Managing the Corporate Aviation Function

Next Steps

Details 

The corporate aviation activity represents a sizable investment of capital and personnel in many companies today. Large investments are made in corporate aircraft and facilities as well as major budgetary expenditures for employees to operate and maintain equipment. Managers responsible for these resources face the challenges of using capital wisely, operating flexibly and efficiently and managing small teams with a diversity of functional responsibilities. Of particular note is the growing challenge to "speak the language of finance."

Managing the Corporate Aviation Function emphasizes the fundamental management skills vital to executives and managers who are responsible for the corporate aircraft function. Relevant business cases provide a framework for examining equipment selection and justification, operational issues, financing methods, fleet upgrading and interpersonal problems. 

• Financial Fundamentals: A number of classes will be devoted to the most relevant financial concepts, quantitative techniques and methods of analysis. Participants will gain fundamental insights needed to understand and analyze the specialized business cases that relate to managing the corporate aviation function.
  
• Equipment Justification: In today’s business environment, making the case for the acquisition of an aircraft can be a real challenge. Focusing on equipment justification as a management issue, participants will analyze studies on the acquisition of a turboprop airplane, a jet airplane and a helicopter.
  
• Operational Issues: Many companies use some form of cost allocation to charge back a portion of operating costs to users. A number of charge-back methods are currently used in well-managed companies. Aircraft usage is directly influenced by the charge-back methods employed. Participants will examine a company that is considering different charge-back methods.
  
• Financing Methods: Business cases will draw attention to the array of financing methods currently available to companies. In these cases, the company looks at options which include chartering, leasing, fractional ownership or outright purchase of the equipment to provide the flight hours required by the business.
  
• Organizational Behavior Problems: The corporate aviation department provides a rich arena within which to explore interpersonal relations. Participants will discuss the behavioral challenges in a representative company’s flight department.

The fee covers all program materials, program-related meals and housing in a private room at the Inn at Darden (formerly Sponsors Executive Residence Center) for the specified program dates.

Audience

Chief pilots, maintenance managers, executives and other managers with significant aviation department responsibilities. 

Benefits 

• Establish a basic understanding of a company's published annual report.
• Examine the challenges of today's managerial environment.
• Explore a framework for examining equipment selection and justification, operational issues and financing methods.
• Improve individual interpersonal competence.
• Strengthen fundamental management skills vital to the safe and efficient operation of a flight department.

Topics 

• Airplane Acquisition  
• Basic Financial Statements of the Enterprise 
• Capital Budgeting
• Charge-Back Methods
• Cost Analysis
• Fleet Planning 
• Fractional Ownership
• Helicopter Acquisition
• Leadership
• Lease vs. Buy vs. Charter 
• Managing People
• Net Present Value

Participant Profile 

• Aviation Maintenance Manager 
• Chief Pilot 
• Director of Aviation
• Director of Maintenance 
• Flight Operations Supervisor
• Maintenance Manager 
• Manager, Aviation Services 
• Manager, Organizational Development
• Training Captain 
• Vice President, Human Resources Services

Faculty 

James G. Clawson
Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration

Mark E. Haskins
Professor of Business Administration

Casey Lichtendahl
Assistant Professor of Business Administration

June A. West
Assistant Professor of Business Administration     

Developing Leadership Capability in the Corporate Aviation Function

Next Steps

Details

Developing Leadership Capability in the Corporate Aviation Function is designed for executives responsible for leading corporate aviation departments. Through the program, managers will improve their leadership skills, learn to better administer change and examine best practices in creating high-performance service operations. 

Participants will also:

• Learn to identify and articulate core competencies and unique capabilities of the aviation function, with the intent of crafting them into an array of service capabilities.
• Explore the process of contemporary strategic thinking to provide a basis for:
  – Developing strategic thinking and vision.
  – Contributing or responding to the strategic process of larger organizations.
• Utilize current models of the strategic thinking process to develop a strategic agenda.
• Explore the different levels and key elements of leadership, as well as the steps to effective leadership, building high-performance teams, managing change and other components that link managing change and leadership in a strategic context.
• Strengthen negotiation skills in order to communicate more effectively with corporate management and to develop more cohesive teams.
• Learn practical frameworks for simultaneously creating and sustaining superior performance and increasing productivity.
• Acquire specific tools and techniques for systems analysis and improvement, along with insights into the roles that managers must play to achieve high performance.

The fee covers all program materials, program-related meals and housing in a private room at the Inn at Darden (formerly Sponsors Executive Residence Center) for the specified program dates.

Audience

Chief pilots or executives with aviation department responsibilities.

Benefits

• Broadened strategic perspective of the firm and the corporate aviation function. 
• Deepened understanding of leadership and managing change.
• Improved capability to create a high-performing department.
• Refined leadership style and the ability to influence without authority.
• Strengthened interpersonal influence skills.

Topics

• Developing Leadership Skills
• High-Performance Service Operations
• Mastering the Change Process
• Personal Planning Workshop
• Strategic Thinking  

Participant Profile

• Air Traffic Manager
• Aviation Department Manager
• Captain, Corporate Aviation
• Chief Pilot
• Director, Aircraft Maintenance
• Director, Emergency Operations
• Director of Technical Services
• Flight Attendant
• Manager Dispatch
• Manager of Aviation Standards
• Quality Control Inspector
• Safety Officer
• Vice President/General Manager

Faculty

James G. Clawson
Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration

Mark E. Haskins
Professor of Business Administration