{"id":2399,"date":"2011-05-22T19:10:30","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T23:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2011-05-22T19:10:30","modified_gmt":"2011-05-22T23:10:30","slug":"can-the-small-nimble-model-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/05\/22\/can-the-small-nimble-model-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 Can the Small & Nimble Model Scale?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Aboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, I walked up to a row of flight attendants with a request to check for possible upgrades from my business class seat to 1st class. I didn’t have to wait and all three asked, “How may I help you?” in unison. Techno music played and a red carpet guided me to the front of the line. The airline was Virgin America and they were checking passengers in for flight 3 of 4 out of Boston-Logan airport. Yes, this was one of only 4 flights today and their single terminal with single check-in booth and with a single TSA line, it was the most efficient procedure I’ve ever experienced. Well, I may have had a better experience when I flew Virgin out of SFO last time but no other airline can beat Virgin America in service and fun level. Why?<\/p>\n

Let’s go back to mid-March when I was leaving Miami International aboard a Delta flight that passed through Memphis. I arrived to a row of nearly 25 Check-in attendants and a line of passengers that exceeded 250. No, there was no delayed flight or cancellation. This was just a normal Monday morning out of Miami for Delta. I waited 2 hours just to drop off my bags as I already had a boarding pass. Yeah, this was ONLY to drop off bags. I’m not complaining because Delta flies everywhere and they offer competitive pricing. You can’t complain about thousands of flight options a day and a savings of a few hundred bucks over Virgin America.<\/p>\n

Is Virgin America “better” or are they just small enough that they don’t have the problems of larger airlines. I’m sure Virgin America would like to scale but they have to consider that larger, in consumers’ eyes, usually means more problems. A flight with 400 passengers that has seats older than my bottles of scotch and lack of power or Wi-Fi can net a very large amount of money for the airline. Virgin provides wine & cheese platters and a full bar worth of mixed drinks along with power outlets at each seat placed underneath leather seats that are barely 3 years old.<\/p>\n

\"Virgin<\/a><\/p>\n

The Virgin quality service is usually on par with most companies when they start out. Think if your ability to get a Genius Bar appointment at the Apple Store just by walking up? Now, there are 4 stores in your area and each has a 1 day wait time before you can see a genius. Sometimes, it’s just easier to call and wait on hold. Think about how having a dedicated customer support specialist named Jeff who spoke fluent english since he was based in Round Rock Texas would pick up every time your Dell would have an issue. Think about the barista that remembered your name or Flo who knows that you love the bread pudding after you come in for a burger. These are the features of the small and nimble. Today, it’s hard to find small and nimble and even harder to find large and nimble.<\/p>\n

Apple seems to accomplish that pretty well. Of course, not everything about Apple is perfect but their product quality and innovation frequency is pretty rapid for a company with a 320 billion dollar market cap.<\/p>\n

Amazon seems to innovate as well when it comes to their new line of E-services and hardware offerings like Kindle. I like their style and what they’re doing to stay competitive as digital content takes over the physical formats such as CDs and Books.<\/p>\n

\"Absinthe<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot of larger companies benefit from breaking out teams and putting them off-site away from corporate overhead and too many chefs in the kitchen. I believe more companies should do that. Then there is Virgin America. If they changed their Boston flight frequency from 4 a day to 100 a day, could they continue this fantastic customer service with quality food and fast check-in? I doubt it. For now, I’ll just enjoy Virgin America’s terrific airline and hope that, in ten years, things are still just as awesome as they are today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, I walked up to a row of flight attendants with a request to check for possible upgrades…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[31,41,93,112,138],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-bootstrapped","tag-microsoft","tag-rim","tag-virginamerica","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-CH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2009\/10\/21\/virgin-america-flying-redefined\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 Virgin America: Flying Redefined","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Air travel has become mundane, boring and a necessity among travelers. Honestly, I blame our poor train system in the US but events such as 9\/11 didn't force the airlines to actually cut costs, they maintained their price structure and took out amenities which includes putting seats closer together and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-thoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/e1\/N622VA_SFO.JPG","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/e1\/N622VA_SFO.JPG 1x, https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/e1\/N622VA_SFO.JPG 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":833,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/04\/02\/wmc-and-umf-2010-a-summary-of-my-trip\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 WMC and UMF 2010 – A Summary of my Trip","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"April 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I have many more posts to post about my trip. 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