Rahesch

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Swissair – meltdown of a national icon
Rahesch
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 10:40 pm
How an aggressive expansion plan led to the grounding of a 71 year old airline conglomerate

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On December 14, 2015, Rahesch commented on Swissair – meltdown of a national icon :

Bankole, thanks for your comment… and reveiling the consulting firm involved 🙂

You touched on a very good point. The main issue was the lack of adjustment in the operating model. However, Swissair could only hold minority stakes in European airlines due to regulatory restricitions. As a result, their influence in those airlines was limited and made it more difficult to implement changes to the operating side.

On December 14, 2015, Rahesch commented on Spirit Airlines and the Success of the Ultra-Low Cost Carrier :

Thanks for your post – I enjoyed reading about the operating model of low-cost airlines. Seems like Spirit Airlines has tightly aligned their operating model to their value proposition through maximizing plane utilization and space utilization in their planes. While I assume passengers do not mind little space for a short-haul flight (for a cheaper ticket), it’s more challenging to implement this business model for long-haul flights.

On December 14, 2015, Rahesch commented on Blue Apron: Disrupting the Way People Cook and Eat. :

Thanks for your post! I found it especially interesting to read about how they created competitive advantages in a highly competitive environment with many companies entering the industry and going after the same customer base. I am wondering whether and how they will be able to adjust their business or operating model to actually become a profitable company. It’s going to be an interesting company to follow over the next few years!

On December 14, 2015, Rahesch commented on Instacart: Changing the game for groceries :

I am a huge Instacart fan! Moving here, I realized that it’s not easy to get around in an American city without a car and grocery stores are usually a bit outside of the centre. Instacart has conveniently solved this issue for me. On a broader level, with a higher percentage of women in the business world, this business model becomes very appealing as working moms are likely to be happy to pay a premium for convenient online ordering of groceries.
However, how sustainable is a business that operates on very low margins in an environment with low barriers to entry? As far as I know, the company is not profitable yet and not all orders make a profit.