments saw fit to blame Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi for the attack.

Attention Abdel Basset al-Megrahi,

You know how some good people are afflicted with a terrible disease, yet somehow they find the courage and inner-strength to pull through and fully recover?  Well, that aint gonna be you, scumbag!

Much like the 259 innocent people on that Pan Am flight you took out back in ‘88, your sick-butt is shuffling off this mortal coil.

So hug Muammar all you want and enjoy a fried egg sandwich with your cowardly terrorist buddies, because your time is getting shorter and shorter and shorter.   

Peace,

~ Cancer

   p.s.  Tell Gaddafi I’m coming for his dumb ass, too.