Strategies to Prevent Operational Failures: A Guide for Business Success

We have all heard and read about the Southwest Airline travel nightmare. One might think that it had to do with staffing issues or bad weather, but it all came down to an operational failure due to antiquated computer systems.

This could happen to any business, no matter the size! We all have ticking time bombs waiting to go off.

To avoid your Southwest moment, I am sharing three tips on avoiding operational failures in your business.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva.

See you next time!

Are you ready to take massive action in your business and harness the power of data in your decision-making? Let’s chat 👇🏽

Podcast Transcript:

Kiva Slade 0:01

Welcome to Collab with Kiva, where we let our inner nerd geek out on all the non sexy parts of your business. I'm talking data and operations, neither as flashy or glamorous, but both are foundational to your business growth. I'm your host, Kiva Slade, your strategy and analytics guide here to break down what feels complicated, so it is understandable and executional. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Collab with Kiva. This week, we're going to talk about operational failures. For those in the United States, in particular, you are well aware of the storms that came through leading up into Christmas and Southwest Airlines had an storm of their own, that led to travel nightmares, more cancellations than any other airline, manually matching crew members only to find themselves having to start over, cancelled and delayed flights are still continuing today, even at a lower rate. Luggage and owners that still have not been reunited. And while there was a travel nightmare, this was a business operational failure nightmare. And sad part about it is internally, they knew they were sitting on a ticking time bomb, as it related to their antiquated crew scheduling software. Leadership kept kicking the can down the proverbial road until they hit that storm, which quite literally, for them was a figurative storm as well as literal storm. And depending on the research that you do, you'll come away with one critical I think takeaway, which is leaders at Southwest knew this was going to happen. They did not know when, but they knew there was a possibility of this happening. And the reality is the storm was not a bad storm. Like we've had worse storms. However, that combination of a terrible storm with antiquated software created an just nightmare, not only for passengers of Southwest, but obviously for the company itself.

Kiva Slade 2:45

So previous leaders at Southwest were more operationally minded, they focused on the operations and making sure that Southwest was a tight ship in terms of operations, new leadership has been more focused on the financials. The CEO has an accounting background. The COO even had an accounting background, which isn't a bad thing. However, normally, chief operating officers have operating backgrounds. So it's not a bad thing, though, until you leave crew, passengers stranded for days, canceled 1000s of flights and you disconnect people from their belongings. Like that's when it becomes a bad thing that you've had people more focused on financials, than you've had people focused on the operations of the company. And you might be thinking, Kiva, I am not Southwest. And I would say you are correct. You are not.

Kiva Slade 3:48

However, every business no matter the size, has a ticking time time bomb waiting to go off. So let me explain. Recently, I left a software platform that I've used for three years because I was paying for another software that did the same things and had a lot of the same functionality. The second platform, though, was not as intuitive or wasn't as user friendly. But hey, I've watched enough for the training videos. I'm tech savvy, I can do this. So I thought. And I had figured out the scheduling component. So I thought. And I thought it was working. Again, thought being the operative keyword here. I had calls that were booked during the break, only to find out like no follow up reminder sequences, the ones that were set, actually the links did not work too for the prospective client to cancel or reschedule. I didn't fully understand how the software kind of connected to Zoom. I didn't know the best ways to send follow up forms and other things that I did in the previous platform that I was using. And I didn't realize how much CSS coding, I was going to need to make, the embedded calendar pretty on my website. It was my business Southwest moment, quite honestly. For the yesterday, like the beginning of this week, and like since the new year, basically, I've had to spend time emailing clients to reschedule confirming appointments, because again, reminders that were sent, you couldn't actually confirm and or reschedule or cancel, and there were some reminders that were sent for the wrong times. Yeah, I basically spent a lot of time getting egg off my face. And quite honestly, I should have paid someone to set up the calendars, the reminder notifications, and test that everything worked. But I was being more focused on the finances. I also should have taken more time to understand the similarities, as well as the differences between the two platforms to calibrate my expectations. But again, I was more concerned with the finances.

Kiva Slade 6:30

The truth is businesses need both, operations and finances. So if the owner or you as the owner, if you are more financially oriented, you need to hire someone partner with someone who is more operations minded. If you're more operations minded, hire partner with someone who is more finances oriented, because they're going to see what you are missing. Based on your strengths, there are certain things that you are always going to hone in on. Okay. Think his last name with Keller, who is previous CEO of Southwest was more operationally minded. He focused in on operations. Okay. So they're going to see what you're missing, they see the blind spots that you're just not going to see. And sometimes those blind spots, they could explode, and basically almost implode your business.

