Page 138 -

128 Managing Customers Through Economic Cycles

To take an example: one of their larger clients was in
the design stages to produce a very advanced V6 engine.
They took the time to examine the manufacturing opera-
tions and learned that their current production for the cyl-
inder head and the block would require 25 different types
of retoolings to execute the machining operations. They
took the time to understand their tooling operation and
engineered their products to reduce the 25 tools down to
five tools. Not only is this more efficient, but it reduces
their inventory costs, their SKU management issues, and
simplifies ordering.

Address the social spending stigma

JetBlue Airlines is an innovative company and took a unique
approach to the corporate jet debacles. JetBlue took out a
full-page ad in the LA Times addressing the uproar against
executives using private corporate jets. Their campaign’s
message basically was “If you still want to fly with all the
luxury amenities that you are used to having in your corpo-
rate jets, e.g. private video monitors, full leather seats, cock-
tails, and you don’t want to incur the wrath of negative
public opinion about using your corporate jets, come fly
with us. We can have all the luxury amenities that you’re
use to when flying and do it without guilt … i.e. ‘we’ve got
you covered.’ ”

Business transformation

Economic cycles can be the optimum time for businesses to
transform themselves. This transformation can either come
from opportunity or necessity. The following examples
reveal how tough economic times prompted several busi-