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amazon.com Reader Reviews (5 stars [the best] ratings of the book)
- The Best Business Book I Have Read...also one of the best human interest stories
- Peter Drucker type writing style - easy to read, valuable information with key management points expressed succinctly
- Should be required reading for every MBA student in America
- A Must Read! Unique leadership perspective with practical solutions for any business to build on its strengths
- Author GET'S IT in `spot on', absorbing case study of Delta and its management
- Even-handed approach for a difficult story
- I had to get up in the middle of the night to finish this book! An engaging, but easy read for anyone
- A gripping story...and it's non-fiction too! All Boards should read this book.
- Meltdown at the top
COMAIR PILOT (initials withheld)
I have lived through almost all of the world documented in your book. It is one of the best and
most accurate books I have read in years. Thank you for writing it.
AAC - BANK CHAIRMAN
When I started reading it, I couldn't put the book down. Congratulations on a fine book. I have
bought several more copies to distribute to my bank's officers.
LLK - ENTREPRENEUR
The book is easy to read, succinct and I think brilliantly threaded with life's lessons while
keeping on focus with the story.
AIRLINE CEO - RETIRED (initials withheld)
I agree 100% with what is said in the book.
DELTA FLIGHT ATTENDANT / 15+ YEARS - (Initials withheld)
[The book is] incredibly difficult to put down. [As the book recommends]'Eliminate
Human Resources'. Our HR department has played a large part in destroying our company and especially our culture.
MM - SENIOR BUSINESS EXECUTIVE
Your book captured all of my waking hours until I finished reading.
Literally I could not put it down until I finished
DELTA EMPLOYEE/40+ YEARS - (Initials withheld)
Thanks for a great book of no-nonsense facts.
SG / DELTA CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT (RETIRED)
I won't bore you with all my stories of the things I
saw go wrong with my great company. Starting with Ron Allen and moving to Mullen and his crew, every time they made one of
their bone head decisions, the people I worked with wondered the same thing. "What is the board doing? What are they thinking?"
Your asessment of Mr Grinstein as both villain and possible hero is correct. Your assessment of the next CEO is also
correct. The company needs someone with aviation in their blood. That man is Joe Kolshak.
Finally, people often ask me if there really was a "Delta Family" Some times
I wonder. Then I remember the funerals of coworkers I have been to in the last 15 years. I lost two of the closest friends
and co-workers within two years of each other. I have been present at the birth and christining of co-workers children. I
have also been to the funerals of these children There were some people I worked with I disliked intently. Some I only tolerated.
When I need time off to take care of my children or my wife or my parents I could always leave early or come in late. Nobody
ever asked me to make up that time. My wife is the daughter of a former Delta employee. Ask her if there was was a "Delta
Family'. She will tell you that Delta Airlines put food on her table for thirty six years.
When I run into other retirees or, people still working for the company, we
hug, sit and talk and tell each other we will keep in touch. Sounds like a family to me.
Again, thank you for a remarkable and heartfelt book on the lack of leadership
and what it can do to a great company and its people.
DH / SR.
CAPITOL HILL EXECUTIVE (RETIRED)
Right
on! ! !
I
really have difficulty understanding how those charged and entrusted with true oversight, can become so selfishly involved
in their own worlds and abrogate their real responsibilities.
Your book was a revealing insight into the complacency, failures,
and yes - greed - that resulted in Delta's bankruptcy issues. Where were the whistle-blowers?
And as I’ve always tried to practice, never point out
a problem without presenting a solution. Your suggestions and roadmap back to solvency for Delta seem to represent one
such successful way to recover.
I could also really relate to your consultant remarks –
especially about their primary mission being to generate more work for themselves and absorbing so many company resources
to implement their recommendations/studies/ideas!
DR / RETIRED DELTA CAPTAIN - This is a great book and I strongly recommend
it to every Delta employee and/or retiree.
JWL / INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE (RETIRED)
I am going to have your book gold plated. I hope you have had a great day because you
sure made mine!
HB / RETIRED ELTA CAPTAIN - You
have managed to give what I consider the assessment of the Delta problems from a perspective
that only a long time "insider" would have. I would only ask that management would read and heed your solutions.
DELTA FRONTLINE EMPLOYEE (initials withheld)
Thank you so much for writing this book. I only
wish that Oprah liked Delta as much as she loves American because I would tell her to make this one for her book club!
I want as many people to read this as possible....I am a current employee. Sadly, I, like many, am stuck. Too young to
retire and too old to start over somewhere else. I want Delta to survive. I don't want Delta to lose what made us special.
If we get out of this, I want the right people in the right jobs and the right people on the board doing their jobs for
a change of pace. If all of that happens, then all the little people like me will be all right. Battered but not defeated.
Thank you again. Your suggestions at the end are on target. I don't know how we can make this happen. I have more faith in
your suggestions than anything I have heard in a long time. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to make a
difference.
DR. GEORGE B. BARTLEY / CHAIR, BOARD OF GOVERNORS, MAYO CLINIC/JACKSONVILLE
I cannot recall a more succinctly worded summary of our institution's core value and culture. You captured
the "Mayo spirit" well. [pages 40 & 41 in the book]
MS / SENIOR HR OFFICER LARGE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION
Agressive, candid and direct in citing problems and recommendations.