Kiva Slade 7:29

So here are three things that you can do in your business to avoid your own Southwest moment. Take inventory of what you spend money on. That's number one, take inventory of what you spend money on. Ask yourself, how does this help me and my business? Make a plan to use it or lose it. Okay. This may also include people if I'm being honest here, because sometimes, we're spending money on people who actually are not advancing the goals of the business. So number one, take inventory of what you're spending money on. Number two, go through your processes. Okay, You have a business bestie a friend, offer them a Starbucks, Target whomever gift card. Ask them to go through your onboarding process. Ask them to go through your offboarding process and share their honest feedback. While some of us, we can think we can set it and forget it in our businesses, we can't! Glitches happen. Automations that once seemed like they were working, we might have added in another step in our process to onboard or offboard or client and therefore these things no longer work the way that they were designed. Get someone to go through it, and give you their feedback. As an owner, also go through other aspects of your business Are things being done that no longer are needed? Is there a new tech that can do something faster or easier? Take a hard look at everything.

Kiva Slade 9:07

And that's important also, because if you have independent contractors, team members that are doing things in your business, and you are feeling so far removed from that, then you're out of touch with the front line of your business. And that's another issue that was apparent in Southwest. These newer CEOs who are more financially focused, did not have that understanding of the front line processes. And so Hey, software problems, oh, it's gonna be okay. We'll manually match all of these crews and make sure that they've had enough rest hours and they've had this they've had that if you hear from the crews from Southwest, they were at the airports. They were sleeping on the same floors as passengers they were checking themselves and paying for their own hotels. They were there, the planes were there. The antiquated software couldn't figure out where all of them were to put them all where they needed to be, which was in the planes that were there, in order to keep things moving. So it's important for you, as the owner, never get that far removed from what's taking place on the ground in your business. Because when you do, stuff happens, okay.

Kiva Slade 10:25

Number three, ask yourself, What are you avoiding in your business? What are you avoiding in your business? Is there something you are trying not to tackle? Southwest tried not to tackle this antiquated software. Okay, you need to face your 800 pound gorilla, and not ignore it, whatever it might be. And we all have something in our businesses that we are ignoring, or we're kicking the proverbial can down the road, okay. And it may mean that you have to slow down in order to speed up later, by dealing with this. And let's be honest, slowing down is far better than coming to a screeching halt into a brick wall. Because that hurts. And the fallout from that can continue for a long time. So again, take inventory of what you spend money on, go through and evaluate with a fine tooth comb your processes. And number three, ask yourself, what are you avoiding in your business. Because when you go through those and really do the work, you're going to be able to balance that operations and financial aspects of your business. Because again, both are necessary, both are critical. Both are needed in a business to grow and thrive. So Southwest could have avoided this nightmare. Everyone has agreed about that. And each of us can avoid the nightmares that are happening in our own business, as well. We just have to take the time to address the issues, deal with the things, ask ourselves the hard questions that are so necessary in order for us to deal with handle, fix the things that are happening in our business before they explode. And again, possibly implode our businesses.

Kiva Slade 12:39

So, just so you think no rather than I'm not giving out advice that I'm not taking, I have recorded a Loom of my issues, I've reached out to a few people on my issues, because I need to pay someone to fix it. Okay, and fix it and give me a Loom on how to fix it in the future, so that I do not have the scheduling mishaps and craziness that I've experienced going into this new year. And I want to encourage you to do the same. So don't ignore. Tackle head on. It's not always pleasant, but it's definitely necessary for that continued growth and thriving that we are all looking for in our lives and in our businesses. So I am cheering you on and you got this. I look forward to hearing if you want to share, what are you tackling in your business so that I know I'm not alone in tackling my issues. Talk to you next week. Bye.

Kiva Slade 13:43

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva. I'm wildly cheering you on as you go forth and execute data and operational efficiencies in your business. If you need additional support, connect with me via my website, the516collaborative.com. Your reviews on Apple are appreciated. See you next week.

Meet Kiva Slade - the Founder and CEO of The 516 Collaborative. With a unique background in high-power politics on Capitol Hill and sixteen years as a homeschooling mama, Kiva found her calling in the online business world as a trusted guide for entrepreneurs looking to build the business of their dreams.

Kiva's work began behind the scenes, orchestrating the back end of businesses and managing teams. But her inner data diva couldn't help but notice that small businesses needed help harnessing the power of data for growth. So she and her team set out to uncover and tidy up the data required to enable clients to grow their businesses confidently and easily.