DC / CEO INVESTMENT HOLDING COMPANY
Very insightful and a great read.
WD / SENIOR EXECUTIVE LARGE BANK
I just finished Airline Without A Pilot and I think you've pegged
it! Your analysis of the company is fantastic, and especially the examination during the Allen and Mullin years.
It is so sad to see such a strong company so negatively impacted by such
a few people for a rather short time. And I suppose that is the lesson of leadership or the lack thereof!
DELTA FLIGHT ATTENDANT (ACTIVE) (initials withheld)
I just finished the book last night. It was great. Your words ring very true and we all agree our management
has been less than stellar. It's too bad the people at the company who have worked the hardest are suffering the most. Reading
the book made me just want to have everyone who sits on our Board ousted! I hope we can recover and become the airline we
once were, because I do believe the Delta people are what has kept this airline together.
TM / MANAGING DIRECTOR CONDOMINIUM COMMUNITY
Harry, I feel you did an excellent job in your book for one big reason.
I have read many books that dealt with a company's demise and it is easy to do a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking.
But the reason you were different is that you offered specific non-generic brand name suggestions on not only how to get the
horse out of the ditch but how to make sure the horse does not go back to the ditch. I could see your management consulting
skills in your recommendations.
I was not surprised that Delta had leaders like Beebe, Allen, and Mullin.
I was also not surprised that they created golden parachutes for themselves and other top executives. Isn't it amazing
how an executive of any firm can get a golden parachute, drive the company to the ground, and personally come out smelling
like a rose. The golden parachute needs to have a performance clause in it.
Here is where you really hit a home run with Delta. It was with
Jerry Grinstein. You put a great deal of blame on his shoulders during his board tenure and the hiring of Allen
and Mullin. However, you see the talent and leadership in him and was very strong in your convictions that he is the
man to lead Delta out of this. I would imagine he had a big part in the recent pilot settlement.
I hope you have not taken a great deal of heat from Delta brass on the book.
I think it took courage on your part to write the book and be as specific as you were.
DELTA CAPTAIN (name withheld by request)
I think many of us have wanted the information you have collected in your
book and what an appropriate time to publish this. I'm glad you printed Dave Mattingly and Jerry Farquhar's letters
in your book. They speak of the family at Delta, with sincerity, with emotion, and with a profound feeling of loss,
yet they sense that the true feeling still exists among those that really "operate" the airline. Those front-line employees
have a feeling of ownership for this airline and people with whom they've spent most of their adult lives. Delta people
have a sense that most senior executives could call in sick for a couple of months and things would get better all around.
We know how to operate the airline, because we do it all day and all night, every day of the year. I thought your quote
of General Schwartzkoff ["Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the
strategy."] was most appropriate.
REH / Retired advertising agency CEO
Great job, Harry, and most interesting. It's easy reading and a tribute to a good man and
true professional [C.E. Woolman].
RETIRED DELTA CAPTAIN (initials withheld by request) to a colleague
I finished my copy of Harry Nolan's book "Airline Without a Pilot" a few days back.
Being one of the "boat people" from Pan Am, I only had a few years in the family. However I think that Harry
has hit the nail right on the head. I found it very educational. He calls it like it is. I believe it a must
read, especially for those of us who are not that familiar with the players. If the world was fair
there would be several dozen "executives"....I use the term loosely . ....hanging by their collective
thumbs for what they did to this grand 'ol institution.
CP / CEO OF SERVICE COMPANY - FORMER FORTUNE 100 SR. VP
Your writing style is very similar to Peter Drucker, my favorite author
- to the point and easy to read. Congratulations on a very valuable book.
BS / FORMER DELTA "STEWARDESS"
Thank you for writing such a wonderful book!! My husband and I have decided
you should be the next CEO of Delta. I was a Delta "stewardess" in the early 1970's..My husband is a retired Delta Captain
and I gave him your book for his birthday yesterday...he sat down and read it in a day!!! He loved it so much that
I read it today. These past few months have been so hard..for me. It isn't so much the retirement money lost, as it is the
sadness I feel for my husband. He flew for Delta for over 30 years!!! The past "higher ups" should all be in jail, as
far as I am concerned...what they did to OUR company is truly criminal!! Thank you for all your work researching everything
so we could sit back and enjoy your book. It is a good lesson for everyone. Many thanks!!
JH / FORMER DELTA EXECUTIVE
The book is just
fabulous!! My husband and I both enjoyed it!! Hard to describe it that way because it’s so poignant….he
did an excellent job with his research and his story telling capabilities.
DD / CEO
I have read your book and finished it on Friday. I think your insights were
spot on. However, I think you may have gone a bit over the top on your criticism of Leo Mullin, although he did deserve most
of the criticism with his deceit and self serving changes he made to benefit not only himself but his friends he brought into
the organization.
I was surprised to read how much Allen may have contributed to the downfall
of Delta.
None the less, the Board of Directors allowed this to happen, and in today's
era of accountability, the Board bears responsibility.
I have given the book to my sister-in-law to read, as she is a flight attendant
and 32 year employee of Delta. I am interested in hearing her comments, as I know she was not a big fan of Leo.
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